What Every Company Needs To Know About Cybersecurity In 2026
Cybersecurity is no longer just a technical safeguard—it’s becoming a decisive factor in business survival. At the end of December, Chuck Brooks, Global Thought Leader in Cybersecurity and Emerging Tech, shares an article on Forbes explaining why cyber risk has shifted from an IT issue to a core leadership and governance priority.
Brooks points to the scale of the threat: cybercrime now drives trillions in global losses, while the average data breach costs millions in downtime, legal exposure, and lost trust. As a result, company failure is increasingly tied to cybersecurity failure. The strategic challenge for 2026 is not whether to invest, but how deeply security is embedded into corporate strategy and operational resilience.
Ransomware remains the most disruptive threat, accounting for a large share of breaches and evolving into targeted, multi-layered extortion that disrupts operations even without ransom payments. At the same time, traditional network perimeters are fading. Identity has become the primary security control as stolen credentials and AI-driven phishing dominate attack methods, pushing organizations toward continuous, risk-based identity verification.
Human risk is also growing. Despite years of training, most breaches still involve human behavior, now amplified by AI-enabled social engineering. Brooks argues that effective security cultures focus on measurable behavior change and executive engagement, not just awareness programs.
Supply chain exposure is another board-level concern, as attackers increasingly compromise vendors and software ecosystems. Meanwhile, AI accelerates both defense and attack, making AI governance essential, and quantum computing raises urgent questions about future-proof encryption.
Cybersecurity success in 2026 will be measured by resilience—how quickly organizations can detect, contain, and recover from inevitable attacks.
