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The most urgent cybersecurity priorities are patching exposed systems, preparing for ransomware, and making account sign-ins harder to steal. AI is helping attackers scale convincing deception, while mobile calls and texts, supplier access, and unapproved AI tools create additional ways into people and organisations. A practical defense combines prevention with tested recovery: no single product or policy covers every risk.
What are the latest cybersecurity trends?
Recent 2026 reporting points to several connected pressures: more breaches starting with exploited vulnerabilities, persistent ransomware, increasingly convincing social engineering, and greater exposure through suppliers and AI use. The figures below describe different datasets and should not be treated as directly comparable measures of overall risk.
- Exploited vulnerabilities: Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report announcement, using 2025 data, says vulnerability exploitation caused 31% of breaches and overtook stolen credentials as the leading entry point.
- Supplier exposure: The same Verizon announcement says third-party supply-chain breaches increased 60%, reaching 48% of total breaches in its reporting.
- AI use at work: Verizon reports that 45% of employees used unapproved “shadow AI,” based on its 2026 findings using 2025 data. Unmanaged tools can expose sensitive information or create activity that security teams cannot properly oversee.
- Mobile deception: Verizon reports mobile conversational social-engineering attacks—such as fake texts and voice calls—had a 40% higher success rate than traditional email phishing in its 2026 findings using 2025 data.
Ransomware remains a severe operational risk. ENISA’s Threat Landscape 2026 states, “Ransomware remains the most short-term impactful type of incident.” That makes recovery planning as important as trying to block the initial intrusion.
Threats also vary by sector and region. ENISA reports that, among incidents it covered from 1 January through 31 December 2025, 73% of targeted organisations were essential or important entities under NIS2. Public administration accounted for 32% of incidents, and ideology-driven DDoS attacks made up 82% of the public-administration events in that dataset. These are findings about ENISA’s incident set, not estimates for every country or organisation.
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How is AI changing cybersecurity?
AI is a dual-use capability, not a threat category that replaces older risks. Attackers can use it to generate fluent, tailored phishing messages, speed up reconnaissance, and assist exploitation. Microsoft’s 2025 Digital Defense Report discusses AI’s effects on both attackers and defenders; Microsoft’s July 2026 Security Future Initiative update highlights AI threat modeling and phishing-resistant defaults.
For individuals
- Treat unexpected requests for money, account access, or one-time codes as suspicious, even if the wording sounds polished or refers to personal details.
- Confirm urgent requests using a contact method you already know, rather than replying to the message or calling a number it provides.
- Do not disclose one-time sign-in codes to callers or send them in response to a text.
For organisations using AI tools or agents
- Keep an inventory of approved AI services and who can use them; set a clear rule against putting sensitive data into unapproved tools.
- Give AI agents only the permissions they need, and log their actions so unusual access or activity can be reviewed.
- Require a person to check outputs before consequential actions, such as changing access, moving funds, or executing code in production.
These controls address different failure modes: inventory and data rules reduce unmanaged exposure, least privilege limits what a compromised or misused agent can do, and human review helps catch consequential errors.
Why are patching and exposure management urgent?
With vulnerability exploitation the leading breach entry point in Verizon’s 2026 findings, organisations need to know what they own and which systems are reachable from the internet. A patching process that starts with a complete, current asset inventory is more reliable than relying on ad hoc updates.
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- Inventory assets: Record internet-facing servers, VPNs, firewalls, network devices, remote-access systems, cloud workloads, and software versions, including who is responsible for each.
- Prioritise exposed systems: Apply security updates promptly to internet-facing systems and remote-access infrastructure. CISA’s StopRansomware guidance specifically calls for updating VPNs, network infrastructure, and remote-access devices.
- Remove unsupported software: Replace or retire products that no longer receive security fixes where possible.
- Reduce exposure while a fix is pending: If a patch cannot be applied immediately, use temporary isolation or other compensating controls appropriate to the system, then track the exception through to resolution.
Patching reduces exposure to known flaws; it does not eliminate attacks using stolen credentials, social engineering, or flaws that have not yet been fixed. Keep identity, monitoring, and recovery controls in place alongside updates.
How can you prepare for ransomware?
Ransomware preparation should assume that prevention can fail. ENISA identifies ransomware as the most short-term impactful incident type in its 2026 Threat Landscape. CISA’s StopRansomware guidance recommends secure cloud backups, zero-trust architecture, and user-awareness training, in addition to updating VPNs and network infrastructure.
Build recoverable backups
- Keep backups offline or logically isolated from the systems they protect so an intruder cannot readily alter or encrypt both copies.
- Use secure cloud backups where appropriate, with access controls that separate backup administration from everyday accounts.
- Test restoration. Confirm that important systems and data can be recovered within the time your organisation can tolerate, rather than assuming a successful backup job guarantees recovery.
Limit the blast radius
- Segment critical systems so an intrusion in one part of the environment does not automatically provide access to everything else.
- Apply least privilege to user and administrator accounts, and monitor for unusual access, mass file changes, encryption activity, or data exfiltration.
- Rehearse who will isolate affected systems, make recovery decisions, communicate with staff and customers, and coordinate incident response.
NIST’s Incident Response Recommendations and Considerations for Cybersecurity Risk Management: A CSF 2.0 Community Profile, IR 8374 Revision 1, published June 11, 2026, is a current ransomware-focused profile for organisations aligning response and risk management with the Cybersecurity Framework 2.0.
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How should you respond to phishing, fake texts, and impersonation calls?
Do not limit caution to email. Verizon’s 2026 findings using 2025 data report a 40% higher success rate for mobile conversational social engineering than for traditional email phishing. A text or call can create urgency, impersonate a colleague or service, and try to draw you into a conversation where you reveal information or approve an action.
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- Never share one-time codes with someone who contacts you. A legitimate support conversation should not require you to disclose a code that proves control of your account.
- Use a password manager to generate and store unique passwords, reducing the damage from a password exposed in one service.
- Turn on phishing-resistant multifactor authentication where the service supports it; use other MFA options rather than leaving an account unprotected when it does not.
- For organisations, train staff to identify and report suspicious activity, and make reporting straightforward enough that people do it quickly.
What does supply-chain and cloud risk mean for an organisation?
Suppliers and service providers can have access to systems, data, or credentials that matter to your security. Verizon’s 2026 announcement, based on 2025 data, reports a 60% increase in third-party supply-chain breaches, which reached 48% of total breaches in its reporting. Those figures make supplier access a risk-management concern, not just a procurement detail.
- Review which suppliers can access your environment or data, and remove access that is no longer necessary.
- Require multifactor authentication and logging for supplier accounts, and limit tokens and service accounts to specific systems and tasks.
- Segment critical workloads to constrain the consequences if a supplier credential or integration is compromised.
- Set incident-notification and recovery expectations in contracts, including how the supplier will communicate and cooperate during an incident.
Microsoft’s security reporting also highlights cloud threat trends and nation-state activity. Cloud adoption does not remove the need to manage identity, configuration, supplier permissions, and incident response; the specific controls depend on the services and access model in use.
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What should public services know about DDoS and hacktivism?
ENISA’s Threat Landscape 2026 reports that public administration was the most targeted sector in its incident coverage. In the incidents it covered from 1 January through 31 December 2025, ideology-driven DDoS attacks accounted for 82% of public-administration events. DDoS attacks can disrupt access to public-facing services even when the underlying goal is disruption rather than data theft.
Organisations that provide internet-facing services should plan for availability: use DDoS protection, resilient DNS and communications, rate limiting, tested failover, and a crisis communications plan. These measures support continuity; they do not replace controls for account compromise or ransomware.
Is zero trust worth implementing?
Zero trust is a defensive operating model, not a single product. It replaces the assumption that a user or device is trustworthy because it is already inside a network with repeated checks of identity, device condition, access need, and activity. NIST SP 1800-35 explains implementation of zero-trust architecture consistent with NIST SP 800-207; CISA also includes zero trust among its ransomware recommendations.
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Useful elements include continuous identity and device checks, least-privilege access, segmentation, and telemetry to spot suspicious behavior. It is most useful when applied to the actual systems and access paths an organisation needs to protect. Implementation takes planning: map identities and resources, decide access rules, and introduce controls in stages so legitimate work is not unexpectedly interrupted.
What should you buy to secure your accounts?
If you are considering a concrete account-security purchase, a FIDO2 security key is a strong option for services that support FIDO2/WebAuthn or passkeys. It provides phishing-resistant authentication, but only for compatible accounts and devices. Check whether the service supports the method and whether the key matches your connection needs, such as USB-A, USB-C, or NFC, before buying.
A key reduces the risk of account takeover through stolen or phished credentials; it does not patch vulnerable software, restore encrypted files, or prevent every form of impersonation. Keep account recovery options current and follow the service’s guidance for registering a backup method or additional key.
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Which defenses cover which risks?
Choose controls by the problem they address, the effort they require, what happens if prevention fails, and whether your systems support them. The table compares the main measures covered here; effort is qualitative rather than a measured deployment estimate.
Quick Recap
| Protection | Attack surface covered | Deployment and maintenance effort | Value if prevention fails | Compatibility or verification burden |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patching and asset management | Known vulnerabilities, especially on exposed systems | Ongoing inventory, prioritisation, and update work | Limited direct recovery value; reduces the chance of exploitation | Track software versions, support status, and systems that cannot be patched promptly |
| Offline or isolated backups and restoration tests | Data and systems affected by ransomware or destructive incidents | Ongoing backup access controls and restore testing | High recovery value when usable copies are available | Confirm backups include critical data and that restoration works for the required systems |
| Segmentation and least privilege | Spread of access or damage after an account or system is compromised | Requires access and network design, review, and monitoring | Limits the potential blast radius; does not itself restore data | Validate that essential users, services, and workflows still have needed access |
| FIDO2 security key | Phishing-based credential theft and account takeover on supported services | Register and manage keys for each compatible account | Protects sign-in; does not recover a compromised device or encrypted files | Verify FIDO2/WebAuthn or passkey support and USB-A, USB-C, or NFC fit |
| Awareness and reporting training | Human-centered deception, including suspicious messages and requests | Requires recurring training and a clear reporting route | Can speed detection and response; does not substitute for technical controls | Tailor guidance to the organisation’s tools and reporting process |
| Zero-trust architecture | Untrusted or compromised identities, devices, and network paths | Requires staged implementation, policy design, and telemetry | Can constrain access and movement during an intrusion | Verify identity, device, and resource coverage without breaking necessary work |
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