News brief: AI threats to shape 2026 cybersecurity

<p>2023 was the year of AI hype. 2024 was the year of AI experimentation. 2025 was the year of AI hype correction. So, what will 2026 bring? Will the bubble burst — or maybe deflate a little? Will AI ROI be realized?</p>
<p>In the cybersecurity realm, one of the big questions is how adversaries will use AI in their attacks. It’s well known that AI enables threat actors to <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Generative-AI-is-making-phishing-attacks-more-dangerous”>craft more realistic phishing attacks</a> at a greater scale than ever, <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/How-to-detect-deepfakes-manually-and-using-AI”>create deepfakes</a> that impersonate legitimate employees and <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/How-AI-malware-works-and-how-to-defend-against-it”>generate polymorphic malware</a> that evades detection. Additionally, AI systems have vulnerabilities that bad actors exploit, for example, using <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/tip/Types-of-prompt-injection-attacks-and-how-they-work”>prompt injection attacks</a>.</p>
<p>Here’s what some experts predict for offensive AI in 2026:</p>
<ul class=”default-list”>
<li>”An agentic AI deployment will cause a public breach and lead to employee dismissals.” <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.forrester.com/blogs/predictions-2026-cybersecurity-and-risk/” rel=”noopener”>Paddy Harrington</a>, analyst at Forrester.</li>
<li>”Offensive autonomous and agentic AI will emerge as a mainstream threat, with attackers unleashing fully automated phishing, lateral movement and exploit-chain engines that require little or no human operator engagement.” <a target=”_blank” href=”https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/blog/7-cis-experts-2026-cybersecurity-predictions” rel=”noopener”>Marcus Sachs</a>, senior vice president and chief engineer at the Center for Internet Security (CIS).</li>
<li>”As attackers continue to use AI and shift to agent-based attacks, the prevalence of living-off-the-land attacks will only grow.” <a href=”https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/opinion/NetworkSecurity-predictions”>John Grady</a>, analyst at Omdia, a division of Informa TechTarget.</li>
<li>”AI continues to dominate the headlines and security landscape.” Sean Atkinson, CISO at CIS.&l

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