In this special edition, Tenable leaders forecast key 2026 trends, including: AI will make attacks more plentiful and less costly; machine identities will become the top cloud risk; preemptive cloud and exposure management will dethrone runtime detection; and automated remediation gets the go-ahead.

1 - AI won’t spawn new attack vectors in 2026

Is artificial intelligence (AI) about to unleash a wave of never-before-seen cyber attacks? Not quite. While the hype machine might suggest otherwise, the reality for 2026 is grounded in a familiar truth: most bad actors are opportunists looking for low-hanging fruit. They don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Rather, they’re looking for easy wins that yield big gains with minimal effort. 

“AI is not a magic wand; it supercharges traditional attack methods,” Tenable Chief Product Officer Eric Doerr says. “It will drive down the cost of attack generation and increase the volume, and it might even find a new zero day or two, but it’s not finding novel attack techniques.”

In response, cyber teams should double down on foundational cybersecurity practices to combat these high-volume, AI-enhanced threats.
 

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As Doerr explains: "At the end of the day, cybersecurity is a numbers game and AI broadens attackers’ canvas. Basic cyber hygiene remains the best defense." 

Prediction: In 2026, as attackers increase their use of AI, cyber attacks will grow in number and become less expensive to launch. However, attackers won’t leverage AI to create new attack vectors. 

2 - Automatic remediation will get the green light

For years, the idea of letting a machine automatically fix a security issue has been considered verboten. But in 2026, can we afford to keep "automatic" on the forbidden list? The expanding attack surface and the velocity of threats are forcing a reevaluation of this well-established no-no. 

“Automatic remediation, mobilization, and mitigation are no longer forbidden,” Tenable Chief Security Officer Robert Huber says. 

Embracing automation not just for detection, but for the actual fixing of problems, represents a major cultural change in cybersecurity, moving trust from human hands to automated systems.
 

^{Tenable Chief Security Officer Robert Huber}

“For years, teams have been hesitant to automatically remediate, but I believe that to keep pace with the threat and expansion of the attack surface, teams will start to defy that long-held belief that automatic is forbidden,” he adds.

Prediction: In 2026, teams will rethink the tenet that automatic remediation is too risky to implement, as manual remediation proves unsustainable for most organizations that want to stay ahead of the curve and manage their cyber risk effectively without overwhelming their security pros.

3 - Cloud security focus shifts from runtime detection to prevention-first strategies

Is the industry finally moving past the idea that runtime detection is a silver bullet? We think so. Heading into 2026, security leaders are increasingly recognizing that many cloud breaches begin well before runtime, and will look to build a resilient defense via a broader, preemptive approach. 

“The 2025 hype that runtime detection is the only thing that matters and could replace posture or identity analysis will fade in 2026,” says Liat Hayun, Tenable Senior Vice President of Product Management and Research.
 

^{Liat Hayun, Tenable Senior Vice President of Product Management and Research}

“Runtime-only tools miss most attack paths because identity abuse and misconfigurations occur long before anything reaches runtime. Runtime will remain important, but it won’t replace CNAPP or exposure management – it’ll be another data source inside a broader prevention-first approach,” she adds.

Prediction: The narrative that runtime detection can supersede identity and posture analysis will rapidly lose steam in 2026. Instead, runtime tools will function as a complementary data input, reinforcing a security architecture that is anchored on a CNAPP and an exposure management platform and that preemptively identifies and mitigates risks.

4 - Acceleration becomes the single biggest threat to your organization

Can your security team move faster than a lightning-quick AI-driven attack? In 2026, attack speed will become the greatest challenge for cyber defenders. As attackers leverage automation to compress the attack lifecycle, the window for effective response shrinks. 

“The who, what, how, and why of an attack don’t matter because AI-fueled attacks start and end before a ticket is even created,” Doerr says.
 

That’s why organizations must make it a priority to quickly set up preemptive security programs. Otherwise, they leave themselves exposed to cyber risks that traditional, reactive methods simply can’t mitigate. “Proactive defense makes speed obsolete,” he says.

Prediction: In 2026, AI-fueled acceleration will become adversaries’ primary weapon, rendering reactive security measures ineffective. In response, cyber teams must shift to proactive cyber prevention, which eliminates exposures before they can be exploited, neutralizing the speed advantage that AI provides to cyber criminals.

5 - CISOs will embrace AI security tools built in-house

As we move past the novelty phase of generative AI, 2026 will mark a shift toward the utility of agentic AI, and with it a growing appreciation for custom-made AI security tools tailored for an organization’s specific needs.

Complementing off-the-shelf AI products with tools built in-house will allow for more precise, effective security workflows and processes that can lessen the burden on overworked cyber pros.
 

“When implemented and designed with care, custom-made AI tools will transform security operations and alleviate pain points that lead to burnout,” Huber says.

Prediction: In 2026, rather than relying solely on commercial AI security tools, CISOs will direct their teams to build their own AI wares tailored to their organization's unique challenges. These customized AI tools will, in turn, sharpen their cybersecurity programs and lighten the workload on their staff.

6 - Non-human identities will become the top cloud breach vector

Machine identities now outnumber human users by many orders of magnitude. This explosion of non-human identities (NHIs) is creating a massive, stealthy attack surface. In 2026, these billions of service accounts, keys, and tokens are set to become the primary vector for cloud breaches.

“The core problem is no longer misconfigs or missing patches. It’ll be billions of unseen, over-permissioned machine identities that attackers – or autonomous agentic AI – will leverage for silent, undetectable lateral movement,” Hayun says.
 

“CISOs will be forced to pivot massive spending toward permissions governance and large-scale cleanup as machine-identity sprawl has rendered cloud environments truly unmanageable,” she adds.

Prediction: NHIs will decisively become the number one cloud breach vector in 2026, a trend driven by myriad machine identities with excessive privileges. As a result, CISOs will need to prioritize getting this vast landscape of machine identities under control by strengthening identity and access management (IAM) governance and execution.