The Cyber Readiness Outlook: 2025 Threat Reflections and 2026 Forecast

The 2025 threat landscape didn't just evolve; it accelerated at a rate that left traditional "check-the-box" compliance in the rearview mirror. As we step into 2026, many C-suite executives are sitting on a dangerous cushion of perceived readiness, yet remain one incident away from discovering the gap between how a team expects to perform and how they actually react when a ransom note hits the screen.

I recently sat down with my colleagues at Immersive to dissect the 2025 fallout and forecast the 2026 horizon. Our discussion centered on a single, uncomfortable truth: Confidence is not a capability. To survive this year, resilience must move from a theoretical plan to a continuous, hands-on practice.
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Quantum Computing and AI Are Accelerating Risks
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Our conversation began with the breakneck pace of AI research and its ripple effects on the future of encryption. Kev Marriott, Senior Manager of Cyber at Immersive, pointed out that AI isn't just a tool for productivity; it’s a catalyst accelerating progress in fields like quantum computing. This means the security challenges we once categorized as "five to ten years away" are arriving on our doorstep today.

This acceleration has a sobering legal dimension. Ben McCarthy, our Lead Cyber Security Engineer, shared a recent dialogue with a GDPR expert regarding the vulnerability of encrypted data. The takeaway was a wake-up call for any leader: if encrypted data is stolen today and decrypted by quantum means tomorrow, it could be classified as a second breach. This creates a "double whammy" of regulatory exposure. In 2026, the directive is clear: post-quantum cryptography is no longer a "future" project; it is a present-day mandate.

Organizations need to start thinking seriously about post-quantum cryptography today, not tomorrow. The time to act is now.
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AI Is Transformational… But Comes With Risks
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The promise of AI in 2026 is undeniable, it is a miracle for productivity and a catalyst for rapid innovation. Dave Spencer noted that the danger isn't just in the technology itself, but in the "competency debt" it creates. When we automate the baseline, we risk losing the foundational skills that allow us to step in when the automation fails.

To navigate this, we identified several critical areas where organizations are currently introducing unmanaged risk:

• Skill erosion: Junior staff may miss the essential "trial-by-fire" learning opportunities if AI handles their entry-level work. Without those reps, they fail to develop the technical intuition needed for senior roles.
• Compromised models: Hijacked or poisoned AI models can lead to costly operational setbacks that go undetected for weeks.
• Shadow AI: Unmonitored AI tools deployed across disparate departments create unpredictable blind spots, leaving security teams blind to where proprietary data is being processed.
• Data exfiltration & extortion: Threat actors have evolved; they are now leveraging stolen data to train their own malicious AI models, compounding the long-term risk of every breach.

The consensus was that AI should always augment humans, not replace human oversight. As we move deeper into 2026, the strategy must shift. It’s about implementing strict guardrails and clear policies, but more importantly, it's about ensuring your people remain sharp. Resilience in the age of AI means providing teams with the hands-on experience to recognize when a model has been compromised, turning a potential "Aha!" moment of failure into a demonstrated moment of defense.
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Human Risk Management: Muscle Memory Matters
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We then shifted to the core of the Immersive philosophy: the transition from compliance-driven training to performance-based readiness. Dave Spencer, our Director of Technical Product Management, challenged the industry's reliance on static playbooks. He noted that in the heat of a live incident, effectiveness comes from repeated practice, not from flipping through a binder. As he put it:

“If you're not building muscle memory and you're reliant on a playbook, you’re already behind. For many years running incident response, the first thing we didn’t do was pull out a playbook and ask how to deal with it. We relied on the experience of the people in the room—people who had been through these incidents before—to drive us forward.”

This is the "Aha!" moment for 2026: Readiness is a team sport. By practicing as a unified front before the incident occurs, response becomes instinctive rather than reactive.
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Supply Chain and Collaborative Exercises
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OOur conversation then shifted to a reality that many boards are still struggling to grasp: in 2026, your perimeter is only as strong as your least-secure partner. Dave Spencer noted that the era of the "security questionnaire" as a primary defense is over. These static assessments create a false sense of security where compliance is documented but actual resilience remains untested.

"Interconnectivity is no longer just a business advantage; it's a systemic vulnerability," Dave shared. He emphasized that when a breach occurs upstream, the fallout doesn't wait for your team to find the right page in a playbook. It ripples through your ecosystem at machine speed.

That’s where live-fire practice becomes essential. It’s not enough to run a tabletop exercise in a vacuum. You need to see how your technical responders, your procurement team, and your key vendors perform under real, "live-fire" conditions. With Immersive’s Dynamic Threat Ranges, organizations can now:

• Stress-test their supply chain with live attack scenarios that mirror real-world campaigns seen in 2025.
• Measure performance metrics like Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) and Mean Time to Contain (MTTC) across the partner ecosystem.
• Identify communication bottlenecks that only emerge when the pressure is high and the "trusted" connections start to fail.

The discussion underscored that collaboration isn’t optional. Practicing together and building shared muscle memory across partners ensures faster, more coordinated responses, reducing the risk that missteps or delays ripple through the broader ecosystem. The goal here isn't just to find flaws; it’s to build the shared muscle memory that ensures your partners act as an extension of your defense, rather than the entry point for your next crisis.
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Emerging Threats in AI Platforms
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As we looked toward the specific technical hurdles of 2026, the team focused on the growing importance of AI in cybersecurity and the unique risks it introduces. Ben McCarthy pointed out that while we’ve spent years worrying about data leaks, the new frontier is "Agency Abuse."

Attackers are now finding ways to exploit familiar vulnerabilities, like Local File Inclusion (LFI), to hijack the logic of these AI agents. To help teams get ahead of this, we showcased our AI Prompt Injection Lab. The lab provides a safe, hands-on environment where participants can explore realistic attack scenarios, experiment with mitigation strategies, and see how AI can be manipulated in practice. By engaging directly with these challenges, teams can better understand the mechanics of AI-based threats and the impact they could have on their organization.

Kev Marriott reinforced that experiential learning is the only antidote to these emerging threats. "You can read a whitepaper on prompt injection, but until you’ve actually tried to jailbreak a model yourself in a controlled lab, you don't truly understand the mechanics of the risk," he noted. By engaging directly with these scenarios, teams move beyond awareness and into a state of proven capability, ensuring they are ready to defend AI production environments before they go live.
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Building Resilience for 2026 
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As we kick off 2026, there are a few crucial realities cybersecurity teams need to accept. Threats are faster, more sophisticated, and more interconnected than ever, which means check-box approaches aren’t enough.

Readiness must be demonstrated, not declared. Building muscle memory through realistic, continuous exercises and focusing on human risk management are what truly prepare teams for real incidents.

AI is transforming how organizations operate, but it brings new risks alongside its productivity gains. Strong oversight, guardrails, and hands-on learning are essential to stay ahead of emerging threats. In short: readiness in 2026 means proven capability, practiced responses, and a culture of continuous improvement.

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Get ahead of 2026 security challenges by diving into our AI Prompt Injection Lab. It’s a safe, interactive sandbox designed for you to experiment with manipulation tactics and develop proven strategies to protect your AI deployments."

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