Blog, Cyber Security

What Did We Learn From the 2026 Global Threat Report?

By Jenta Tech

Published in 2026

Cybercriminals Are Moving at Machine Speed

Artificial intelligence is changing how businesses operate. It can write code, automate repetitive tasks, analyze data in seconds, and even help IT teams respond to security incidents faster than ever before. For many organizations, AI has become another employee, one that never sleeps.

Unfortunately, cybercriminals are embracing the same technology.

According to the CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report, attackers are using AI to scale familiar attacks, speed up their operations, and exploit organizations before security teams have time to react. The report paints a clear picture. Modern cyberattacks are not just becoming more sophisticated. They are becoming dramatically faster.

Here are some of the biggest cybersecurity trends every business should understand.

Artificial Intelligence Is Giving Attackers a Major Advantage

AI has not replaced hackers, but it has made them significantly more effective.

Instead of spending hours writing convincing phishing emails or researching potential victims, attackers can now use AI to generate personalized messages in seconds. Fake job offers, business emails, customer support conversations, and even voice or video impersonations have become increasingly believable.

The CrowdStrike report found that AI related cyber activity increased by nearly 90 percent during 2025, highlighting how quickly attackers are integrating these tools into their operations.

AI is also lowering the barrier to entry. Someone with limited technical experience can now generate scripts, malware, or exploit code that previously required years of programming knowledge.

Nation state threat groups are taking things even further. Some have developed AI assisted reconnaissance tools capable of mapping corporate environments, identifying vulnerabilities, and accelerating the early stages of an intrusion.

Businesses should also remember that AI systems themselves are becoming targets. Attackers are experimenting with techniques such as prompt injection and data manipulation to trick AI powered assistants into exposing sensitive information or bypassing security controls.

Malware Is No Longer the Primary Threat

For decades, cybersecurity focused on stopping viruses and malicious software downloads.

Today’s attackers often skip malware entirely.

CrowdStrike reports that roughly 82 percent of detected cyber intrusions in 2025 were malware free. Rather than infecting a computer, attackers simply log in using legitimate credentials obtained through phishing, password theft, or stolen authentication tokens.

Once inside, they rely on the same administrative tools your IT department uses every day. From a security perspective, their activity can look almost identical to that of a normal employee.

This approach is often called a “living off the land” attack because criminals use existing software already installed within the environment instead of bringing in their own malicious programs.

The result is an attack that is much harder to detect using traditional antivirus software.

Attackers Are Moving Faster Than Ever

Perhaps the most alarming statistic in the report is not how attackers get in. It is how quickly they move after they do.

The average breakout time, which is the period between an initial compromise and an attacker expanding into other systems, fell to just 29 minutes.

In the fastest incident CrowdStrike observed, lateral movement began in only 27 seconds, while data theft started less than four minutes after the initial compromise.

Those numbers leave very little room for manual investigation.

If a security team does not discover suspicious activity until an hour later, the attacker may have already accessed critical systems, stolen sensitive information, or deployed ransomware.

Speed has become one of the most valuable weapons in modern cybercrime.

Ransomware Groups Are Looking for Easier Targets

Ransomware continues to evolve.

Rather than attacking well managed corporate laptops protected by endpoint security tools, many ransomware operators are searching for weaker entry points.

These can include:

Personal devices connected to business resources
Poorly secured cloud accounts
Virtual infrastructure
Backup systems
Unmanaged devices on the network

Some groups now use remote encryption techniques that allow them to encrypt files from another system on the network instead of directly on the protected computer. This can reduce the chances of triggering endpoint security software before damage is done.

Others focus on compromising backup infrastructure first. If backups are unavailable or encrypted alongside production data, organizations have far fewer recovery options.

Internet Facing Devices Have Become Prime Targets

Firewalls, VPN appliances, routers, and other edge devices continue to attract significant attention from advanced threat groups.

These systems sit directly between your internal network and the internet, making them valuable entry points.

The CrowdStrike report notes that Chinese state sponsored threat actors heavily targeted vulnerabilities affecting internet facing infrastructure throughout 2025. Once a new security flaw became public, attackers often attempted to exploit it before organizations had finished applying patches.

Many businesses maintain strong endpoint protection while overlooking network appliances that may go months without firmware updates.

Keeping these devices fully patched has become just as important as securing employee computers.

Open Source Software Is Becoming a Supply Chain Risk

Most modern software relies on open source components.

That dependence creates an opportunity for attackers.

Instead of attacking thousands of organizations individually, criminals increasingly target software developers or publish malicious packages that appear legitimate. Once those packages are downloaded and incorporated into applications, the compromise spreads to every organization using them.

North Korean threat groups have been particularly active in software supply chain attacks and cryptocurrency theft. One widely reported campaign involved social engineering a software developer into running a malicious project, ultimately contributing to the theft of approximately $1.46 billion from a cryptocurrency platform.

Developers should carefully verify third party libraries, monitor dependencies, and limit the privileges granted to development environments to reduce this risk.

What This Means for Businesses

The cybersecurity landscape is changing in one important way. Attackers are operating at machine speed.

When criminals can compromise an account, move across a network, and begin stealing data in minutes, traditional security practices are no longer enough on their own.

Strong cybersecurity today requires multiple layers of protection, including:

Multi factor authentication across all business accounts
Continuous monitoring for unusual account activity
Rapid patch management for internet facing systems
Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
Identity protection and privileged access management
Regular employee security awareness training
Tested backup and disaster recovery plans

No single security product can stop every attack, but organizations that combine proactive monitoring, automation, and modern identity security are in a much stronger position to detect and contain threats before they become major incidents.

The reality is simple. AI is transforming cybersecurity for both defenders and attackers. Businesses that continue relying on yesterday’s security strategies will find it increasingly difficult to keep pace with today’s machine speed threats. Investing in modern security tools, maintaining strong cyber hygiene, and staying ahead of emerging attack techniques are no longer optional. They are essential for protecting your business in an AI driven world.