As 2026 approaches, cybersecurity is entering a phase of disruption. Between the gradual disappearance of crypto-ransomware, the rising prominence of autonomous AI and mounting regulatory pressure, organizations will face threats that are faster, smarter, and harder to anticipate. Here are the major trends that will shape the year ahead.
Crypto-ransomware Set to Disappear
In 2026, crypto-ransomware will gradually fade away, with cybercriminals shifting away from encryption to focus on data theft and extortion. Organizations have significantly improved their backup and recovery capabilities, allowing them to recover from a crypto-ransomware attack without having to pay the demanded ransoms.
Criminals will therefore prefer stealing data, threatening to disclose it, and even reporting victims to regulators or insurers to increase pressure. Encryption no longer pays: the real weapon now is exposure.
CRA Reporting Obligations Finally Drive Secure by Design Principles
In 2026, the European Union’s Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) will become the driving force behind the widespread adoption of security-by-design principles integrated into product development. With an initial enforcement phase planned for September, vendors wishing to sell in the EU will have to disclose any vulnerability actively exploited or any security incident within 24 hours—the most demanding reporting requirement to date.
The initial rollout of the CRA is likely to be complex, especially since it is difficult for companies to detect vulnerabilities in their own products. Yet the CRA will have a strong long-term impact by becoming a durable incentive to embed security from the earliest development stages. Moreover, overlapping global regulations will highlight contradictions and divergent frameworks, forcing organizations to navigate an increasingly complex compliance ecosystem.
First End-to-End Security Breach Executed by an Autonomous AI
In 2025, we anticipated that multimodal AI tools would be capable of executing every step of an attacker’s kill chain — and that expectation has been confirmed. In 2026, AI will not merely assist criminals: it will attack on its own.
From initial intelligence gathering to vulnerability scanning, lateral movement, and data exfiltration, these autonomous systems will be able to orchestrate a full compromise at machine speed.
This first incident fully executed by AI will ring an alarm for defenders who underestimated how quickly generative AI evolves from tools to operators. The same technologies that enable enterprises to automate their security workflows are now used to outpace them. Organizations will have to fight fire with fire: only AI-based defense solutions capable of detecting, analyzing and responding as quickly as the adversarial AI will keep up.
Decline of Traditional VPNs Will Accelerate Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA)
Traditional VPNs and remote-access tools are among attackers’ favourite targets, particularly due to credential leakage, theft or reuse, and the recurring lack of MFA.
Technical VPN security matters little: if an attacker can connect by impersonating a legitimate user, they default to access to all internal resources.
At least one third of breaches in 2026 will be linked to weaknesses or misconfigurations in legacy remote access tools and VPNs. Malicious actors have actively targeted VPN access ports for two years, stealing credentials or exploiting vulnerabilities specific to certain products.
As a consequence, 2026 will also be the year when SMEs begin to broadly adopt Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA) solutions, which eliminate the need to expose a potentially vulnerable VPN port on the Internet. A ZTNA provider secures access via its cloud platform, and access is no longer global: each user group only obtains the minimal access to the internal resources it needs, thereby limiting the potential impact in case of compromise.
AI Expertise Becomes Essential for Cybersecurity Professionals
We stand at the dawn of a new era where attack and defense will be played on a field dominated by AI. Adversaries are already testing automated, adaptive, and self-learning tools; defenders who cannot match that speed and precision will be outpaced before realizing they are targeted.
To survive, security experts must go beyond a simple understanding of AI and aim to master its capabilities, using it to automate detection and response, while anticipating the new vulnerabilities it creates. By the next year, AI mastery will no longer be a differentiator, but a prerequisite: recruiters will seek profiles that can demonstrate concrete AI applications in cyber defense.
In 2026, cybersecurity enters a cycle where old certainties no longer hold. The gradual disappearance of crypto-ransomware, the rise of autonomous AI, regulatory pressure and widespread adoption of Zero Trust redefine the balance between attack and defense.
Organizations will no longer have the luxury of waiting: only those able to integrate AI, anticipate new obligations and rethink their architectures will stay ahead. The year ahead will be not merely a technological turning point but a resilience test for the entire digital ecosystem.
*Marc Laliberté is Director of Cybersecurity Operations at WatchGuard Technologies
