Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2026. Read them in this 18th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Anthony Cusimano, Director of Solutions, Object First
As we head into 2026, there are a handful of attacks that will dominate the attack landscape. Some of these threats have been a risk for years, but attackers are also developing new points of entry and advanced attacks. This evolving threat environment will push cybersecurity strategies away from prevention-centric approaches toward resilience, with greater reliance on immutable backups and Zero Trust architectures to ensure recovery. Outlined below are a few attack vectors that security defenses need to be built around, in 2026.
Education and healthcare will face the highest volume of cyberattacks in 2026. In both education and healthcare, one of the greatest cybersecurity vulnerabilities lies in the challenge of integrating legacy systems with modern digital infrastructure. These sectors often operate on a patchwork of technologies, such as mainframes for patient records or student information systems, SaaS platforms for scheduling or learning management, and custom-built tools for diagnostics or administrative tasks that rarely interoperate. This lack of integration creates security silos, inconsistent authentication and logging, and fragmented backup protocols, all of which increase the attack surface. Compounding the issue, many institutions still rely on outdated tape backups or under-tested cloud appliances, leading to slow recovery times and compliance risks. As these sectors modernize, the inability to securely bridge old and new systems without introducing complexity or gaps in protection will come to a head in 2026, creating a major cybersecurity concern that bad actors will undoubtedly exploit.
AI will dominate the conversation at security trade shows in 2026. At RSA and similar events in 2026, expect a surge in solutions focused on AI threat detection, data poisoning mitigation, and agentic AI containment. Vendors will showcase tools that go beyond traditional perimeter defenses that highlight self-healing systems, real-time deepfake detection, and AI-powered attack surface management. There will most likely also be a strong emphasis on resilience technologies like immutable storage, as organizations seek assurance that they can recover from attacks that evade detection. I’m expecting more conversations to center around the AI arms race, with a growing consensus that AI and ransomware resilience is a must.
Quantum computing will NOT become a security concern in 2026. Even with recent headlines about quantum breakthroughs, the threat of quantum computing remains years, if not decades, away. The real and present danger lies in AI-driven threats that are already operational: Polymorphic malware, deepfake-enabled fraud, and data poisoning attacks are actively compromising systems today. While it may be wise to begin exploring post-quantum cryptography, organizations should still prioritize immediate, proven defenses like Absolute Immutability to protect their backups against the threats that are already active.
Ransomware response will shift from prevention to resilience in 2026. Many organizations’ cybersecurity strategies are still falling short by over-relying on prevention, detection, and response tools that are inherently reactive and increasingly ineffective against AI-generated threats such as phishing, deepfakes, malware, and data-poisoning. In the new year, we’ll see a growing emphasis on recovery strategies like immutable backups and Zero Trust architectures as organizations realize that early detection has become unreliable, and prevention, detection, and response tools alone are insufficient.
In 2026, cyber risks will intensify across sectors, especially education and healthcare where aging infrastructure and fragmented digital ecosystems will create broader attack surfaces and more frequent system failures. Organizations will shift toward resilience-focused strategies, emphasizing immutable backups, Zero Trust architectures, and AI-aware defenses. The immediate priority will be strengthening recovery and safeguarding against the real-world attacks already challenging today’s security landscape.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthony Cusimano has worked in many roles in tech for over a decade. He started as a developer, shifted to sales, and masterfully moved into marketing. He is a passionate gamer who stays up to date on all things technology to ensure he can achieve as many frames per second as possible on his gaming PC. He enjoys speaking at events and has previously shared the stage with astronauts and MARVEL superheroes.
