What Security Leaders Could Expect in 2026

"As we head into the new year, security leaders are staring down a fundamental shift: AI is no longer a feature - it's an actor. Organizations are now operating alongside autonomous systems that make decisions, take action, and in some cases delegate work to other agents. That's the biggest change to identity security in more than two decades, and it's reshaping how CISOs think about risk."

"The challenges in 2026 won't be about the volume of threats - we've lived with that for years. The challenge will be accountability in environments where not every decision was made by a human. The rise of AI identities means we'll see more invisible privilege escalation, ownerless automation, and cascading effects when AI systems drift from expected behavior. Most enterprises already struggle with basic identity hygiene; layering autonomy on top of that is a force multiplier for risk."

Organizations will face an increasingly complex poly-risk landscape that spans cyber, privacy, travel, physical security, executive protection, drones, supply chain, and business continuity. Schools face growing cybersecurity gaps after prioritizing active-assailant preparedness over other threats. Autonomous AI systems are emerging as actors that make decisions, take actions, and delegate tasks, fundamentally altering identity and accountability models. Invisible privilege escalation, ownerless automation, and cascading failures become more likely when AI systems drift from expected behavior. Weak identity hygiene across enterprises amplifies these risks and complicates accountability, remediation, and risk management efforts.

Read at Securitymagazine