Cyber Security: Six Cyber Threats to Look Out for in 2026

With industries being digitized, cybercrime is also advancing. This year, besides being opportunistic, threats have also become highly targeted, intelligent, and automated. 

The data comes from UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, which hints that 43% of businesses and 30% of charities listed an attack or a cyber breach or attack in the past 12 months. That’s a surprising 61,000 charities and 612,000 businesses impacted. 

Despite the data, businesses can lower their risk of cyber threats. But it is important to understand these key risks to stay safe and prepare for the next danger.

Six rising common cyber threats

1. Deepfakes: Deepfakes have shifted from niche technology to a major threat. Hackers nowadays use AI-generated audio and media to mimic organization staff. This can be risky in procurement or finance, where hackers push staff to send funds, share personal data, or approve finances, where the hackers pose as business leaders.

2. Supply-chain attacks: Instead of targeting organizations directly, hackers are targeting third-party vendors to get access to various firms at once via supply-chain attacks. The attack tactic abuses trust and internal security sometimes may not address all the threats in the supply chain. One hacked vendor can prompt a domino effect throughout hundreds of businesses. 

3. AI-powered phishing hacks: Phishing is one of the most common attacks in the past 12 months, and the tactic has changed significantly over the years. Most of the phishing attacks today are supported by AI tools and hackers are copying internal comms.

4. Credential stuffing attack: Weak passwords are the biggest reasons for hacks these days. In such attacks, hackers use stolen login credentials from past hacks and test them automatically across distinct platforms.

5. IoT and device flaws: As IoT is increasing, the hack surface also widens. Many devices such as sensors, cameras and industrial machinery still have limitations. Hackers abuse these flaws to access larger corporate networks. Traditional cyber security methods tend to ignore these flaws, and this has resulted in a significant risk.

6. Cloud errors: A simple thing such as exposed storage bucket or false access setting can expose sensitive data publicly accessible. These cases don’t get hacked as the information is unprotected. Currently, cloud storage environments are advanced, and building robust configuration hygiene has become a top critical priority.