The Trends Defining Cyber Security In 2026: Cyber Security Report 2026

The Cyber Security Report 2026 is based on direct analysis of global attack activity spanning AI-driven attacks, ransomware operations, hybrid environments, and multi-channel social engineering. It documents how these techniques are being executed in practice, at scale, across industries and regions.

The data points to a clear pattern. Attacks have moved beyond isolated methods, deliberately combining AI, identity abuse, ransomware, edge infrastructure, and human interaction into coordinated campaigns that move faster than most security programs are designed to handle.

Main Cyber Security Trends in 2026

AI Has Become an End-to-End Attack Vector

AI adoption inside enterprises accelerated faster than most security controls. Attackers followed immediately and now AI is embedded across the full attack chain.

Data collected from enterprise AI environments shows:

• 90% of organisations encountered risky AI prompts within a three-month period.

• 1 in every 48 prompts submitted to enterprise AI tools was classified as high risk.

• Over 16% of prompts showed characteristics linked to data exposure, privilege abuse, or indirect prompt manipulation.

These were not isolated experiments. They occurred inside business workflows, customer-facing systems, and internal productivity tools.

Infrastructure supporting AI systems is also being actively targeted. A review by Lakera, a Check Point company, examined an estimated 10,000 Model Context Protocol servers and found security vulnerabilities in 40% of them.

AI systems are now part of the operational fabric of organisations. When they fail, they fail loudly and at scale.

Ransomware Is Becoming More Fragmented and AI Supported

Ransomware operations continued to increase in volume while becoming more distributed and automated. In 2025, ransomware activity fragmented into smaller, faster, and more specialised units supported by AI automation. The result was more attacks, shorter dwell time, and higher operational pressure on security teams.

The report shows:

• A 48% year-over-year increase in extorted victims

• A 50% increase in new ransomware-as-a-service groups as reputation-based models weaken

• Smaller, decentralised groups now dominate activity

These attacks rarely depended on novel vulnerabilities. They relied on access that already existed and on the ability to move quickly once inside.

AI is increasingly used to improve targeting, negotiation, and pressure operations, particularly in data only-extortion scenarios. More than half of known ransomware victims were based in the United States.

This fragmentation has reduced predictability and increased volume, making ransomware harder to disrupt through singular enforcement actions.

Hybrid Environments Are Expanding the Attack Surface

The most consistent risk factor across industries was not tooling quality. It was operational sprawl. As enterprises operate across on-prem devices, cloud environments, and edge infrastructure, attackers are exploiting the resulting exposure.

The report highlights how:

• Edge devices and operational relay boxes are increasingly used as initial access points.

• Unmonitored devices are leveraged as launch bases that blend into legitimate network traffic.

• Credentials are harvested and lateral movement begins before defenders detect abnormal behavior.

Hybrid complexity is not just a management challenge. It is an operational advantage for adversaries.

Cyber Operations Are Integrated into Modern Warfare Activity

In 2025, cyber activity increasingly supported broader conflict objectives.

Observed campaigns show:

• Cyber operations spanning civilian systems, cloud services, and physical infrastructure within a single effort

• AI accelerating influence operations and narrative manipulation

• Civilian workspaces targeted to disrupt trust and daily operations

Unmanaged exposure allows reconnaissance to quickly become operational leverage.

Social Engineering Has Moved Beyond Email

Email remains the primary delivery mechanism for malicious files, but it is no longer acting alone.

The data shows:

• 1.46% of all emails with attachments received by organisations were malicious.

• Email accounted for 82% of malicious file delivery, while web-based attacks represented 18%.

• ClickFix activity increased by approximately 500%.

• Phone based impersonation has evolved into an enterprise-focused intrusion technique.

Attackers now coordinate email, web, phone, and collaboration channels to manipulate users and bypass technical controls.

What the Evidence Makes Clear

Across all categories, the report shows attackers combining speed, automation, and trust to scale their operations.

There was an 18% increase in cyber attacks year over year, and a 70% increase since 2023. By 2025, organisations faced an average of 1,968 attack attempts per week. Education experienced the highest attack volumes, while sectors such as healthcare, government, energy, automotive, hospitality, and agriculture all recorded significant increases.

The Cyber Security Report 2026 brings this data together to help security leaders understand not just individual threats, but how they connect.

For CISOs and security teams planning the year ahead, the message is clear.

The attacks are already coordinated.

The exposure is already measurable.

The next step is deciding how to respond.

For the full Cyber Security Report 2026, click here.