SOURCE KnowBe4 Inc.

KnowBe4 releases cybersecurity predictions for 2026

TAMPA BAY, Fla., Dec. 2, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- KnowBe4, the world-renowned platform that comprehensively addresses human and agentic AI risk management, has today released its cybersecurity predictions for 2026 from its team of CISO advisors. AI will continue to dominate the landscape in 2026 as it is increasingly used in cyber defense but also turned against us by criminals.

The company's security experts predict that during 2026, the cybersecurity landscape will be shaped by these major trends:

1. AI Agents will Reduce MTTR By at Least 30%

While attackers weaponize AI, defenders are positioned to gain a decisive advantage as agentic AI systems mature. Most popular software and services will not only be rebuilt as agentic AI but will also show positive returns on reducing cybersecurity risk compared to their pre-agentic AI counterparts. For SOC teams, tier-one triage, enrichment and containment actions will be policy-guardrailed and executed by agentic systems, cutting mean time to respond (MTTR) by 30 to 50 percent in mature teams. These AI security agents will also be able to maintain immutable audit trails of every action and generate regulator-ready incident summaries, reducing the compliance burden and speeding post-incident reviews.

However, cyberattackers will also use AI-enabled tools to deliver more pervasive and successful hacking as compared to traditional attack tools. Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers (used in LLMs) will become a bigger attack vector, while browser agents and prompt injection attacks will dominate the vulnerability landscape. Attacks will continue to be targeted and focused more on quality versus quantity as AI, automation and generative AI features become commonly used, making attacks more realistic and harder to spot.

2. Humans & AI Agents are the New Workforce

The most transformative shift in 2026 will be the evolution of AI from passive tools to active, autonomous members of the security team, triggering a fundamental shift in how organizations must think about their workforce. As agentic AI systems move from experimental tools to core operational team members, organizations deploying agentic AI will need to expand their definition of 'workforce training' to include the policies, guardrails and behavioral expectations for AI agents.

3. Q-Day Will Happen

While privacy concerns have kept mandatory digital IDs largely at bay, digital identities tied to their real human identities will become far more popular with the rollout of large regional programs such as the EU Digital Identity Wallet, which will be available to all EU citizens in 2026. While these programs are unlikely to be compulsory, they are expected to become increasingly necessary for accessing digital services.

Q-Day, the day when quantum computers become sufficiently capable of cracking most of today's traditional asymmetric encryption, will likely happen in 2026. The security of these systems has never been more important. Organizations must strengthen human authentication through passkeys and device-bound credentials while applying the same governance rigor to non-human identities like service accounts, API keys and AI agent credentials.

4. Shadow Syndicates Target Geopolitical Flashpoints

It is expected that organized crime and cybercrime will come together to present a united crime front, shadow syndicates, with cyber tools enabling physical operations targeting geopolitics and critical infrastructure across every region.

"The 2026 midterm elections in the U.S. are going to face serious challenges as bad actors leverage social media and AI to increase the realism and volume of misinformation and disinformation campaigns," predicts Erich Kron, CISO advisor, KnowBe4. "This will be a practice for the 2028 presidential elections and will pave the way for future types of attacks and the defenses needed against the misinformation and disinformation campaigns." In addition, James McQuiggan, CISO advisor, KnowBe4 expects some U.S. states will create their own AI legislation, creating regulatory confusion.

The predicted trends were collected from KnowBe4's global team of CISO advisors who are experts with decades of experience in the cybersecurity field. More information on KnowBe4's team of experts is available here.

About KnowBe4

KnowBe4 empowers workforces to make smarter security decisions every day. Trusted by over 70,000 organizations worldwide, KnowBe4 helps to strengthen security culture and manage human and agent risk. KnowBe4 offers a comprehensive AI-driven 'best-of-suite' platform for Human Risk Management, creating an adaptive defense layer that fortifies user behavior against the latest cybersecurity threats. The HRM+ platform includes modules for awareness & compliance training, cloud email security, real-time coaching, crowdsourced anti-phishing, AI Defense Agents, and more. As the only global security platform of its kind, KnowBe4 utilizes personalized and relevant cybersecurity protection content, tools and techniques to mobilize workforces to transform from the largest attack surface to an organization's biggest asset. More at https://knowbe4.com. 

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Media Contact
Amanda Tarantino
Head of Public Relations, Americas
KnowBe4
[email protected]

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