Fortinet’s 2026 Cyberthreat Predictions

Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs has released its 2026 Cyberthreat Predictions Report, painting a picture of a cybersecurity landscape defined by speed, scale, and industrialization. The report emphasizes that cybercrime is evolving into a structured industry, driven by automation, specialization, and artificial intelligence (AI). In this new era, success for both attackers and defenders will hinge less on innovation and more on throughput—how quickly intelligence can be converted into action.

 

From Innovation to Throughput

The report highlights a fundamental shift: attackers will increasingly rely on refining and automating proven techniques rather than inventing new ones. AI systems will manage reconnaissance, accelerate intrusions, parse stolen data, and even generate ransom negotiations. Autonomous cybercrime agents operating on the dark web will begin executing entire attack stages with minimal human oversight.

This acceleration will exponentially expand attacker capacity. A ransomware affiliate that once managed a handful of campaigns will soon be able to launch dozens simultaneously. The time between intrusion and impact will shrink from days to mere minutes, making speed the defining risk factor for organizations in 2026.

Jonas Walker, Director of Threat Intelligence for APAC & Middle East at FortiGuard Labs, underscores this reality: “The findings clearly show that cybercrime is no longer an opportunistic activity, it is an industrialized system operating at machine speed. As automation, specialization, and AI redefine every stage of the attack lifecycle, the time between compromise and consequence continues to collapse. The road ahead will be shaped by how quickly defenders can adapt to this reality. Cybersecurity has become a race of systems, not individuals, and organizations will need integrated intelligence, continuous validation, and real-time response to stay ahead of adversaries who measure success by throughput, not novelty.”

 

The Next Generation of Offense

FortiGuard Labs predicts the rise of specialized AI agents designed to assist cybercriminal operations. While these agents will not yet operate fully independently, they will automate critical stages of the attack chain, including credential theft, lateral movement, and data monetization.

AI will also accelerate the monetization of stolen data. Once attackers gain access to databases, AI tools will instantly analyze and prioritize them, identifying victims with the highest potential return and generating personalized extortion messages. Data will effectively become currency faster than ever before.

The underground economy will become more structured and professionalized. Botnet and credential-rental services will be increasingly tailored, offering access packages based on industry, geography, and system profile. Black markets will adopt customer service, reputation scoring, and automated escrow systems, further cementing cybercrime’s evolution into a full-fledged industry.

 

The Evolution of Defense

Defenders will need to match this efficiency with machine-speed defense—a continuous process of intelligence, validation, and containment that compresses detection and response from hours to minutes. Frameworks such as continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) and MITRE ATT&CK will be critical, enabling defenders to quickly map active threats, identify exposures, and prioritize remediation in real time.

Identity will become the foundation of security operations. Organizations will need to authenticate not only human users but also automated agents, AI processes, and machine-to-machine interactions. Managing these non-human identities will be essential to preventing privilege escalation and large-scale data exposure.

Bambi Escalante, Fortinet Philippines Country Manager, emphasizes the urgency of this shift: “For defenders, the shift we are seeing is profound. Static configurations and periodic assessments can’t keep pace with an environment where attackers automate reconnaissance, privilege escalation, and extortion in minutes. What organizations need is a unified, adaptive security posture, one that brings together threat intelligence, exposure management, and incident response into a continuous, AI-enabled workflow. At Fortinet, our focus is on helping customers build this level of resilience so they can act at the same speed as the threats they face and strengthen their ability to contain attacks before disruption occurs.”

 

Collaboration and Deterrence

Industrialized cybercrime will demand a coordinated global response. Initiatives such as INTERPOL’s Operation Serengeti 2.0, supported by Fortinet and other private-sector partners, demonstrate how joint intelligence sharing and targeted disruption can dismantle criminal infrastructure. New programs, such as the Fortinet-Crime Stoppers International Cybercrime Bounty initiative, will empower communities to safely report cyberthreats, scaling deterrence and accountability.

Education and deterrence programs will also play a vital role, particularly those targeting young or at-risk populations who may be drawn into online crime. Preventing the next generation of cybercriminals will depend on redirecting them before they enter the ecosystem.

 

Looking Ahead

By 2027, FortiGuard Labs predicts cybercrime will operate at a scale comparable to legitimate global industries. Offensive operations will become further automated through agentic AI models, with swarm-based agents coordinating tasks semi-autonomously and adapting to defender behavior. Supply-chain attacks will increasingly target AI and embedded systems.

Defenders will need to evolve in parallel, leveraging predictive intelligence, automation, and exposure management to contain incidents faster and anticipate adversary behavior. The next stage of cybersecurity will depend on how effectively humans and machines can operate together as adaptive systems.

Velocity and scale will define the decade ahead. Organizations that unify intelligence, automation, and human expertise into a single, responsive system will be best positioned to withstand the challenges of industrialized cybercrime.

 

Read the full Fortinet Cyberthreat Predictions for 2026 report to explore detailed forecasts, sector-specific insights, and strategies for building resilience in the era of industrialized cybercrime.