By Gregg Petersen, Regional Director for the Middle East, Cohesity
As cyber threats become more targeted, automated, and interconnected, cyber resilience in 2026 will no longer be defined by isolated security controls. Instead, it will be measured by the strength of the entire digital ecosystem—and the operational capabilities that support it.
Across the Middle East, attackers are increasingly exploiting the gaps that exist between cloud platforms, AI-driven applications, partners, and suppliers, rather than targeting individual systems in isolation. These interdependencies have become the new attack surface.
Cohesity research conducted on the sidelines of GITEX Global 2025 highlights how this challenge is unfolding in the UAE. While 66 percent of organisations report full compliance with national data protection regulations, one in three continues to struggle to keep pace with evolving regulatory requirements. At the same time, nearly 70 percent of organisations now review their AI governance practices every six months or less, signalling a clear shift toward continuous oversight rather than annual compliance checks.
This evolution reflects growing concern around shadow AI usage, volatile data flows, and the risk of AI systems introducing new points of exposure. AI governance is no longer a policy exercise—it is becoming an operational necessity.
Despite this awareness, a confidence gap remains. While 87 percent of organisations believe they can recover quickly from a cyber incident, many still face challenges validating data integrity across multicloud environments and external service providers. Encouragingly, 62 percent of UAE organisations now actively monitor compliance across third-party suppliers, signalling a sovereignty-first mindset where responsibility for resilience extends beyond internal IT teams.
The lesson is clear: cyber resilience is only as strong as the weakest link. Whether that vulnerability lies in a supplier’s cloud configuration, a partner’s data-handling practices, or an organisation’s own legacy systems, a single gap can undermine even the most advanced cyber strategy.
As digital transformation accelerates, attackers are increasingly targeting the connections between systems rather than standalone vulnerabilities. This is why organisations are beginning to treat AI governance as a core pillar of cyber resilience. Unmonitored AI models, unmanaged data pipelines, and language-limited deployments can quickly become blind spots that weaken overall security posture.
Key Cyber Resilience Predictions for 2026
Looking ahead, several trends will define how organisations measure and build cyber maturity:
- Data risk posture will become a board-level priority, driven by tighter regulations, AI-generated data proliferation, and the need to demonstrate oversight across cloud and third-party environments.
- End-to-end data protection will be non-negotiable, with organisations expected to prove recoverability across on-premises, cloud, and edge environments.
- Verified recoverability will replace assumed recoverability, as organisations face increased scrutiny to demonstrate clean, sovereign, and jurisdiction-aligned recovery from ransomware and destructive attacks.
- AI governance will emerge as a critical resilience pillar, with continuous monitoring of model behaviour, AI-driven data flows, and strict guardrails to prevent new exposure points. This will also require AI systems to operate effectively across major global languages, not just English, to avoid governance and accuracy gaps.
- Sovereign AI adoption will accelerate, as enterprises and governments seek greater control over how data is stored, processed, and governed within national or corporate boundaries—balancing privacy and autonomy with innovation and interoperability.
- Operational resilience will redefine cyber maturity, with organisations routinely stress-testing applications, identity systems, and recovery playbooks to ensure real-world readiness and minimise downtime.
In 2026, cyber maturity will no longer be about the strength of individual defences. It will be about the collective integrity of the digital ecosystem. The organisations that succeed will be those that treat resilience not as a defensive function—but as a shared responsibility across platforms, partners, and people.
The future of cyber resilience is a team sport.
