Cybersecurity 2026 | The Year Ahead in AI, Adversaries, and Global Change

SentinelLabs’ 2026 outlook predicts AI will collapse the gap between vulnerable and compromised systems, drive consolidation of AI vendors, and fuel dual-use, region-censored models, while cybercrime shifts to cartelized services, exfiltration-only extortion, tighter IAB partnerships, and increased automation and coercion; it highlights growing state-aligned activity around a Venezuela flashpoint, China’s new Five-Year Plan guiding espionage targets, DPRK’s likely AI-driven surprises, macOS living-off-the-land via AppleScript/AS-ObjC and abused Developer IDs, and Zero-Trust/SaaS identity abuse (OAuth) as key attack vectors, urging AI-native defenses, stronger telemetry, and rigorous identity, cloud, and endpoint security.