{"id":180383,"date":"2026-01-21T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/top-6-cybersecurity-and-ai-predictions-for-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T15:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T20:35:30","slug":"top-6-cybersecurity-and-ai-predictions-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/21\/top-6-cybersecurity-and-ai-predictions-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 6 Cybersecurity And AI Predictions For 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top 6 Cybersecurity And AI Predictions For 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.crn.com\/news\/security\/2026\/top-6-cybersecurity-and-ai-predictions-for-2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-21 15:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.crn.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. <\/p>\n

A surge in AI-generated vulnerabilities, more-autonomous cyber defense agents and impossible-to-identify deepfakes are among the developments expected by security experts this year.<\/p>\n

Cybersecurity And AI Predictions For 2026
\n While the arrival of GenAI and agentic technologies have already had a massive impact in the cybersecurity world\u2014both for defenders and attackers\u20142026 may mark a turning point. That\u2019s according to a half-dozen cybersecurity experts who spoke with CRN recently, sharing their top predictions on cybersecurity and AI for 2026.
\n [Related: 10 Top Cybersecurity CEOs On AI\u2019s Impact In 2026]
\n Major developments to expect in 2026 include a surge in AI-generated vulnerabilities, according to Adam Meyers, senior vice president for counter adversary operations at CrowdStrike. \u201cAI is suited for that, because AI can really start to dial in what data you\u2019re throwing at that software to try to break it,\u201d Meyers said. Ultimately, in 2026, AI-driven vulnerability research will become \u201cmore practical\u201d and lead to a far greater number of vulnerabilities available in the market, he told CRN.
\n On the cyber defense side, the availability of more-autonomous cyber defense agents could help to even the scales, according to Rob Lefferts, corporate vice president for threat protection at Microsoft. Lefferts said he sees agentic-powered security quick moving beyond task-based automation and toward outcome-driven approaches. The next generation of AI-driven cyber defense is \u201cwhen I have systems of agents, coordinating together\u2014and it\u2019s not task-specific, it\u2019s [about the] outcome,\u201d he told CRN.
\n Meanwhile, the continued improvement of video and voice deepfake technologies will likely make many deepfakes practically impossible for humans to identify in the near future, according to Bryan Sacks, field CISO at Myriad360, No. 110 on CRN\u2019s Solution Provider 500 for 2025. \u201cBy mid to late 2026, it\u2019ll be really hard to tell the difference,\u201d Sacks said.
\n What follows are more cybersecurity and AI predictions for 2026.<\/p>\n

Adam Meyers
\n Senior vice president for counter adversary operations
\n CrowdStrike
\n Prediction: Surge in AI-generated vulnerabilities and exploits
\n \u201cWe\u2019ve already seen some evidence, from Google\u2019s Big Sleep project last summer, [of] how to use AI for identifying and weaponizing vulnerabilities. If you think about an iOS vulnerability, it\u2019s always talked about how that can cost upwards of hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars in R&D. There\u2019s really two ways to develop a vulnerability. The first one is reverse engineering a particular target or product that they\u2019d like to find a vulnerability in. And they figure out everything about it. And they find a bug, and they build the world\u2019s most perfect exploit for that vulnerability. And then there\u2019s the way that most people do it, which is called fuzzing. And with fuzzing, what you\u2019re effectively doing is throwing a bunch of garbage at a piece of software at the input, and looking to see how it breaks. \u2026 AI is suited for that, because AI can really start to dial in what data you\u2019re throwing at that software to try to break it. Now people are building all these tools to leverage the capabilities of AI, to actually start to do some of these vulnerability research projects. My big prediction for 2026 is that we\u2019re going to see that become more practical. And as that happens, we\u2019re going to start to see more vulnerabilities available in the in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob Lefferts
\n Corporate vice president for threat protection
\n Microsoft
\n Prediction: Arrival of security agents focused on outcomes, not tasks
\n \u201cThe first generation of AI is, I have an assistant. I have any one of the AI chatbots, and I can ask it questions and it gives me answers. The second generation is, I made an agent do something for me\u2014and I sent it off on a task, and it comes back with the answers. And it\u2019s kind of a transactional back-and-forth. But then the third generation is when I have systems of agents, coordinating together\u2014and it\u2019s not task-specific, it\u2019s [about the] outcome. And I get to interoperate with them as supervising the direction, monitoring the results and guiding the next steps in the process. It\u2019s already coming true in some places. Certainly inside of coding systems, we see more advanced firms operating in that [area]. And security is a place where we\u2019re pushing hard. It is clearly of huge benefit to the security industry and companies\u2019 individual security teams. They\u2019re overwhelmed. They can\u2019t get everything done. Let\u2019s help them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver Tavakoli
\n CTO
\n Vectra AI
\n Prediction: AI fuels exponential increase in cyberattacks
\n \u201cWe\u2019re kind of hitting this inflection point where, as hard as it has been for defenders to hang on, it is believable that over the next 18 months to two years, things will get 10X worse. And that is really the concerning thing. Part of this is intuition\u2014just because the technology becomes available, doesn\u2019t mean it becomes pervasively used. But when I talk to my security researchers, I ask, \u201818 months down the road, is it going to be roughly the same? Is it going to be twice as bad or 10X as bad?\u2019 I think we end up with an average of 5X worse. So if you\u2019re barely hanging on today, and you believe that things are going to get a lot worse, then what that says is incrementalism [in cyber defense improvements] isn\u2019t going to get you there. You have to do something transformative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryan Sacks
\n Field CISO
\n Myriad360
\n Prediction: Deepfakes will be nearly impossible for humans to identify
\n \u201cYou\u2019ve already seen a lot of the voice deepfake technologies out there that are working [in cybercrime]. That\u2019s going to happen more often. In 2026, I think it\u2019ll be hard to tell the difference. You can clearly still tell now. But I think it it\u2019s like a hockey stick\u2014 it is just going to get that much better and ramp that quickly. I think by mid to late 2026, it\u2019ll be really hard to tell the difference. And that\u2019s going to create a lot of issues-not just for cyber teams, but globally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diana Kelley
\n CISO
\n Noma Security
\n Prediction: Traditional cyber defense will fail as attacks accelerate
\n \u201cJust going with the traditional defenses aren\u2019t going to be enough, because the attackers are not using the traditional offense. We\u2019ve got this \u2018machine speed\u2019 [on the defense side]\u2014but when you have automated attacks, they\u2019re going to go faster than if somebody has to go handcraft an attack or configure an attack. If we\u2019re depending on humans looking at every single alert or checking every alert, when you\u2019ve got these rapid, very fast-moving attacks that\u2019s not going to be able to keep up. We do have automation on both sides\u2014both the defenders and the attackers. So the defenders, I think, really need to lean in to doing more with automation in order to strengthen our defenses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex Bovee
\n Co-founder and CEO
\n ConductorOne
\n Prediction: Rise of personal AI agents feeds into hyperscale attacks
\n \u201cMy prediction is that 2026 is the year of the personal AI agent\u2014where we\u2019re really going to start to have more tools and capabilities that are available to folks that allow them to proliferate AI agents doing work on their behalf. And you can start thinking about like the knowledge worker of the future as being an orchestrator of agents to do work. Assuming that happens in 2026, that kind of is the world where you\u2019ll start to see automated, hyperscale, AI-based attacks using AI tools and capabilities. And then that\u2019s going to necessitate an equal and opposite reaction, I think, from a lot of companies to protect against those types of attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

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