10 Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2026

1. AI vs. AI will continue to reshape the cybersecurity battlefield

“AI has totally changed the rules of engagement, but this has been an equal opportunity escalation. Who wins this race will depend on how strategically we respond.”

— Inversion6 CISO Jack Nichelson, Adversarial AI Is Supercharging the Threat Landscape

The rapid acceleration of AI has real cybersecurity consequences. AI-enhanced adversaries can now enumerate environments, identify misconfigurations and chain vulnerabilities before a human analyst even receives the first alert.

Traditional SOC workflows simply weren’t built for this pace.

But the story isn’t one-sided. AI is also amplifying the defensive capabilities of mature security teams.

“Instead of spending hours digging through whatever amount of raw data you can grab from the firehose, AI can ingest all of it instantly and say, ‘Hey, here’s something suspicious,’” said Inversion6 CTO Chris Prewitt in our recent article on SOC modernization. “Then a talented human analyst can come in and do what talented humans do—read the nuances, develop and execute the appropriate response and communicate the entire process to other humans.”

So, AI doesn’t replace analysts—it elevates them.

And in 2026, “AI vs. AI” is the operational reality of cybersecurity. The teams that thrive will be the ones that learn to match adversarial speed with defensive precision.

2. Identity will continue to be the new firewall

It’s no secret identity compromise is becoming a dominant entry point in modern breaches.

When they profiled the massive 2025 UK retail hacks by the hacker group Scattered Spider, CISOs Ian Thornton-Trump and Jack Nichelson noted the attacks succeeded largely because the attackers knew how to impersonate employees and leverage native knowledge of UK slang, systems and organizational structures.

Several other CISOs also noted identity compromise is now the first scenario they test in their client tabletop exercises because it reflects the real starting point of most intrusions.

3. More global instability means more unconventional threats

“Many companies have ended up in this situation when you have remote workers you’ve never met and maybe never even seen in person. But they are inside your environment, and some of them aren’t who they say they are.”

— Inversion6 CISO Tom Siu, The Real Risks of Fake Remote Workers

Some of the most alarming risks on the horizon aren’t traditional cyberattacks—they are international threats hiding inside normal business operations.

Against a landscape of growing global instability, state-sponsored threat groups are using increasingly creative infiltration methods. One example is the rise of fraudulent remote workers, many from longtime adversaries such as North Korea.

These operatives use stolen identities, fabricated résumés and U.S. residential “laptop farms” to gain legitimate employment inside American organizations. Some are generating revenue for sanctioned regimes. Others are quietly exfiltrating intellectual property—or waiting for the right access level to launch something more damaging.

The key point: Volatility abroad fuels creativity on the threat landscape. Stay vigilant.

4. We’ll keep tracking real-time vulnerabilities

At Inversion6, our Incident Response team is constantly analyzing the tools and tactics threat actors are using right now—and what’s coming next.

• In widely viewed 2025 article and webinar, Director of Incident Response Tyler Hudak clearly and concisely explained how attackers are actively hijacking Microsoft Quick Assist, a built-in Windows support tool.

• He then broke down how ransomware groups are abusing signed Windows drivers to disable endpoint detection and response (EDR) tools like Microsoft Defender, clearing the way for deeper infiltration.
• Most recently, we published a December deep dive on React2Shell, a critical zero-day vulnerability in React-based systems that enables remote code execution—posing a serious risk to countless web applications.

In each case, Hudak led the charge—breaking down how these threats work, how they spread, and what steps businesses must take to mitigate the damage.

Attackers will keep innovating in 2026.

So will we.

5. Incident response readiness will gain visibility as a business survival issue

Speaking of incident response—did you know the difference between a controlled incident and a business-halting disaster often comes down to one thing: preparation?

We’ve seen this repeatedly in IR engagements. Companies that lack IR retainers, escalation paths or out-of-band communication channels suffer longer outages, deeper compromises and higher recovery costs.

CISO Tom Siu drove this point home in his recent piece, Cybersecurity Outside the Box, recounting a 2025 client who was hit by an attack and quickly lost all communication capabilities—email, chat, even telephones. With no backup communications plan in place, their response slowed to a crawl until a workaround could be established.

This is just one of many examples showing the reality of modern incident response, where having a plan before attackers strike could be the difference between a minor setback and a debilitating blow to your business.

6. An ounce of ransomware resiliency equals a pound of ransomware response

“In 2022, 83% of all business organizations surveyed experienced more than one data breach. It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when.”

— Inversion6 CISO Damir Brescic, Become Proactive with a Ransomware Readiness Assessment

As ransomware actors evolve their tactics—leaning more heavily into identity compromise, social engineering, SaaS and configuration attacks, and other stealthy infiltration methods—old-school cybersecurity perimeter prevention on its own is no longer sufficient.

Ransomware resiliency goes beyond perimeter defenses to ask: If attackers get in, how quickly can we detect, contain and recover?

Once ransomware begins to spread, it can quickly take on a life of its own. A strong preparedness posture—with clean backups, containment mechanisms, recovery playbooks and continuous monitoring—gives an organization a fighting chance to limit the blast radius. That means faster recovery, less disruption and far less cost (financial, operational and reputational) than reacting after the fact.

In other words: The real question in 2026 isn’t if an attacker will breach your defenses—it’s how prepared you are to respond when they do. And investing in resiliency now could save your business from a catastrophic cleanup later.

7. Third-party risk will remain a fast-growing blind spot

Modern businesses rely on an ever-expanding ecosystem of SaaS platforms, vendors and operational partners. But while financial and legal vetting is standard, cybersecurity vetting often lags far behind—or is skipped entirely.

That’s why third-party risk management remains an overlooked blind spot for many businesses.

“Why would a large successful company open themselves up to such unnecessary risk?” asked CISO Damir Brescic. “The answer is simple: They’re often moving too fast to recognize the threats as they whiz by the window.”

Unfortunately, prioritizing speed over security is one of the most common leadership pitfalls we see. Executives routinely push for hyper-rapid integration and deployment, disregarding critical cybersecurity recommendations.

But in 2026, third-party risk is one of the highest-probability, highest-impact threat vectors organizations face—whether they know it or not.

8. Cyber due diligence will become a core element of the M&A picture

Whenever a company announces a sale, merger or restructuring, threat actors often pounce, knowing internal teams are distracted, documentation is in flux and IT environments are being restructured.

“They know when a company is vulnerable,” said CISO Jack Nichelson, “and they take advantage of that noise.”

As a result, cyber is no longer something buyers ask about at the end of a deal. For startups and mature businesses alike, it’s something buyers are beginning to investigate early—and it can have a major influence on the deal moving forward.

Nichelson shared a recent story of a private equity buyer who conducted a penetration test as part of its due diligence and uncovered enough gaps that the prospective acquisition’s valuation dropped by 10%. He emphasized this is no longer an outlier. In his words, security posture is becoming just as important as financial posture when evaluating an acquisition.

That means what buyers really want to know in 2026 is whether they’re inheriting resilience—or inheriting someone else’s liability.

9. Compliance is evolving—and becoming a competitive differentiator

“Compliance work sometimes seems like pushing paper and checking boxes, but that’s not what it’s about at all. It’s about building a strong cybersecurity foundation that ensures trust and supports long-term business growth.”

— Inversion6 CISO Jack Nichelson, Compliance 101

Across the globe, the message is clear: Regulatory expectations are rising fast.

In the UK and Europe, frameworks like NIS2 and Cyber Essentials are pushing organizations to tighten controls in areas once overlooked. In the U.S., CMMC 2.0 is accelerating that same shift especially for defense contractors and those working in federal supply chains.

As these frameworks mature, it’s no longer about checking boxes—it’s about implementing and proving consistent, documented cybersecurity practices. In 2026, organizations that wait until audits are mandatory will find themselves scrambling—or worse.

10. The convergence is coming—cybersecurity and endpoint management are merging

Inversion6 sits in a unique position within the industry. As the cybersecurity arm of TRG—one of the largest MSPs providing full lifecycle support for enterprise endpoints—we’re watching two worlds that used to run in parallel begin to merge.

The old belief that endpoint management and cybersecurity are separate functions, handled by separate tools and separate teams, is fading fast. Today, if you’re managing endpoints, you’d better be prepared to secure them. And if you’re securing them, you need a deep understanding of how those endpoints are deployed, patched, updated, tracked and supported.

It won’t all happen in 2026, but the trajectory is unmistakable. Within the next few years, nearly every endpoint in the field will be connected in some way—and that connectivity puts them squarely on the cybersecurity chessboard. Organizations that prepare for this convergence now will be far ahead of those who wait.

Conclusion

This is not a comprehensive list, and cybersecurity in 2026 won’t be defined by a single trend—but these observations reflect the themes our CISOs, analysts and incident responders return to every day. They represent the patterns already visible in real incidents and real client conversations.

So stay vigilant—and remember this for 2026: You can’t sustain what you don’t protect, and the best time to act is before an attack, not after.