The Cybersecurity Outlook for 2026: Navigating AI Change, System Complexity anda Crisis of Trust

The cybersecurity landscape is shifting rapidly as digital transformation and artificial intelligence keeps shaping how organisations operate, make decisions and defend themselves against threats. Technology continues to move faster than most teams can keep up with, and this pace is forcing leaders to face new challenges that demand both vigilance and adaptability.

As we head into 2026, the most important or biggest question is how will the most significant cybersecurity trends for the next year, from trust crisis to leadership define the strategies that organisations should adopt to protect their digital assets?

Organisations must learn how to navigate the trust crisis

One of the most urgent challenges is the breakdown of trust in the digital environment. As the volume of information grows, so does the difficulty of distinguishing what is authentic. The spread of misinformation, deepfakes, AI-generated personas and automated attack techniques means that organisations can no longer rely on old assumptions about what or who can be trusted across a network. Attackers are moving quickly, using AI to scan environments, write code and launch increasingly tailored attacks. Large language models now create risks that go far beyond data leakage, turning information power into intelligent and automated actions.

Zero Trust has been guided by security teams for years, helping them determine and understand how authorised users should connect and exchange data. But as trust becomes more fragile, this approach is set to evolve. In 2026, Zero Trust is expected to develop into asymmetric trust, prompting IT teams to develop critical defensive strategy. With this strategy centred on decoys into the security architecture it will create “negative trust” for fake assets and the space to protect genuine assets

AI will reshape both the threat landscape and the workforce that manages it

The rapid evolution of AI is changing not only how attacks unfold but also how security teams work. The rise of agentic AI, in which autonomous systems connect APIs and perform complex tasks without human involvement, introduces new vulnerabilities at speed. A single error in how these systems interact can escalate into a chain reaction with legal, ethical and operational consequences that extend well beyond the original misstep. At the same time, organisations face a growing challenge from shadow AI as employees deploy unapproved tools that bypass policies and open pathways for data loss and security violations.

As AI becomes more accessible and deeply integrated in everyday workflows, organisations must strengthen their ability to detect and govern its use, and to educate staff about responsible practices that enable innovation without undermining security. This requires an evolution of Zero Trust across identity, segmentation and DLP so that AI tools are treated with the same attention and guidelines applied to human employees.

While AI adoption may feel revolutionary, extending Zero trust to encompass AI systems will help teams adapt to this in a way that is sustainable.

Security leadership is expanding into broader organisational roles

The responsibilities of the Chief Information Security Officer are expanding beyond traditional IT security. As the role of AI grows, CISOs are increasingly well-positioned to take on responsibilities as AI officers, leveraging their deep expertise in data protection and usage. The merging of the CISO, Chief Data Officer (CDO), and Chief Business Information Officer (CBIO) roles is creating hybrid leadership positions with broader mandates.

This expanding scope reflects the growing complexity of the security function. Leaders are now expected to oversee not just IT, but also physical security, business strategy, HR, and ethical considerations related to AI and employee wellbeing. The emergence of Chief Security Officers responsible for people, premises and information shows how multidisciplinary the function has become, and how important it is for leaders to cultivate adaptability and cross domain expertise.

Resilience is becoming a defining board level priority

As concerns about data sovereignty and operational continuity grow, resilience is rapidly becoming a top priority at the board level.  As one aspect of data resilience is focusing on having continuous access to data, CISOs are concentrating on reducing conversations to limit the blast radius of an incident and have strategies in place to restore access quickly when critical infrastructure is affected.

Achieving true resilience requires visibility into all data stream and location. This will become a key enabler for board level discussions on security investment strategies. For those target groups, IT decision makers will need to focus on showcasing the risks organisations face in order to release the funds for preparing security strategies that are resilient by design, encompassing the next generation of risks and threats.

Looking ahead

The year 2026 will be defined by the merging of a trust crisis, the development of AI and the broadening responsibilities placed on security leadership. Organisations that recognise the interconnected nature of these forces will be best prepared to navigate the complexity ahead. By strengthening the way they manage trust, governing AI with clarity, expanding leadership expertise and investing in resilience, businesses can secure their digital future while still enabling the innovation and growth that modern enterprise demands.