1. Identity Becomes the Real Attack Surface
The Shift: As infrastructure becomes abstracted and “everything-as-code” becomes the norm, attackers are skipping traditional exploits and going straight for the crown jewels: permissions, secrets, and session tokens.
Why It Matters: Identity and Access Management (IAM), once a checkbox, is now frontline defense. We’ll see major investments in identity threat detection, just-in-time access, and containment of lateral movement.
2. Security Moves Fully Into Runtime
The Shift: Gone are the days when perimeter defenses and config scanning were enough. In cloud-native environments, what matters is how workloads behave in motion, not just how they’re set up.
Why It Matters: Visibility in real-time is the new gold standard. Runtime becomes the ultimate source of truth for risk as attackers increasingly mimic legitimate activity.
3. AI Redefines the Attacker and Defender Playbooks
The Shift: AI isn’t just a buzzword—it’s reshaping both sides. Expect polymorphic malware that mutates in real-time, and defensive AI copilots that augment threat hunting, detection, and remediation.
Why It Matters: Legacy defenses can’t keep pace with AI-fueled threats. The edge will go to teams that embed AI deeply into their security architecture—not just bolt it on.
Security teams that evolve with these shifts will thrive. Those that don’t… won’t.
Authored by:
Bharat Raigangar, 1CxO CSA, Board Advisor
