Automation, AI, and Scale Will Define the Next Phase of the Global Cyberthreat Landscape
By Derek Manky, Chief Security Strategist and Global Vice-President, Threat Intelligence, Fortinet
Each year, FortiGuard Labs analyzes how technology, economics, and human behavior shape global cyber risk. The 2026 Cyberthreat Predictions Report outlines a turning point in that evolution. Cybercrime will continue to evolve into an organized industry, built on automation, specialization, and artificial intelligence (AI). But in 2026, success in both offense and defense will be determined less by innovation than by throughput: how quickly intelligence can be turned into action.
From Innovation to Throughput
Because AI, automation, and a mature cybercrime supply chain will make intrusion faster and easier than ever, attackers will spend less time inventing new tools and more time refining and automating techniques that already work. AI systems will manage reconnaissance, accelerate intrusion, parse stolen data, and generate ransom negotiations. At the same time, autonomous cybercrime agents on the dark web will begin executing entire attack stages with minimal human oversight.
These shifts will exponentially expand attacker capacity. A ransomware affiliate that once managed a handful of campaigns will soon be able to launch dozens in parallel. And the time between intrusion and impact will shrink from days to minutes, making speed the defining risk factor for organizations in 2026.
The Next Generation of Offense
FortiGuard Labs expects to see the emergence of specialized AI agents designed to assist cybercriminal operations. Although these agents will not yet operate independently, they will begin to automate and enhance critical stages of the attack chain, including credential theft, lateral movement, and data monetization.
At the same time, AI will accelerate the monetization of data. Once attackers gain access to stolen databases, AI tools will instantly analyze and prioritize them, determine which victims offer the highest return, and generate personalized extortion messages. As a result, data will become currency faster than ever before.
The underground economy will also become more structured. Botnet and credential-rental services will become increasingly tailored in 2026. Data enrichment and automation will enable sellers to offer more specific access packages based on industry, geography, and system profile, replacing the generic bundles that dominate today’s underground markets. Black markets will adopt customer service, reputation scoring, and automated escrow. Due to these innovations, cybercrime will accelerate its evolution toward full industrialization.
The Evolution of Defense
Defenders will need to respond with the same efficiency and coordination. In 2026, security operations will move closer to what FortiGuard Labs describes as 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 need to be leveraged so defenders can quickly map active threats, identify exposures, and prioritize remediation based on live data. Identity will also need to become the foundation of security operations, as organizations will need to not only authenticate people but also automated agents, AI processes, and machine-to-machine interactions.
Managing these non-human identities will become critical to preventing large-scale privilege escalation and data exposure.
Collaboration and Deterrence
Industrialized cybercrime will also demand a more 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 initiatives, such as the Fortinet-Crime Stoppers International Cybercrime Bounty program, will enable global communities to safely report cyberthreats, helping to scale deterrence and accountability.
FortiGuard Labs also expects to see continued investment in education and deterrence programs that target young or at-risk populations who are being drawn into online crime. Preventing the next generation of cybercriminals will depend on redirecting them before they enter the ecosystem.
Looking Ahead
By 2027, cybercrime is expected to function at a scale comparable to legitimate global industries. FortiGuard Labs predicts further automation of offensive operations through agentic AI models, where swarm-based agents will begin coordinating tasks semi-autonomously and adapting to defender behavior, alongside increasingly sophisticated supply-chain attacks targeting AI and embedded systems.
Defenders will need to evolve as well, 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 the ones best able to withstand what comes next.
Read the full Fortinet 2026 Cyberthreat Predictions report to explore detailed forecasts, sector-specific insights, and strategies for building resilience in the era of industrialized cybercrime.