Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026

The Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 highlights a metamorphic threat environment where AI accelerates both cyberattacks and defenses. Geopolitical fragmentation is driving a shift toward digital sovereignty and intelligence-driven collaboration, while cyber-enabled fraud has overtaken ransomware as the primary concern for CEOs. The report emphasizes a widening 'cyber inequity' gap, where smaller organizations and emerging economies lack the skills and resources to maintain baseline resilience. It also warns of emerging risks by 2030, including vulnerabilities in autonomous robotics, space infrastructure, and the transition to post-quantum cryptography.

• Artificial intelligence is viewed by 94% of survey respondents as the most significant driver of change in cybersecurity for the coming year. While 77% of organizations have adopted AI for cybersecurity—primarily for phishing detection (52%), intrusion response (46%), and user-behaviour analytics (40%)—87% of respondents identify AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk of 2025.
• There is a divergence in risk perception between executive leadership and technical security officers. CEOs now rank cyber-enabled fraud and phishing as their top concern, followed by AI vulnerabilities. In contrast, Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) continue to prioritize ransomware attacks and supply chain disruption.
• Geopolitical volatility is a primary driver of cybersecurity strategy, with 64% of organizations accounting for geopolitically motivated attacks such as espionage or critical infrastructure disruption. Among the largest organizations (over 100,000 employees), 91% have evolved their strategies due to this volatility, often by increasing focus on nation-state threat intelligence.
• Confidence in national preparedness to respond to major cyber incidents targeting critical infrastructure is eroding, with 31% of respondents reporting low confidence, up from 26% the previous year. Regional disparities are stark: 84% of respondents in the Middle East and North Africa are confident, while only 13% in Latin America and the Caribbean express confidence.
• Cyber-enabled fraud is reaching record levels, with 73% of respondents reporting that they or someone in their network were personally affected in 2025. Sub-Saharan Africa (82%) and North America (79%) report the highest exposure to digital scams.
• A significant 'cyber inequity' gap exists based on organization size and sector. Small organizations are twice as likely to have insufficient resilience as large ones. Furthermore, NGOs (37%) and the public sector (23%) report higher rates of insufficient resilience compared to the private sector (11%).
• Cybersecurity skills shortages are a primary driver of inequity, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean (65%) and sub-Saharan Africa (63%). 85% of organizations with insufficient resilience cite missing critical skills as a major challenge, compared to only 22% of highly resilient organizations.
• Supply chain vulnerabilities are a critical concern, with 65% of large companies identifying them as their greatest challenge to resilience. The top identified risk is 'inheritance risk' (the inability to assure the integrity of third-party software, hardware, and services), followed by a lack of visibility into the extended supply chain.
• The report identifies several emerging threat vectors expected to be significant by 2030: autonomous systems and robotics (creating cyber-physical risks), digital currencies (potential for systemic liquidity shocks), and space/undersea cable infrastructure (which carries 99% of international data traffic).
• Quantum technologies are expected to move from theoretical disruptors to material threats to cryptography by 2030. While 37% of respondents believe quantum will affect cybersecurity within the next 12 months, the greatest systemic exposure is expected from legacy encryption in industrial systems that cannot easily migrate.
• The economic impact of cyberattacks is substantial; for example, a 2025 attack on Jaguar Land Rover resulted in £196 million in direct costs and an estimated £1.9 billion in losses to the wider UK economy.

APA

World Economic Forum (2026). Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2026.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026. 2026. https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2026.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 |date=January 2026 |url=https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2026.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2026global, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2026}, month = jan, url = {https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2026.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }