The 2026 cyber threat is moving faster and hitting more businesses because attacks are cheap to launch and easy to repeat. You can cut risk fast by closing the common entry points and spotting trouble early.
If you run a business, you deal with this constantly: sketchy emails that keep showing up, login prompts claiming to be urgent, and wire transfer requests that don't add up.
When a cyber incident happens, the damage is immediate. Operations stop, revenue disappears, and your team scrambles to figure out what went wrong while clients ask if their data was exposed.
To reduce damage when an incident happens, Rob Schenk, Chief Strategy Officer at ITS, mentions a crucial point during a webinar on the 2026 Executive Cyber Risk Playbook: “Real-time alerting route becomes really critical.”
At Intelligent Technical Solutions (ITS), we help leaders reduce cyber risk by closing gaps, tightening access controls, and responding quickly, so a single incident does not turn into a long outage. We focus on keeping your systems running and keeping data private.
In this article, we’ll break down what changed about the 2026 cyber threat and what stayed the same. You’ll learn topics like:
By the end of this article, you’ll know where most breaches start and the first controls to prioritize to reduce downtime and fraud risk.
What Changed About Cyber Threats in 2026?
Watch the Webinar Replay: 2026 Executive Cyber Risk Playbook: What Smart Leaders Will Do Before Q2
Patrick Curtin, Director of Technical Sales at Field Effect, said, “The fundamentals stay the same while the environment keeps changing.” Although core controls like MFA, patching, and monitoring still do most of the heavy lifting, attacks now move faster and hit more targets at once.
So, what changed in practice? For most businesses, it shows up in three ways:
Attacks Got Easier to Launch
Tools that once took skill to build can now be rented. That means attacks are no longer limited to top-tier groups, because even low-skill actors can run the same playbooks. As Patrick warned, “the barrier to entry for those people really has never been lower.”
He also noted that attackers can gain serious capabilities for a small monthly fee. As he explained, “as long as they’re willing to spend a few hundred dollars a month, they can access an entire attack suite.”
That’s why your inbox, remote access, and vendor portals are getting hit nonstop by amateurs with rented tools and experienced crews alike.
AI Is Helping Attackers Move Faster
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is not magic, but it helps attackers move more quickly and hit more targets. As Patrick said during the webinar, “[AI] is being used to basically speed up attacks and to broaden the scale of attacks.”
Attackers now have better tools that let them move through systems faster and extract data sooner. That shrinks the window to catch them before they lock files or steal credentials, so organizations face more attempts with less time to stop them.
The Costs Stay High
Cyber events are a real business risk with real dollars attached. According to a 2026 ITS report that analyzed nearly 2,300 cyber incidents, the 2025 average ransom demand was $1.96 million, and the average downtime was 31 days.
In IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report, the global average cost of a data breach is $4.4 million. Although averages shift, a single incident can still quickly add up to high costs in one quarter.
These numbers are serious, but they are not the whole story. As Patrick puts it, “the good news [is] all of this is preventable.”
What Stayed the Same About Cyber Threats?
Most breaches still start through familiar doors. Although new tools help attackers try more often, the entry paths look the same.
Patrick put it plainly: “Pretty much every attack is a variant of those three [categories].”
Those categories are identity attacks, edge device weaknesses, and gaps inside the network. This leads us to the next question...
How Do Most Breaches Start?
If you understand how attackers usually get in, you can cut risk without guessing.
Here are the three most common paths to a breach, and the controls to check for each one:
Identity Attacks
In the webinar, Patrick said, “most of them are a variant of [...] what we call identity attacks.” In practice, that usually means a stolen login, often from a reused password or an attacker tricking a help desk into resetting access.
Phishing still works because it’s no longer just about malware. As he put it, “Phishing used to be about dropping malware. Now it’s about tricking people into giving up login credentials.”
These emails often push urgency and are disguised as routine IT warnings. As Patrick describes it, attackers will send emails like: “Your Microsoft SharePoint is misconfigured. You’re going to lose access. Log in right now.”
Many identity attacks lead straight to payment fraud. Once an attacker is in a mailbox, they watch invoices, swap bank details, or send “updated wiring instructions” that look real.
What to check
- Is multi-factor authentication (MFA) required for email and remote access?
- Are password resets locked down with a clear process, or can a single phone call undo them?
- Can employees report suspicious emails in one click, and do you review those reports quickly?
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Do you monitor suspicious mailbox rules, like auto-forwarding to external addresses?
READ: 5 Tips to Prevent Data Theft (and Avoid Tax Identity Fraud)
Edge Device Vulnerabilities
Many organizations secure laptops and servers but overlook systems at the network edge. Internet-facing devices draw steady attention from attackers. When edge devices are unpatched, they become easy entry points for attackers.
Patrick warned that edge devices are a common doorway:
“It’s often what we call edge devices. [...] The firewalls that are meant to protect us are increasingly being shown to have lots of vulnerabilities.”
His rule is simple: “If they aren't updated appropriately, they become vulnerable, and they become hot points for the threat actors.”
What to check
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Which devices are internet-facing today?
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What is the patch routine for firewalls, VPN devices, and remote access tools?
- Do you have proof that those updates happened on schedule?
Undefended (or “Forgotten”) Systems
Every network has leftovers, such as old servers, old apps, or shared accounts that no one wants to own. Attackers look for those gaps.
Patrick describes the risk this way: “There are going to be some systems that should have defensive stuff on them that don't, [...] and then those become the Achilles heel of a network.”
What to check
- Do you have a real inventory of systems, accounts, and remote access paths?
- Do you quickly remove old access paths and unused accounts when someone leaves the company?
- Are there devices without security tools, logging, or patch routines?
READ: How Ransomware Gangs Exploit Unpatched Systems (& How to Stop Them)
Why Does Speed Matter So Much Now?
A breach is a chain of steps. The longer an attacker stays inside, the more damage they can do. Once an attacker gets in, the clock starts. “That's what we call dwell time,” Patrick explains.
Attackers use that dwell time to move around, find valuable data, and copy it out. Then they lock systems, threaten exposure, or both.
That window keeps shrinking, sometimes from weeks to days, because attackers rely on rented tools and repeatable playbooks. To stay ahead of that pace, Patrick spelled out the priority: “You need to find them fast.”
What “find them fast” looks like in practice:
- Same-day alert review
- After-hours coverage that keeps nights and weekends from becoming free time for attackers.
- A clear playbook to block access, isolate devices, and stop incidents from spreading.
Ready To Cut Your Cyber Threat Risk?
Cyber incidents start with logins, unpatched edge devices, and gaps that no one sees until it is too late. Fixing them takes clear ownership and consistent follow-through, which is where the right partner makes the difference.
ITS has over 20 years of experience helping organizations stay operational and protect private data. Our certified security experts have built and maintained security programs for hundreds of businesses that face the same risks you do.
If you need help protecting your organization from the vulnerabilities that lead to breaches, schedule a meeting with one of our ITS experts to discuss how we can help secure your environment.
To go deeper on what changed in 2026 and how attackers get in, watch the 2026 Executive Cyber Risk Playbook webinar replay.
Learn more about cyber risk and resilience by checking out these resources from our Learning Center:
- From Risk to Resilience: Warning Signs Your Business Needs Better Cybersecurity [eBook]
- 6 Ways an MSP Can Help Build Business Resilience (And Its Importance)
- The Four Stages of Cyber Risk Management [Checklist]
FAQs
Q: What should SMB leaders watch first in the 2026 cyber threat?
A: Stolen logins are still the most common starting point. Start with email, remote access, and admin accounts.
Q: What is the fastest way to reduce risk without a huge project?
A: Start with a risk review that maps identity risk, edge exposure, and forgotten systems. Then fix the top items first: MFA, patching, account cleanup, and an offline backup option.
Q: What does “dwell time” mean?
A: Dwell time is the gap between first access and the moment damage starts. When that gap is short, late alerts turn into long outages, so you need faster detection and response.
Q: Are firewalls enough to stop today’s attacks?
A: No, because firewalls can have vulnerabilities and still need patching. You need layered controls that catch mistakes and contain spread.
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