{"id":214541,"date":"2026-05-12T03:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/8-of-the-latest-cybersecurity-trends-emerging-threats\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T14:10:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T18:10:52","slug":"8-of-the-latest-cybersecurity-trends-emerging-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/12\/8-of-the-latest-cybersecurity-trends-emerging-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"8 of the Latest Cybersecurity Trends: Emerging Threats"},"content":{"rendered":"

8 of the Latest Cybersecurity Trends: Emerging Threats<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.pandasecurity.com\/en\/mediacenter\/cybersecurity-trends\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-05-12 03:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

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

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

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
\n Imagine your phone rings at 1 a.m. It\u2019s your mom, telling you she had an accident and needs you to send money now. In reality, it was an AI model trained on a few seconds of your mom\u2019s voice scraped together from stolen phone conversations in a recent data breach.\u00a0
\nAs cybercriminals continue to adopt AI, we\u2019ve seen unprecedented losses. In fact, IC3 reporting shows that reported losses have doubled since 2022, much of this growth spurred by AI.
\nWe surveyed 258 cybersecurity professionals and gathered data from various experts to help you understand how to protect yourself from the rising threat of AI-powered attacks.<\/p>\n

Key statistics<\/p>\n

Reported cybercriminal losses have doubled between 2022 and 2025, a growth spurred by AI.
\n99% of organizations have sensitive data dangerously exposed to unsanctioned AI tools.
\nAmong data breaches involving AI attacks (16% of breaches), 37% used phishing and 35% used deepfakes.
\nThe average household is under constant cyberthreat, with 13.6 billion IoT attacks reported in a 2025 study.
\n82.6% of cybersecurity professionals are concerned about the increasing sophistication of AI-powered phishing attacks.<\/p>\n

1. Agentic Shadow AI and Data Risk
\nMany corporations that handle your personal data are using agentic AI to manage data without human oversight. With the right security steps, this tech can be perfectly safe. But some employees rely on shadow AI.
\nEmployees use Shadow AI tools, or those not approved by their company, to improve productivity. If the company houses your personal data, Shadow AI could expose it. Even worse, the wrong kind of infection can spread to agentic agents. This means that tools without human oversight could harvest your data.
\nHere\u2019s how this looks in reality:<\/p>\n

98% of organizations have employees who use unsanctioned applications, including hidden \u201cShadow AI.\u201d (Veronis)
\n99% of organizations have sensitive data dangerously exposed to AI tools, generative AI copilots and unsanctioned applications. (Veronis)
\nA massive 90% of organizations have sensitive files exposed to all employees via Microsoft 365 Copilot due to over-privileged access permissions. (Veronis)
\n20% of organizations have already reported a security breach specifically caused by shadow AI, which adds an average of $670,000 to data breach costs. (IBM)
\n1 in 4 unverified OAuth apps are high-risk AI tools, leaving companies heavily exposed to potential data exfiltration and misuse. (IBM)<\/p>\n

2. The AI Arms Race: Defenders vs. Attackers
\nWe\u2019ve entered a new era of cybersecurity, as both defenders and attackers leverage artificial intelligence, creating what experts describe as an \u201cAI arms race.\u201d\u00a0 Hackers can weaponize AI to generate highly personalized messages that mimic the writing style of trusted contacts or organizations.
\nOur 2024 survey revealed that an overwhelming 82.6% of cybersecurity professionals are either \u201cvery concerned\u201d (50.4%) or \u201cmoderately concerned\u201d (32.2%) about the increasing sophistication of AI-powered phishing attacks.<\/p>\n

Here are some stats showing the frontlines of the AI arms race:<\/p>\n

AI is revolutionizing cybersecurity defense, achieving 99% accuracy while saving companies an average of $1.9 million in breach costs. (Panda Security)
\nPolymorphic AI malware continuously rewrites and regenerates its code to evade traditional antivirus detection tools. (CardinalOps)\u00a0
\nThese polymorphic attacks can continue to evade malware systems unless they receive adversarial training, which can reduce malware evasion by 30% or more. (Science Direct)
\nMalicious, dark LLMs such as FraudGPT, WormGPT and PoisonGPT are lowering the barrier to entry for generating phishing scams, automatically deploying keyloggers and engaging in other nefarious activities. (Barracuda)
\nOne of our most powerful tools against generative AI scams is transforming awareness and cybersecurity training into changed behavior. (sosafe)
\nThe time it took to identify and contain a data breach in 2025 was 241 days; experts believe companies can mitigate this with automated, AI defenses. (IBM)<\/p>\n

3. Post-Quantum Data Collection
\nOne of the most notable emerging cybersecurity technologies is quantum encryption, which scrambles your data in a way that requires an advanced, quantum computer, which isn\u2019t available to companies or regular people.
\nSince decryption (unscrambling) is currently impossible, criminals are taking a harvest now, a \u201cdecrypt later (HNDL) approach. Through HNDL, cybercriminals wait until their computers have the power to access their stolen information, as confirmed during the 2025 Finance and Economics Discussion Series.
\nWhile some may have you believe that quantum computing is a pipe dream, companies like IBM, Microsoft and Google say otherwise. Forbes found that IBM plans to run accurate quantum computing by 2029. While this is far from in the hands of a cybercriminal, the growth of AI-driven cybercrime reminds us that technology moves fast.<\/p>\n

Experts agree: A KPMG survey of 250 large corporations reveals that 60% of Canadian and 73% of U.S. companies believe it\u2019s only a matter of time before cybercriminals use quantum computing.
\nSince 95% of respondents believe its potential impact on cybersecurity is high, the time for companies to act is now. Keep an eye on the news to see how your companies are responding to these threats.<\/p>\n

4. Smart Devices as Hacker Entry Points
\nThe proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in our homes, from smart speakers to connected refrigerators, has created new entry points for cybercriminals. An overwhelming 87.2% of cybersecurity professionals expressed concern about security vulnerabilities associated with IoT devices in homes, with 46.5% being \u201cvery concerned\u201d and 40.7% \u201cmoderately concerned.\u201d
\nHere\u2019s what you need to know about the risks of IoT in the real world:<\/p>\n

Around 2.7 billion records were exposed in a data breach targeting Mars Hydro, one of the largest IoT device manufacturers in China. (Asimily)
\nOver 10 million uncertified devices running Android\u2019s open-source software were used to target people with large-scale ad fraud and other digital crimes (Google)
\nKimwolf, an IoT botnet, has spread to infect more than 2 million devices, which it uses in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and other activities. (Krebs on Security)<\/p>\n

5. AI Fraud, Deepfakes and Personalized Phishing
\nDespite 94% of cybersecurity professionals reporting they feel \u201cvery confident\u201d (50.8%) or \u201cmoderately confident\u201d (43.8%) in their organization\u2019s current methods for protecting user data. This is despite the evolving AI landscape, which is creating personalized phishing attacks and deepfakes that can mimic a friend or family member\u2019s voice in unique vishing attacks.
\nHere\u2019s how the landscape has evolved to lead to account takeovers and even identity theft:<\/p>\n

Microsoft is easily the top phishing target (42% of attacks), followed by Adobe (18%), DocuSign (15%) and Yahoo (10%). (Netskope)
\nVoice-cloning AI can mimic a loved one\u2019s voice with a few seconds of audio (The New Yorker)
\nAmong data breaches involving AI attacks (16% of breaches), 37% used phishing and 35% used deepfakes. (IBM)
\nCreating more robust, scalable, generalizable and explainable deepfake detection methods is one of the most discussed challenges in cybersecurity research (Front Big Data)<\/p>\n

\u00a06. Accountability for Exposing Customer Data
\nDespite the U.S. lacking comprehensive data privacy laws, the companies within it must handle certain types of sensitive data with care. If an exposure occurs, the SEC requires prompt, public disclosures; failure to do so risks fines of several million dollars, exposure to lawsuits and further reputational damage.
\nHere are some data security trends worth noting:<\/p>\n

In 2025, around 97% of breached organizations lacked proper AI access controls. (IBM)
\nLess than half (49%) of organizations planned to invest in security following a breach after 2025. (IBM)
\nOrganizations subject to multiple regulatory compliance regimes experienced 27% higher breach costs due to the complexity of managing different notification requirements and investigations. (IBM)
\nTotal U.S. HIPAA fines and settlements reached $6.7 million. This is down from $9.1 million during the previous year. (Compliancy Group)
\nExamples of this in the news include the South Texas Oncology and Hematology paying $1.1 million to settle a data breach lawsuit stemming from a 2024 cyberattack. (HIPAA Journal)<\/p>\n

7. The Profitable Nature of Ransomware
\nRansomware, or malware that locks a person\u2019s files until they pay a ransom, emerged as the top concern, with 21.7% of professionals identifying it as the threat their organization faces most often. These attacks on businesses aren\u2019t just abstract corporate problems; they also directly affect consumers because the data stolen is often theirs.
\nHere\u2019s why you should consider ransomware a viable threat:<\/p>\n

The average ransomware payment dropped by one-third, but it still came in at around $1.3 million. (Sophos)
\nThe median ransom demand for organizations with $10 to $50 million in annual revenue is just over $100,000, while the median ransom demand for organizations with more than $5 billion in annual revenue is $5.5 million. (Sophos)\u00a0
\nCompanies often (53% of the time) pay less than the agreed-upon amount from the initial ransom offer. (Sophos)\u00a0
\nThe recovery cost of ransomware is nearly $1.5 million in 2025, down from $2.8 million in 2024. (Sophos)\u00a0
\nConduent is under investigation for what could be the largest healthcare data breach in U.S. history, stemming from a ransomware attack that affected nearly 200 million individuals. (HIPAA Journal)
\nEarlier this year, the Striker Corporation lost services in its global manufacturing network due to a ransomware attack. While it didn\u2019t affect their products, it did affect their supply chain operations, like shipping. (Stryker)<\/p>\n

These large-scale attacks remind us that a hacker isn\u2019t limited to some kid in a basement. Sometimes, these attacks are state-sponsored.\u00a0
\n8. Industry Attacks and Supply Chain Fragility
\nCyberattacks can affect industries across the board, impacting supply chains and local businesses on a large or small scale. The X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2026 found these are the most targeted industries:<\/p>\n

Manufacturing (nearly 28%)<\/p>\n

Finance and insurance (27%)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Professional, business and consumer services (9%)<\/p>\n

Cyberattack trends indicate that companies are most often targeted through public-facing applications (40%), account takeover (11%) and phishing (9%). Phishing is the only group that saw a significant drop (from 25% in 2024). In the future, we could see significant growth in cybercriminals exploiting integrated chatbots in HR systems.\u00a0\u00a0
\nAttacks like these have devastating impacts on the supply chain, as we have seen fourfold increases in major compromises over the last five years. These attacks have cascading effects: if a local shop can\u2019t get a product in, they don\u2019t make money. If you\u2019re a small business owner (or know one), this can have devastating effects on your business.
\nPrepare for Emerging Cyber Threats
\nCybercriminals may increasingly rely on more sophisticated ways to steal your accounts, money and information, but there are some easy ways to make you a harder target:<\/p>\n

Get an antivirus with behavioral detection: It\u2019s a must-have, as it can spot newly generated AI malware before it attacks your device. Consider Panda Dome, a free antivirus program with built-in behavioral detection you can add to any device.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Use services with clear privacy policies: Review the privacy policies of the services you use to be sure they store your data appropriately. If they don\u2019t have one, consider this a red flag you might want to avoid.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Turn on MFA: Enable multi-factor authentication via text messages or an authenticator app so cybercriminals can\u2019t easily take over your account. You should also use a strong password to prevent brute-force attacks, but the second layer of verification via MFA is much more important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rely on secure Wi-Fi: Avoid public Wi-Fi networks, which are more likely to expose you to hackers. Instead, stick to secure networks or consider a virtual private network (VPN) to protect your data.\u00a0
\nRegular backups: Protect your data from ransomware attacks by backing it up on a cloud storage service like Google Drive or iCloud. You can also keep a physical backup, but keep it in a secure location.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Block Emerging Threats with Panda Security
\nAgentic Shadow AI, post-quantum computing, dark web data leaks and similar next-generation cyberattacks aren\u2019t slowing down, but understanding these technologies prepares you for what\u2019s to come. The most important step is protecting your devices before an attack, not after.
\nPanda Dome protects you in a simple, easy-to-use package that includes real-time threat detection, safe browsing tools, and dark web monitoring to alert you if your data surfaces somewhere it shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0
\nDownload Panda Dome today to be ready for anything in the emerging threat landscape.
\nCyber Threat FAQs
\nWhat is Panda Security doing to fight against emerging cyber threats?
\nPanda Security continuously updates its threat intelligence to keep pace with new attack methods, including AI-powered malware and adaptive phishing campaigns. Its products use behavioral detection technology that looks beyond known virus signatures to catch threats as they happen.
\nWhat\u2019s the most common kind of cyberattack targeting regular people?
\nPhishing remains the most common threat, typically arriving as convincing emails, texts, or pop-ups that trick you into clicking a link or entering personal information. With AI now being used to craft more personalized and believable messages, even tech-savvy users can be fooled.\u00a0
\nCan regular people be targeted by ransomware?
\nYes, individual users are frequent targets because they\u2019re often less protected. Ransomware encrypts your files and demands payment to restore access, and it typically arrives through a phishing email, a malicious download, or an unsecured network connection.
\nWhat is a zero-trust security model?
\nZero trust is a security approach built on one core idea: Don\u2019t automatically trust anyone or anything, even inside your own network. It requires continuous verification at every step. While specific to business users, the concept translates into at-home habits such as using MFA, limiting which apps can access your devices, and not assuming your home network is inherently secure.<\/p>\n

Panda Security specializes in the development of endpoint security products and is part of the WatchGuard portfolio of IT security solutions. Initially focused on the development of antivirus software, the company has since expanded its line of business to advanced cyber-security services with technology for preventing cyber-crime.<\/p>\n

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