Agentic AI, Digital Tariffs, and the Death of VPNs highlight the dramatic shift ahead
Morey Haber: “The future of cybersecurity will be defined not by firewalls, but by identities, intelligence, and imagination.”
The cybersecurity narrative is undergoing a seismic shift, and its center of gravity is no longer limited to networks and data—it is now firmly anchored in identities, AI-driven decisions, and global geopolitical dynamics. BeyondTrust’s newly revealed cybersecurity predictions for 2026 and beyond present a future where convenience, intelligence, and control converge to create both unprecedented opportunities and complex vulnerabilities.
At the forefront is agentic AI—self-driving software models capable of making autonomous decisions—rapidly becoming embedded in every device and application. While the promise of increased efficiency and smarter automation excites businesses, the same capability could unleash AI-driven breaches that are faster, more adaptable, and harder to predict. The attack surface will evolve from systems to decision-making logic, making identity and access visibility far more critical than traditional defense tactics.
Equally disruptive is the predicted rise of digital tariffs—governments imposing cross-border taxes on digital services and data flows. As nations seek to reclaim control over digital sovereignty, multinational enterprises will face new compliance frameworks, regional innovation pressures, and fractured cloud ecosystems.
Legacy tools are also meeting their end. VPNs—a staple of remote work for decades—are expected to officially fade out, replaced by identity-based, zero-trust access models. This signals a shift from securing locations to protecting identity attributes, context, and real-time behavior.
Another emerging threat: account poisoning, where criminals exploit trusted financial identities to manipulate billing details and divert payments. This signals the evolution of cyber threats from disruption to direct financial exploitation—weaponizing trust rather than systems.
Looking further, biological computing—powered by living neurons—will challenge the very definition of cybersecurity, while companion AI will raise ethical dilemmas far beyond privacy. Even MITRE, the cornerstone of threat classification, is expected to either transform or be replaced to reflect these new realities.
What remains clear is that cybersecurity is no longer a technical function—it is an adaptive, societal, and economic imperative. In this new battlefield, identity is the perimeter, AI is both ally and adversary, and foresight is the ultimate defense.
