Security Priorities for 2026

Why now? Security can't wait. 

Digital trust has become a material enterprise risk, not a technical concern. AI is moving from experimentation into core operations, autonomous systems are acting at machine speed, regulatory expectations are expanding and diverging globally, and adversaries are exploiting the same technologies organizations depend on to grow. At the same time, recovery expectations from customers, regulators and insurers have hardened, and encrypted data collected today may be exposed in the future by quantum advances. These forces are converging, compressing decision windows and raising the cost of delay. 

The six priorities outlined in this report are not independent initiatives; together, they define the minimum posture required for Fortune 500 enterprises to operate with confidence, maintain regulatory defensibility, and preserve trust at scale in an increasingly volatile digital environment.

Security leaders face a new era of accelerated risk

In 2026, enterprise security sits at the intersection of rapid technological change and growing global complexity. Advances in AI, autonomous systems and early signs of quantum disruption are reshaping how organizations operate and defend themselves.

Adversaries now move with speed and scale that outpace traditional security models, shrinking the time leaders have to detect, decide and act. AI‑driven systems underpin customer experiences and mission‑critical operations, introducing opaque supply chains and new attack surfaces that blend human and machine behavior.

Deepfake‑powered impersonation and harvest‑now, decrypt‑later campaigns are eroding identity assurance and threatening long‑term confidentiality. Trust must be continuously verified and reinforced across the enterprise.

At the same time, regulatory expectations continue to expand, increasing the scrutiny of AI use, data protection, resilience, reporting and board oversight. Security leaders must demonstrate defensibility and transparency while still enabling innovation. Governance, accountability and architectural resilience are now inseparable elements of digital trust.

To meet this moment, organizations must move beyond static, perimeter‑based defenses and build adaptive, intelligence‑driven security ecosystems that integrate cybersecurity, resilience and business continuity. Programs must be able to absorb disruption, restore operations quickly and support innovation without unnecessary friction. This requires maturity across AI governance, cyber resilience, zero‑trust execution, SOC modernization and long‑term cryptographic readiness.

This year's Security Priorities for 2026 report offers a practical roadmap to do exactly that. The six priorities highlighted here define the most critical areas for leaders seeking to strengthen trust, reduce risk and build a security‑enabled enterprise prepared for what comes next:

1. Strengthen enterprise AI security and governance
2. Mature your cybersecurity governance program
3. Build a comprehensive cyber resilience and recovery strategy
4. Operationalize zero trust to reduce risk and improve resilience
5. Modernize the SOC for autonomous, data-driven defense
6. Prepare for post-quantum risk and crypto-agile security