News brief: Future of security holds bigger budgets, new threats

<p>As the world barrels toward a new year, executives and lawmakers alike are, by turn, optimistic about the future of cybersecurity — and deeply apprehensive.</p>
<p>In the SOC, for example, agentic AI promises to improve efficiency and effectiveness, enabling better cybersecurity outcomes and easing the pressure on chronically understaffed and overworked SecOps teams. On the other hand, AI threatens to make threat actors more efficient and effective too, enabling them to launch autonomous attacks at speed and scale.</p>
<p>This week’s featured articles look toward 2026 and beyond, and they reflect a mixed forecast. Many CISOs will be glad to hear that cybersecurity budgets are expected to rise globally, indicating a growing recognition that <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Enterprise-risk-management-should-inform-cyber-risk-strategies”>cyber-risk puts the business at risk</a>. In more troubling news, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers warns the federal government is underprepared for an anticipated rise in AI-enabled attacks. Plus, experts predict humanoid robots will walk among us sooner than many expect, bringing with them alarming cybersecurity vulnerabilities.</p>
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<h2 class=”section-title”><i class=”icon” data-icon=”1″></i>Cybersecurity spending will increase significantly in 2026</h2>
<p>Two-thirds of organizations globally plan to increase their investments in cyber-risk prevention in 2026, according to a Marsh survey of 2,200 cybersecurity leaders. At least one in four intends to boost spending by more than 25%.</p>
<p>Key cybersecurity spending priorities include security technology, incident response and hiring. U.K. firms are most likely to increase spending, driven by recent, high-profile cyberattacks on British retailers and automaker Jaguar Land Rover.</p>
<p>The report also highlighted the prevalence of third-party security incidents, with 70% of organizations experiencing at least one in the past year. Experts emphasized the importance of vetting and frequently auditing vendor cybersecurity, negotiating contractual protections and actively managing vendor access to IT systems.</p>
<p><a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/global-firms-bo

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