FORTINET'S 2026 CYBERTHREAT PREDICTIONS: CYBERCRIME ENTERS FULL INDUSTRIALIZATION

AI, automation, and underground specialization will accelerate attacks, forcing defenders to adopt machine-speed security strategies.

- RASHISH PANDEY

The Industrialization of Cybercrime

Fortinet's latest Cyberthreat Predictions Report for 2026 paints a stark picture of the evolving threat landscape: cybercrime is shifting from opportunistic attacks to industrial-scale operations. Drawing on global intelligence from FortiGuard Labs, the report warns that attackers will prioritize speed over novelty, leveraging AI and automation to compress the timeline from intrusion to impact.

The era of handcrafted exploits is giving way to assembly-line cybercrime, where efficiency and throughput define success. Fully autonomous agents on the dark web will soon execute major stages of an attack with minimal human oversight—performing reconnaissance, automating lateral movement, parsing stolen data, and even scripting ransom negotiations.

Machine-Speed Attacks: A New Reality

“Cybercrime is no longer an opportunistic activity; it is an industrialized system operating at machine speed,” says Rashish Pandey, Vice President – Marketing & Communications, APAC at Fortinet.