High 10 Predictions for Threats and Defenses

AI & Cybersecurity in 2026: High 10 Predictions for Threats and Defenses

As we head into 2026, synthetic intelligence looms as each innovator and instigator in cybersecurity. From small companies to world enterprises, orgs will grapple with AI-driven threats whilst they leverage AI for protection.

The next ten predictions, 5 rising threats adopted by 5 defensive developments, chart a visionary (and cautionary) path for the 12 months forward. Every prediction highlights the function of huge language fashions (LLMs) and autonomous brokers, exhibiting real-world implications and steps cybersecurity leaders ought to take into account. Buckle up: the AI period’s challenges and options are coming quick.

THREATS:

1. AI-Powered Phishing Turns into Indistinguishable from People
   LLMs will allow mass-produced, completely personalised phishing emails that mimic tone, context and writing model with scary accuracy. Even savvy customers shall be fooled except they get educated with deepfake simulations.
2. Deepfakes Set off a Disaster of Belief
   Artificial voices and movies will impersonate executives and distributors, authorizing wire transfers or leaking false information. Seeing and listening to will not be believing. Orgs should prepare their workers for out-of-band verification.
3. Autonomous Malware Learns and Adapts on the Fly
   Malware will embed AI to mutate code, evade detection and adapt to its atmosphere mid-attack. Conventional antivirus is toast. Solely behavior-based, adaptive defenses will maintain the road, additionally in e mail.
4. Immediate Injection and AI Hijacking Go Mainstream
   Attackers will goal the AI itself, tricking LLM-powered brokers into leaking knowledge, making dangerous selections or executing dangerous actions. Securing your AI techniques shall be as crucial as defending your endpoints.
5. AI Lowers the Barrier for Cybercrime-as-a-Service
   Anybody with entry to underground LLM instruments can launch full-spectrum cyber assaults, together with phishing, malware and social engineering. No technical experience required. Anticipate a flood of semi-skilled attackers shifting quick and large.

DEFENSES

[Live Demo] Ridiculously Simple AI-Powered Safety Consciousness Coaching and Phishing

Phishing and social engineering stay the #1 cyber risk to your org, with 68% of information breaches brought on by human error. Your safety workforce wants a simple technique to ship personalised coaching—that is exactly what our AI Protection Brokers present.

Be part of us for a demo showcasing KnowBe4’s modern method to human threat administration with agentic AI that delivers personalised, related and adaptive safety consciousness coaching with minimal admin effort.

See how simple it’s to coach and phish your customers with KnowBe4′ HRM+ platform:

• NEW! Deepfake Coaching Content material – Generate hyperrealistic deepfakes of your personal executives to arrange customers to identify AI-driven manipulation and deepfakes
• SmartRisk Agent™ – Generate actionable knowledge and metrics that can assist you decrease your group’s human threat rating
• Template Generator Agent – Create convincing phishing simulations, together with Callback Phishing, that mimic actual threats. The Advisable Touchdown Pages Agent then suggests applicable touchdown pages based mostly on AI-generated templates
• Automated Coaching Agent – Robotically establish high-risk customers and assign personalised coaching
• Data Refresher Agent and Coverage Quizzes Agent – Reinforce your safety program and organizational insurance policies

See how these highly effective AI-driven options work collectively to dramatically cut back your group’s threat whereas saving your workforce precious time.

Date/Time: TOMORROW, Wednesday, January 7 @ 2:00 PM (ET)

Save My Spot:
https://information.knowbe4.com/kmsat-demo-1?partnerref=CHN2

Expectations for AI in Enterprise in 2026

Seven anticipated basic developments for this new 12 months. Prepare:

Agent-to-agent communications and commerce:
Companies should resolve for shoppers utilizing brokers to assemble info, interact with manufacturers and make purchases. This will alter how we design person experiences on the internet and in apps, and it may quickly evolve advertising, gross sales and buyer expertise methods.

Extra organizations transfer from the Piloting AI part to the Scaling AI part:
The Piloting AI part is outlined by prioritizing and working a restricted variety of pilot tasks with narrowly-defined use instances. Whereas many organizations and departments nonetheless discover themselves right here, an growing variety of companies are getting into the Scaling AI part, which is characterised by AI being infused into each facet of the group (advertising, gross sales, service, operations, product, HR, finance, authorized) to create aggressive benefits, speed up progress and drive innovation.

Adoption of reasoning fashions and capabilities:
Reasoning offers AI fashions the talents to construct plans, suppose logically, analyze conditions, consider proof and resolve issues. As extra professionals and enterprise leaders perceive and apply these capabilities (each understanding and adoption stay very low in enterprises thus far), the way forward for work will start to rework extra quickly.

Investments in AI literacy:
As the potential hole widens, organizations are recognizing that know-how alone is not a silver bullet. Large investments are being made into schooling and coaching packages to drive AI literacy. We outline AI literacy as, “the data, expertise, behaviors and mindset wanted to drive human-centered AI transformation.”

Shift from AI-driven optimization to AI-driven innovation:
Whereas preliminary AI adoption in organizations has centered on reducing prices and streamlining present processes, the following wave is about creation of worth. Optimization is utilizing AI to do the identical issues higher, sooner or cheaper. Innovation is utilizing AI to do new issues that create new types of worth for patrons and the group. Optimization is 10% considering. Innovation is 10x considering.

Customized evals tied to economically precious work:
Normal AI mannequin eval benchmarks are not ample for the enterprise. Companies will more and more construct customized analysis frameworks that measure an AI’s efficiency in opposition to particular enterprise KPIs, duties and workflows relatively than tutorial IQ exams.

AI turns into a default layer in each software program workflow:
AI is shifting from a standalone instrument to a functionality layer embedded throughout the enterprise software program stack. AI fashions are being infused into advertising options, CRMs, ERPs, analytics, HR techniques and repair platforms. We’re getting into the period of “omni intelligence” by which AI is built-in into each a part of our skilled lives.

With grateful acknowledgments to The Synthetic Intelligence Present podcast, which I warmly advocate so that you keep updated. One among my fave pods!:
https://podcast.smarterx.ai/

NEW Deepfake Coaching: Empowering Your Customers to Acknowledge What AI Can Pretend

Your customers are being focused proper now. Deepfake assaults occur each couple of minutes, and practically half of all organizations have already been hit. When a deepfake lands in your person’s inbox, will they spot it or fall for it?

On this session, Perry Carpenter, Chief Human Threat Administration Strategist, and Chris Littlefield, Product Supervisor, pull again the curtain on the following period of social engineering. Deepfakes, AI brokers and artificial narratives are reshaping the risk panorama and conventional coaching not prepares customers for assaults that really feel actual.

You will learn to construct a workforce that stays calm, curious and grounded in reality, even when a rip-off sounds precisely like somebody they belief.

You will discover:

• How attackers use plausibility, framing and myth-direction to make AI-generated impersonations really feel immediately authentic
• Current deepfake and voice-clone incidents that expose the place human judgment faltered—and the way higher cognitive defenses would have modified the end result
• Coaching strategies that construct narrative consciousness and emotional self-regulation, stopping each overreaction and paralysis
• Sensible verifications your workers can apply to acknowledge a faux even when an e mail sounds proper, a voice sounds acquainted or a video “appears to be like shut sufficient”
• NEW! KnowBe4’s Deepfake Coaching Content material reveals find out how to create a customized deepfake coaching expertise that includes your personal leaders to rework summary threat into unforgettable studying moments

You will go away the webinar with the technique and instruments to assist workers acknowledge and validate AI-driven manipulation, plus measurable methods to reveal to management how one can cut back real-world deepfake dangers.

Date/Time: Wednesday, January 14 @ 2:00 PM (ET)

Cannot attend stay? No worries — register now and you’ll obtain a hyperlink to view the presentation on-demand afterwards.

Save My Spot:
https://information.knowbe4.com/new-deepfake-training-na?partnerref=CHN

Most Parked Domains Lead Customers to Scams or Malware

Over 90% of parked domains now direct customers to malicious content material, in comparison with lower than 5% a decade in the past, in accordance with researchers at Infoblox.

“Parking threats are fueled by lookalike domains,” Infoblox defined. “No area is immune. When considered one of our researchers tried to report a criminal offense to the FBI’s Web Crime Criticism Middle (IC3), they by accident visited ic3[.]org as a substitute of ic3[.]gov.

“Their telephone was shortly redirected to a false “Drive Subscription Expired” web page. They had been fortunate to obtain a rip-off; based mostly on what we have learnt, they may simply as simply obtain an info stealer or trojan malware. The actual risk from parked domains comes from their capacity to cover malicious exercise.”

The parked domains themselves might not be malicious, however lots of them are concerned in advanced promoting networks that ultimately redirect customers to scams, scareware or malware downloads.

“On the coronary heart of the matter is a characteristic known as direct search or zero click on parking, which is meant to immediately ship customers related content material based mostly on the parked area title,” the researchers clarify.

“When a site proprietor opts into direct search, site visitors to the area is offered to advertisers who bid on key phrases and site visitors traits. In apply, the location customer is normally funneled by way of a sequence of site visitors distribution techniques (TDSs) operated by third-party promoting platforms, creating a fancy internet the place a authentic enterprise mannequin is weaponized for abuse.”

This complexity makes it tough for technical defenses to forestall customers from ending up on malicious websites. “[T]right here isn’t any clear path to successfully report abuse within the parking ecosystem,” Infoblox says. “Respected parking platforms collect KYC info on their direct prospects, however the risk to web customers and enterprises is usually out of their purview.

“Furthermore, the anti-fraud mechanisms these corporations use inadvertently shield the dangerous advertisers from detection as properly. Lastly, an unintended consequence of Google’s promoting coverage modifications could also be to exacerbate the risk by inflicting area holders to more and more undertake direct search.”

Weblog submit with hyperlinks:
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/most-parked-domains-lead-users-to-scams-or-malware

Determine Weak Person Passwords In Your Group With the Newly Enhanced Weak Password Check

Cybercriminals by no means cease searching for methods to hack into your community, but when your customers’ passwords may be guessed, they’ve made the dangerous actors’ jobs that a lot simpler.

Verizon’s Knowledge Breach Investigations Report confirmed that 81% of hacking-related breaches use both stolen or weak passwords. The Weak Password Check (WPT) is a free instrument to assist IT directors know which customers have passwords which can be simply guessed or vulnerable to brute drive assaults, permitting them to take motion towards defending their group.

Weak Password Check checks the Lively Listing for a number of sorts of weak password-related threats and generates a report of customers with weak passwords.

Here is how Weak Password Check works:

• Connects to Lively Listing to retrieve password desk
• Assessments in opposition to 10 sorts of weak password associated threats
• Shows which customers failed and why
• Doesn’t show or retailer the precise passwords
• Simply obtain, set up and run. Leads to a couple of minutes!

Do not let weak passwords be the downfall of your community safety. Reap the benefits of KnowBe4’s Weak Password Check and achieve invaluable insights into the power of your password protocols.

Obtain Now:
https://information.knowbe4.com/weak-password-test-chn

Pleased New Yr! And let’s keep secure on the market.

Heat regards,

Stu Sjouwerman, SACP
Govt Chairman
KnowBe4, Inc.

PS: Right here’s my newest article as an official member of Forbes Know-how Council:
https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2026/01/02/7-market-research-trends-to-watch-for-in-2026/

PPS: [EYE OPENER] Charted: How World Financial Energy Shifted (1980–2025):
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/charted-how-global-economic-power-shifted-1980-2025/?

“Jagged Intelligence. The phrase I got here up with to explain the (unusual, unintuitive) undeniable fact that cutting-edge LLMs can each carry out extraordinarily spectacular duties (e.g. resolve advanced math issues) whereas concurrently wrestle with some very dumb issues.”

– Andrej Karpaty, (born 1986, OpenAI co-founder)

You may learn CyberheistNews on-line at our Weblog
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/cyberheistnews-vol-16-01-ai-cybersecurity-in-2026-top-10-predictions-for-threats-and-defenses

Amazon Warns of Fraudulent North Korean Job Candidates

Amazon has blocked greater than 1,800 suspected North Korean candidates from becoming a member of the corporate since April 2024, TechRadar reviews. Amazon’s Chief Safety Officer, Stephen Schmidt, stated in a LinkedIn submit that DPRK-linked purposes have elevated by 27% quarter over quarter this 12 months.

“Their LinkedIn methods are getting refined,” Schmidt wrote. “We’re seeing them hijack dormant accounts by way of compromised credentials to realize verification. We have additionally recognized networks the place individuals hand over entry to their accounts in alternate for cost.”

Schmidt stated Amazon has noticed the next indicators related to DPRK candidates:

• “They’re more and more focusing on AI and machine studying roles, doubtless as a result of these are in larger demand as corporations undertake AI.
• These operatives usually work with facilitators managing “laptop computer farms”: U.S. places that obtain shipments and preserve home presence, whereas the employee operates remotely from outdoors the nation.
• Academic backgrounds maintain altering. We have watched the technique shift from East Asian universities, to establishments in no-income-tax states, to now California and New York faculties. We search for levels from faculties that do not supply claimed majors, or dates misaligned with tutorial schedules.”

Schmidt added, “This is not Amazon-specific. That is doubtless occurring at scale throughout the trade.” These fraudulent job candidates use social engineering to acquire distant employment at international corporations, then switch their salaries to the North Korean authorities.

TechRadar cites a current report from Microsoft that discovered that a whole lot of U.S. corporations, together with many Fortune 500 companies, have unknowingly employed these staff. AI-powered safety consciousness coaching offers your group a vital layer of protection in opposition to social engineering assaults.

TechRadar has the story:
https://www.techradar.com/professional/safety/amazon-is-being-reportedly-deluged-with-fake-north-korean-job-applicants

New ConsentFix Method Tips Customers Into Handing Over OAuth Tokens

Researchers at Push Safety have noticed a brand new variant of the ClickFix assault that mixes “OAuth consent phishing with a ClickFix-style person immediate that results in account compromise.”

The approach, which the researchers name “ConsentFix,” tips victims into copying and pasting a localhost URL containing an authorization token, then pasting it right into a phishing web page.

“Authorization code circulation is an OAuth 2.0 protocol for internet purposes to get a person’s permission to entry protected assets,” the researchers clarify.

“When utilizing the authorization code circulation to attach an app, it combines the code with an OAuth secret held by the app in alternate for a token (the dear half). Nonetheless, some apps cannot shield a secret — for instance, apps that run in your cellular system or desktop.

“On this case, the code alone is sufficient to generate an OAuth token, with out the key — which is what’s being exploited right here.”

Within the assaults noticed by Push Safety, the risk actors abused the Azure CLI OAuth app to focus on Microsoft accounts. “Primarily, the attacker tips the sufferer into logging into Azure CLI, by producing an OAuth authorization code — seen in a localhost URL — after which pasting that URL (together with the code) into an attacker-controlled web page,” the researchers write.

“This then creates an OAuth connection between the sufferer’s Microsoft account and the attacker’s Azure CLI occasion.” Push Safety factors out that these assaults are very tough to dam, since they depend on authentic instruments and social engineering ways:

• “The assault occurs fully contained in the browser context, eradicating one of many key detection alternatives for ClickFix (as a result of it does not contact the endpoint).
• Delivering the lure by way of a Google Search watering gap assault fully circumvents email-based anti-phishing controls.
• Concentrating on a first-party app like Azure CLI implies that lots of the mitigating controls accessible for third-party app integrations don’t apply — making this assault means tougher to forestall.
• As a result of there isn’t any login required, phishing-resistant authentication controls like passkeys don’t have any affect on this assault.”

Over 70,000 organizations worldwide belief the KnowBe4 HRM+ platform to strengthen their safety tradition and cut back human threat.

Weblog submit with hyperlinks:
https://weblog.knowbe4.com/new-consentfix-technique-tricks-users-into-handing-over-oauth-tokens

What KnowBe4 Prospects Say

“Hello Bryan, Thanks very a lot in your message, and I can affirm that we’re utilizing your platform with good outcomes right here. Kudos to Damian C., your Buyer Implementation Specialist, who did an awesome job establishing our surroundings.”

– D.P., IT Director

“Hello Bryan, Every little thing has been nice up to now. Yeffry and our onboarding workforce has carried out an awesome job getting us again on the platform, and Lauren on the assist workforce did a unbelievable job serving to me out with a lingering situation that was the results of a few of our earlier KnowBe4 expertise. I’m more than happy with issues up to now and we’re simply getting began. I can’t wait so as to add in a few of the newer options of the platform right here quickly!”

– A.Ok. Vice President, IT and Methods