2026 Cyber Readiness: Preparing for AI Attacks and the Quantum Threat

Welcome to 2026. If it feels like the digital ground is shifting under your feet, you aren't alone.

We’ve spent the last few years talking about AI and Quantum computing as these distant, futuristic concepts. But as we kick off this year, that "future" has officially arrived and it brought some baggage. The days of using AI to write our emails are long gone. It’s now rewriting both offensive and defensive cybersecurity playbooks. And while fully capable quantum computers might still be a few years out, the race to protect our data from them has already started.

So, the big question isn't "Is AI dangerous?" We know the answer to that. The real question is: Is your organization actually ready for what’s coming, or do you just feel ready? And perhaps even more critically, can you prove it? 

The Confidence Trap

Here’s the thing about confidence: it can be deceiving.

We see this a lot in the industry. Organizations buy the best tools, hire smart people, and run their standard assessments, drills, exercises, and tests. It feels like enough. In fact, there’s data showing that nearly 94% of organizations believe they’re prepared for a major cyber incident. 

But when you peel back the layers and look at how teams perform in live, high-pressure simulations, the picture changes. Response times stall. Decision-making gets messy. The reality is, there’s often a gap between how ready we think we are and how ready we actually are when the pressure is on.

AI: The Ultimate Test of Speed and Scale

2026 is the year of speed and scale. AI has handed bad actors a cheat code. They can now automate attacks, write code that changes on the fly to dodge detection, and craft social engineering campaigns so convincing they’d fool even the biggest skeptic.

The problem? Many organizations are still practicing against old tactics and known threats.

A lot of cybersecurity training still revolves around vulnerabilities that are years old—things like Log4Shell from way back in 2021. While patching old bugs is responsible, it doesn't prepare your team for an AI-generated attack that behaves unlike anything they’ve seen before. If your team is great at spotting a classic phishing attempt but freezes up when faced with a sophisticated, AI-driven social engineering campaign, that’s a problem.

The Quantum Elephant in the Room

Then there’s Quantum. It sounds intimidating, but the risk right now can be simply summarized as: Harvest Now, Decrypt Later.

Attackers know that quantum computers will eventually be able to break today’s encryption. So, they aren't waiting. They’re stealing encrypted data now and storing it, planning to unlock it once the technology matures.

You don’t need a physics degree to be ready for Quantum. You just need to know exactly where your sensitive data lives exactly where your sensitive data lives across your supply chain/ecosystem and have a plan to update your cryptographic standards quickly when the time comes. It’s all about agility. If it takes your organization weeks to patch a standard software bug, imagine the chaos of trying to upgrade your entire security infrastructure overnight.

Three Ways to Get Truly Ready

So, how do we move from feeling ready to actually being ready in 2026?

1. Practice What You’re Bad At: Stop re-playing the "Greatest Hits" of 2020 vulnerabilities. Challenge your teams with scenarios they haven’t seen yet. Throw them into simulations involving AI-generated threats or complex supply chain attacks. You want them to struggle and learn in a safe environment, not during a real breach.
2. Get Everyone in the Game: Cybersecurity isn't just for IT and engineering teams. In a real crisis, you need Legal, HR, and Comms to make fast, accurate decisions. If they’ve never practiced with the technical team, they will slow you down and vice versa. Bring everyone into the fold.
3. Be Honest About Your Skills: Move away from "participation trophies" (i.e., just completing a training module) and look at resilience. Can your team actually contain a threat?  Is your business ready to react and recover? How long does it take them to make a decision, let alone action that decision? Use data to find your weak spots before an adversary does.

Looking Ahead

2026 is going to be a year of rapid change. The organizations that thrive won't be the ones with the most expensive tools, they'll be the ones that are agile, honest about their gaps, and constantly practicing for the next threat, not the last one.

Want to dig deeper into what 2026 has in store?

Join us for our upcoming webinar, The Cyber Readiness Outlook: 2025 Threat Reflection and 2026 Forecast. We’ll cut through the noise, talk about what the data is really telling us, and give you a roadmap for navigating the AI and Quantum era.

Register Now

‍