Cybercrime cost the global economy $10 trillion in 2025. In 2026, AI-powered attacks are making the threat landscape more dangerous than ever. Here is what you need to know.

The Top 5 Threats in 2026

1. AI-Powered Phishing

Traditional phishing emails were easy to spot — poor grammar, generic greetings, suspicious links. AI-generated phishing is different. It is personalised, grammatically perfect, and uses information scraped from your social media to seem legitimate.

How to protect yourself:

  • Verify unexpected requests through a separate channel (call the person directly)
  • Use email security tools that detect AI-generated content
  • Enable multi-factor authentication on all accounts

2. Deepfake Fraud

Deepfake audio and video are being used to impersonate executives and authorise fraudulent transfers. Several Indian companies lost crores in 2025 to deepfake CEO fraud.

How to protect yourself:

  • Establish verbal code words for financial authorisations
  • Require in-person or video verification for large transfers
  • Train employees to recognise deepfake indicators

3. Ransomware-as-a-Service

Ransomware has become a subscription business. Criminal groups sell ransomware kits to less sophisticated attackers, dramatically increasing the volume of attacks.

How to protect yourself:

  • Regular, offline backups (the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 media types, 1 offsite)
  • Patch management — most ransomware exploits known vulnerabilities
  • Network segmentation to limit blast radius

4. Supply Chain Attacks

Attackers are targeting software vendors to compromise their customers. The SolarWinds attack was the template; dozens of similar attacks have followed.

How to protect yourself:

  • Vet your software vendors' security practices
  • Monitor for unusual behaviour from trusted software
  • Implement zero-trust architecture

5. Credential Stuffing

Billions of username/password combinations from past breaches are available on the dark web. Attackers use automated tools to try these credentials across thousands of sites.

How to protect yourself:

  • Use a unique, strong password for every account (use a password manager)
  • Enable multi-factor authentication everywhere
  • Check haveibeenpwned.com to see if your credentials have been exposed