{"id":180541,"date":"2026-01-22T06:51:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/we-asked-cybersecurity-experts-for-their-predictions-for-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T06:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T11:55:09","slug":"we-asked-cybersecurity-experts-for-their-predictions-for-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/we-asked-cybersecurity-experts-for-their-predictions-for-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"We Asked Cybersecurity Experts for their Predictions for 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

We Asked Cybersecurity Experts for their Predictions for 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/tech.co\/news\/cybersecurity-experts-predict-2026<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-01-22 06:51:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: tech.co<\/a><\/p>\n

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

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points. The hits keep coming for cybersecurity as we head into a new year. For starters, one report recently found that 48% of cybersecurity leaders failed to report data breaches in the past year, due in part to fears of punitive responses.At the same time, the US Department of Defense stated in October 2025 that it plans to cut back on several types of cybersecurity training, including annual training that one expert has called \u201ccritical.\u201dWe wanted to check in with a wide range of tech experts and C-Suite executives to see if we could figure out what\u2019s coming down the pike for IT teams in 2026.Artificial intelligence continues to be the buzziest technology around, so it\u2019s little surprise that the large majority of our responses were guessing how AI would impact digital security. Read on to learn about the most interesting trends ahead of time, from shadow AI challenges to autonomous agents to AI-powered malware. Top Cybersecurity Predictions for 2026:IT Systems Will Need Observability And Visibility More Than EverThe term high availability, or HA, refers to an IT system that\u2019s almost always accessible and reliable for use. The goal is to be as close to 100% reliable as possible, and in 2026, that goal\u2019s tougher than ever.According to Cassius Rhue, Vice President of Customer Experience at SIOS Technology Corp., observability and visiblity will be essential for keeping complex IT environments up and running. Why is visibility so important these days? The sheer sprawl of modern work.\u201cAs IT infrastructures expand across on-premises, cloud, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments, visibility into application performance and health and interdependencies of the elements of the IT stack will become mission-critical,\u201d Rhue says.\u201cIn 2026, observability will emerge as a key differentiator for HA solutions, allowing IT teams to identify and resolve issues before they impact uptime.\u201d -Cassius Rhue, Vice President of Customer Experience at SIOS Technology Corp.This year, Rhue tells us, the most successful HA platforms will be those that provide deep insights across the full stack\u2014from hardware to application layer.AI Must Be Attributed \u2013 Or Risk Being Mistaken For CompromiseHere\u2019s a scenario for you: Your IT team discovers an identity in its environments that no one has explicitly created and can\u2019t be accounted for.Until a few years ago, that was an obvious sign that your security had been breached. Today, however, it might just mean that you haven\u2019t kept track of what an AI agent was up to, and it created the identity thanks to its autonomous workflow.\u201cThis creates attribution challenges,\u201d says\u00a0Paul Nguyen, co-founder and co-CEO at the security platform company Permiso.\u201cWhen an identity behaves suspiciously, security teams need to determine: Is this legitimate autonomous behavior or is it compromise? Without clear attribution (human owner, approval chain, business justification), this determination becomes difficult.\u201dNguyen foresees that organizations will start to implement attribution tracking to keep track of AI-generated identities. AI agents will need to log their decisions, and tag their creations with their name, timestamp, and business justification.\u201cBy year-end 2026, identity attribution becomes a prerequisite for secure agentic AI deployment.\u201d -Paul Nguyen, co-founder and co-CEO of PermisoWithout this extra regulation, security teams won\u2019t have the audit trails they\u2019ll increasingly need to do their jobs.The Rise of Shadow AIThe term \u201cshadow AI\u201d refers to any unauthorized employee use of AI tools in the process of doing their jobs. The AI work is powering the company, but the company isn\u2019t aware of the type of tool, time spent, or other variables.Needless to say, shadow AI use isn\u2019t good news for a company, and it\u2019s a big concern that has driven companies to adapt AI policies over the last few years, to let their employees know what is and isn\u2019t allowed.Monica Landen, CISO at Diligent, predicts that shadow AI will continue to take root across the new year, despite the significant governance and security risks it poses.\u201cAs investments in AI surge, with a projected increase of 40% in 2026, organizations must take proactive measures to mitigate these security risks and ensure their workforce is aligned with organizational AI policies,\u201d Landen says.How can companies counter this issue? Landen recommends AI governance policies, lessons to educate employees on the risks and benefits of AI use, and efforts to monitor AI use.For a hand, see our guide on How to Create an AI PolicyRegulatory Scrutiny Comes for AI-Created Software\u201c2025 proved that AI can write code faster than ever, but not necessarily safer,\u201d notes Bhagwat Swaroop, CEO of\u00a0Sonatype.Some of the AI-driven cybersecurity concerns that Swaroop flags include unverified dependencies, outdated packages, and security gaps that traditional testing won\u2019t catch. Add in shadow AI, and building securely is a bigger challenge than ever.The response? A push for greater transparency on software that has been developed by LLMs or AI agents, and one that comes with more regulation.\u201cAI Bills of Material will enter C-level conversations,\u201d Swaroop predicts, while \u201cthe EU AI Act and Cyber Resilience Act will push for full transparency in software development, including AI-generated content.\u201dOrganizations can prepare by tracking code provenance and validating model inputs across development lifecycles.Cybersecurity Becomes a Core Data CompetencyJohn Morris, CEO of Ocient, has yet another way that AI will be impacting cybersecurity: The exponentially-growing data loads fuelled by AI\u2019s real-time analyses will push cybersecurity to a \u201ccritical inflection point,\u201d he says.Organizations will need to hustle to upgrade their infrastructure in order to handle these high-velocity data environments.\u201cCompanies will begin treating cybersecurity as a core data competency, not just an IT concern. In 2026, protecting the data means protecting the business. As the data load snowballs, so too will the urgency to secure it at scale.\u201d \u2013 John Morris, CEO of OcientLet\u2019s hope companies heed this warning: Cybersecurity strategies must be prioritized in a world where data use is sky-rocketing and threats are emerging with every new system integration.AI-enabled Malware Will Surge This YearThe bad actors of the software world will also invest in AI in 2026: According to LastPass Cyber Threat Intelligence Analyst Stephanie Schneider, more and more threat actors will deploy AI-enabled malware in active operations this year.Google\u2019s Threat Intelligence team has found that this type of malware can \u201cgenerate scripts, alter codes to avoid detection and create malicious functions on demand,\u201d Schneider explains.\u201cNation-state actors have used AI-powered malware to adapt, alter and pivot campaigns in real-time, and these campaigns are expected to improve as the technology continues to develop,\u201d she adds.With the malicious technology only set to be become more powerful across the coming year, it\u2019s another sign that cyber defenders will have a challenging threat landscape to navigate.We say it every year, but it still holds true in 2026: Cybersecurity teams are continuing to compete with threat actors in an ever-escalating arms race. AI may be a powerful tool, but it\u2019s just the latest one in a long line of threats to IT environments everywhere.
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