Cybersecurity Trends to Watch in 2026
As we approach 2026, the cybersecurity landscape is evolving at a rapid pace. Last year alone, over 4,100 publicly disclosed data breaches were reported, costing organizations an average of $4.44 million each. These numbers are not just statistics—they serve as a stark warning about the growing urgency for businesses to rethink their security strategies.
1. CTEM Replaces Scanner-First Security Models
Organizations that still rely primarily on vulnerability scanning as their security backbone are missing the mark. With continuous data generation across cloud platforms, applications, and infrastructure, it’s not visibility but decision-making that poses a challenge.
In 2025, a staggering 49,209 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) were published, a number that has risen sharply. Yet, only a tiny fraction—1% to 3%—are actively exploited. This gap highlights a critical mismatch; many organizations are prioritizing vulnerabilities that pose little threat, focusing only on what’s easy to capture rather than what actually matters.
What Scanners Cannot Decide for You
Scanners merely report the existence of vulnerabilities but do not evaluate the consequences. Misconfigurations in cloud environments, for example, were responsible for 23% of security incidents in 2025. As such, relying solely on severity scores is a dangerous competition with reality.
Why Scanner-First Programs Persist
Scanner-first programs offer the illusion of progress, producing numbers and reports that suggest efficacy while the actual exposure often remains unchanged. It’s a false sense of security that drives teams to focus on vulnerabilities rather than true exposure.
How CTEM Changes the Decision Model
Cyber Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) shifts the focus from the quantity of vulnerabilities to understanding which exposures could allow an attacker to reach something critical. Within this framework, the context is continually built around risk, making vulnerability management more proactive and effective.
2. Non-Human Identities Become the Primary Cloud Breach Vector
In 2026, organizations will realize that non-human identities—such as service accounts, API tokens, and CI/CD credentials—are often less scrutinized than human identities, resulting in a major security gap. These accounts frequently outnumber human users by 10 to 1, holding massive, often unreviewed permissions.
Why These Identities Are So Dangerous
Non-human identities often bypass traditional security checks like MFA and lack periodic reviews. Once compromised, they can easily facilitate lateral movement within the cloud, giving attackers the equivalent of a master key.
Where the Model Breaks
Many organizations incorrectly treat identity risk as a user problem when, in reality, these non-human identities wield significant, unmonitored control. They typically do not expire, accumulate permissions over time, and can invoke internal services without scrutiny.
3. Agentic AI Becomes a New Execution Layer in Security
Agentic AI is rapidly transforming how security teams conduct operations. These systems aren’t merely providing recommendations; they are executing tasks such as creating tickets, orchestrating workflows, and coordinating remediation steps all on their own. As a result, the execution of security measures is no longer a bottleneck.
Why This Is a Real Advantage
Agentic systems effectively reduce manual efforts and keep remediation moving when teams are overwhelmed. They also aggregate signals across different tools, improving operational clarity.
Where Accountability Quietly Shifts
With agent-driven execution comes a critical question: who owns the actions taken by these systems? The reality is that as execution authority expands without clear ownership, accountability becomes challenging to pinpoint.
4. Low-Severity Issues Create the Highest Business Impact
Many high-impact incidents originate from what are deemed low-severity issues—misconfigurations, minor access control gaps, or logic flaws that might not seem urgent but open doors to attacks.
Why Severity Is a Poor Proxy for Risk
Severity scores evaluate technical impacts in isolation, ignoring business exposure. Low-severity issues can still sit directly on critical workflows and lead to significant breaches if not addressed.
How Real Incidents Actually Happen
Incidents typically arise from chains of small failures rather than single catastrophic flaws. A minor issue can enable access, followed by a permissive workflow that allows lateral movement, resulting in a compounded impact.
5. Digital Provenance Becomes a Big Deal
As concerns over security rise, organizations will increasingly ask, "How do we know this was legitimate in the first place?" Traditional identity and access logs fall short in proving authenticity in an era where content and requests can be convincingly fabricated.
Trust Is Breaking at the Workflow Level
Implicit trust no longer holds; highly convincing impersonation-based attacks now account for a substantial number of social engineering incidents. The question then becomes one of provability rather than authority.
6. Validation and Closure Speed Become the Real Bottleneck
Security teams might excel at detecting vulnerabilities but often stumble when it comes to validating and closing them effectively. The path from detection to confirmed closure is riddled with delays, creating a window of opportunity for attackers.
Why Validation and Closure Collapse at Scale
Closing real exposure is a complex chain of decisions that can break under the weight of operational stress. Teams must validate risks collaboratively across departments, verify fixes, and confirm that risks have been completely mitigated.
In summary, as we step into 2026, organizations must shift their paradigms of security to keep pace with the evolving landscape. Continuous exposure management, robust identity governance, and accountability for AI systems will be pivotal in the coming years. The emphasis will no longer be solely on detecting threats but on efficiently addressing and remediating them before they escalate into significant breaches.
