Cyber Security Threats in 2026: What to Test First

Unit 42's 2026 incident response report says identity weaknesses played a material role in almost 90% of the investigations it handled: stolen credentials and tokens used to log in, then used again to escalate and move sideways. Microsoft's Digital Defense Report 2026 calls identity the primary control plane for defense, covering people, applications and automated agents. Attackers do not need to break in if they can log in.

Test: password policies and spraying resistance, multi-factor coverage, token lifetime, over-privileged accounts and service accounts, and Active Directory attack paths.

CrowdStrike's 2026 Global Threat Report puts the average time between initial access and lateral movement at 29 minutes for criminal groups, 65% faster than the year before. Unit 42 also reports that the fastest data theft got quicker. A weekly review of alerts is not a defense against this speed.

Test: whether your monitoring would notice an intruder within minutes, and whether the network is segmented so a first foothold cannot reach everything.

Both CrowdStrike and Microsoft highlight attacks on VPN appliances, firewalls and gateways. They sit on the boundary, hold powerful access and often run behind on updates. CrowdStrike also reports a 42% rise in zero-day vulnerabilities used before they were public.

Test: an external network test that lists every exposed device and its firmware, plus a patch process that can move quickly when a device is named in a warning.

CrowdStrike reports an 89% increase in attacks by adversaries who use AI compared with 2024, and Microsoft describes AI as a force multiplier that compresses attack timelines and lowers the cost of sophisticated attacks. Unit 42 makes the same point with a caution: AI is not an easy button for attackers, and it makes the work faster. For defenders, phishing mail is better written, and fake sites and voice calls are cheaper to produce. Meanwhile, the AI features you add are an attack surface: assistants, retrieval systems, and tool servers that can act.

Test: staff resistance to well-written phishing (see social engineering assessment), the permissions of any assistant or agent in your product, and the APIs behind them.

The OWASP Top 10:2025 added Software Supply Chain Failures as a category, covering dependencies, build systems and distribution. Vendors, plug-ins, libraries and managed service providers hold access into your systems.

Test: dependency inventories, who can change your build pipeline, and the access you have granted to vendors. See what changed in the OWASP Top 10.

Microsoft lists people as a heavily exploited initial-access path even as AI changes the speed and personalization. Fake login pages that capture a session token get around passwords and some forms of multi-factor authentication.

For an Indian business the practical points are the same, with local rules on top. Indian law expects you to protect personal data and to report incidents on a clock: see our articles on the DPDP Rules and CERT-In incident reporting. A penetration test is one of the few ways to see your own systems the way these reports describe attackers seeing them.

1. Test your internet-facing devices and applications first.
2. Test internal paths from an ordinary account to your most valuable system.
3. Check who holds privileged access, including service accounts and vendors.
4. Measure how long it takes for your team to notice a simulated intrusion.
5. Test the web, mobile and API products your customers use.
6. Retest after fixes and repeat on a schedule, not once.

Our offensive security services cover the web, mobile, API, network and Active Directory work above. Request a scoping call and tell us which of these worries you most.

Facts in this article were checked on 4 November 2026 against these primary sources:

• CrowdStrike 2026 Global Threat Report: findings
• Palo Alto Networks Unit 42, 2026 Global Incident Response Report
• Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2026
• OWASP Top 10:2025, introduction