FortiGuard Labs’ Cyberthreat Predictions for 2026 warn that cybercrime will enter a new phase defined by autonomous, purpose-built AI agents capable of executing entire attack chains without human oversight. These specialized agents will increase the scale, speed, and efficiency of cyberattacks, enabling even low-skilled criminals to run complex campaigns while allowing advanced threat actors to industrialize operations across thousands of targets.
The report highlights how AI and automation are accelerating the cyber arms race, with offensive models exploiting weaknesses faster than human-led defenses can respond. GenAI will also reshape post-compromise activities by rapidly analyzing stolen data, prioritizing high-value assets, and generating tailored extortion campaigns at scale. As a result, sectors such as manufacturing, healthcare, and utilities will face heightened risk, particularly as ransomware operations expand into operational technology and industrial IoT environments.
FortiGuard Labs notes that cybercrime ecosystems are evolving into integrated, service-driven economies. Dark web marketplaces now resemble legitimate e-commerce platforms, insider recruitment is intensifying, and botnets remain the backbone of scalable cyber operations.
With the global cost of cybercrime projected to exceed 23 trillion dollars annually by 2027, defenders must respond by integrating automated SecOps capabilities such as NDR, EDR, and CTEM to gain continuous visibility, disrupt attack automation, and counter adversaries whose advantage increasingly lies in velocity and scale rather than novelty.
The 2026 defensive landscape will be defined by speed and scale as cyber adversaries increasingly operate like industrial enterprises, leveraging standardized playbooks, automation pipelines, and AI to compress the time from reconnaissance to ransom. For defenders, success will no longer hinge on advanced tools alone but on operational throughput and the ability to interrupt attacks at machine speed. Velocity will emerge as the critical risk metric, forcing security teams to automate detection, response, and exposure management to keep pace with rapidly industrialized threats.
FortiGuard Labs emphasizes the need for a threat-informed defense model that unifies intelligence, exposure management, and incident response into a single operational framework. Predictive threat intelligence, continuous validation through CTEM, and integrated SecOps capabilities across endpoints, networks, clouds, and identities will enable defenders to anticipate attacker behavior and accelerate containment. Incident response must evolve into a coordinated, always-on capability supported by real-time visibility and external attack surface intelligence.
Identity will become the operational backbone of security in 2026, expanding beyond human users to include non-human and machine identities such as automation agents, AI-driven processes, and ephemeral cloud workloads. Each automated action will require strict identity governance, least-privilege access, and continuous behavioral monitoring, as compromised machine identities could enable rapid lateral movement and large-scale damage.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2025?
FortiGuard Labs’ 2025 Cyberthreat Predictions have materialized more rapidly than anticipated, confirming a decisive shift toward industrialized cybercrime. Trends that were emerging only a year ago – including AI-assisted attacks, Crime-as-a-Service specialization, and geopolitical fragmentation – are now core features of the global threat landscape.
AI has moved beyond experimentation into full operational use, with GenAI widely adopted for social engineering, credential theft, and automated attack scripting. The next evolution is already underway, as autonomous agents begin to manage multiple attack functions with little or no human involvement.
Crime-as-a-Service ecosystems have matured into platform-style underground marketplaces, where access brokers, data resellers, and malware developers operate as interconnected suppliers, enabling even low-skilled actors to execute advanced attacks.
Attackers have diversified their targets, validating predictions of increased focus on operational technology, cloud environments, and supply chains. Ransomware groups combine data theft, disruption, and extortion in coordinated campaigns, often impacting multiple vendors at once, with critical infrastructure and healthcare among the hardest-hit sectors. Data itself has become the primary asset, as AI-driven analysis rapidly transforms stolen information into actionable intelligence for extortion and influence.
Beyond technology, the cyber security report for 2026 highlights growing collaboration between the private sector and law enforcement to disrupt cybercrime ecosystems, alongside preventive education and deterrence initiatives aimed at weakening recruitment pipelines. Ultimately, resilience in 2026 will depend on how effectively organizations translate intelligence into action, balance human judgment with automated precision, and evolve security operations into an industrialized defense capable of learning and responding at the same velocity as modern threats.
RAJANI BABURAJAN
