Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Chuck Randolph, Senior Vice President at 360 Privacy
For a very long time, we described security in terms of a castle. You build the wall higher, dig the moat deeper, and watch the gate. If no one breached the castle walls, you were safe. However, heading toward 2026, that model of security is finally crumbling.
In today’s world, the castle walls do not stop at your network edges. The castle walls extend to include the digital footprints left by your employees, including the stories told about your organization on the internet. In my years working in both intelligence and security, I have seen attackers transition from attempting to technically “break in” to developing attacks that are far more human, and therefore far more difficult to track and protect against.
AI and the Compression of Crisis
We used to have a “Golden Hour” to respond to a crisis situation. When a rumor was circulating or a document was leaked, you had some time to gather facts before the story became global news. AI has officially eliminated that luxury.
Attackers today use AI to automate tasks such as scraping social media posts, linking them to previously leaked identifiers, and spinning out a believable (and damaging) story in a matter of seconds. We are moving into a time when a fake video or a misleading email thread can trigger a market-moving event or spark an employee uprising before your security team receives notification.
To stay ahead, we must treat the defensive efforts associated with narratives as a key component of our security process, rather than simply a communication effort.
The Ad-Tech Intelligence Gap
Most leaders worry about hackers stealing their data, but few consider the companies that sell it legally. The ad-tech and data broker industry has become an enormous, unregulated attack vector.
Consider this: Every time an executive searches for flights, utilizes a weather app, or enrolls in a rewards program, they create a trail of information that data brokers collect and aggregate into profiles that detail travel patterns, home addresses, and even personal stressors. In 2026, this will be an operational intelligence issue for adversaries, as well as a privacy nuisance.
If an attacker can purchase a map of your executive’s movement for the cost of a credit card swipe, then your physical and digital perimeters have been compromised. We should begin to audit the exposure of your “information” with the same rigor we apply to our firewalls.
Convergence Between Physical and Cybersecurity Risks
One of the largest structural shifts that is occurring is at the board level. Directors are no longer asking if the firewall is operating properly; they are asking how each risk interconnects.
We are seeing a complete breakdown of the silos between cybersecurity risks and physical safety. For example, a leak of a CEO’s home address can lead to a break-in, and a data breach can pose real-world threats to a CEO’s family. In 2026, boards will demand a single point of view of all risk. Therefore, your security report will need to consider all risk factors, including server vulnerabilities and the “doxxing” of a board member.
Looking Ahead
Companies that succeed in navigating 2026 will not be the ones with the latest shiny technology. They will be successful because they understand that trust and reputation are the new battlefronts.
Security is evolving into a single-discipline approach that combines physical safety, digital privacy, and narrative control under one roof. No longer is security about who has access to your systems; it is about who has access to the stories of your people.
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