As India’s digital economy accelerates toward a $1 trillion milestone, cyber threats are evolving even faster, becoming more targeted, sophisticated, and AI-enabled. According to the India Cyber Threat Report 2026 by Seqrite, the enterprise arm of Quick Technologies, Indian organisations faced 265.52 million cyberattacks over the past year, averaging a new attack roughly every 12 seconds. This surge highlights a fundamental shift: traditional, reactive security models are no longer sufficient. In 2026, enterprises must adopt intelligence-driven defence, predictive threat analysis, and continuous risk monitoring to stay ahead. Here are the five trends shaping that transition.
1. AI-Powered Phishing Outsmarts Traditional Defences
Phishing attacks have moved beyond generic lures to highly contextual, AI-generated messages that closely mimic internal communications. These attacks leverage organisational context, role-specific data, and real-time events to deceive users.
According to experts at Barracuda Networks, such hyper-personalised phishing campaigns can bypass both role-based and behavioural security controls. Organisations now need adaptive email security, continuous risk scoring, and real-time threat intelligence, rather than static awareness training.
- Ransomware Evolves into Persistent Extortion
Ransomware increasingly follows a multi-stage extortion model, combining encryption, data exfiltration, and repeated attacks on the same environment.
Threat intelligence from Seqrite Labs shows ransomware activity at record highs, with attackers targeting backups, cloud workloads, and identity systems. Enterprises are responding with immutable storage, segmentation, and ransomware recovery strategies to minimise business disruption.
- AI-Driven SOCs with Human Oversight
Security Operations Centres are transforming through AI copilots, automated workflows, and machine learning-based threat detection, enabling faster and more accurate incident response.
Barracuda Networks noted that while AI improves efficiency, human judgement remains essential for prioritising risk, managing compliance, and responding to complex incidents. Effective SOCs now balance automation with governance.
- Agentic AI Reshapes Enterprise Operations
AI adoption has progressed from assistive tools to autonomous, agent-based systems capable of executing workflows across multiple business functions.
According to Onix’s 2026 AI Trends Report, enterprises are deploying multi-agent orchestration models that enable systems to collaborate across departments such as customer service, finance, and IT. This shift supports self-optimising operations and data-driven decision-making.
- Cyber Risk Extends to Brand and Compliance
The enterprise attack surface now includes brand impersonation, fake domains, social media fraud, and data exposure across open and dark web environments, beyond traditional infrastructure.
Experts at Quick Heal Technologies highlight that rising digital risk is converging with regulatory expectations under India’s DPDP Act. Cybersecurity strategies increasingly integrate privacy management, compliance readiness, and operational resilience.
