The next phase of cybersecurity

Prevalence of AI heightens acceleration, automation and cloud identity risk

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Organisations need to rethink speed, automation and identity risk as artificial intelligence (AI) continues to amplify attackers' capabilities, according to Tenable, a US-based exposure management company.

2026 will not be defined by entirely new attack techniques, but by scale, speed and acceleration, forcing security leaders to move away from reactive models and outdated assumptions towards proactive, prevention-first approaches that reduce exposure before attacks unfold.

Eric Doerr, chief product officer at Tenable, challenges the assumption that AI will introduce fundamentally new attack techniques in 2026.

"There will be no new attack vectors in 2026. AI is not a magic wand; it supercharges traditional attack methods. It will drive down the cost of attack generation and increase the volume, and it might even find a new zero day or two, but it's not finding novel attack techniques," he said.

"At the end of the day, cybersecurity is a numbers game and AI broadens the attackers' canvas. Basic cyber-hygiene remains the best defence."

Acceleration is the most significant emerging threat for organisations, said Mr Doerr.

"Organisations that do not prioritise and accelerate their proactive security programmes to counter the speed of Al-fuelled attacks are at heightened risk," he said.

"The who, what, how and why of an attack does not matter because AI-fuelled attacks start and end before a ticket is even created. Proactive defence makes speed obsolete."