10 Top Cybersecurity Challenges

Updated September 2026. We rewrote this guide around the challenges security leaders face today, using the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, IBM’s 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report, Verizon’s 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report and ISC2’s 2025 workforce study. The old 2020–2022 statistics are gone.

This page covers the organizational and strategic challenges: the problems that make security hard to run, fund and govern. For the specific threats attackers use, such as deepfake phishing, infostealers and MFA fatigue, see our companion guide to the top cybersecurity issues.

Cybersecurity challenges at a glance

1. Governing AI adoption inside the organization

AI tools are now everywhere at work, often without approval. IBM’s 2026 report found security incidents involving “shadow AI,” where employees use unapproved AI tools, more than doubled to 43% of organizations from 20% the year before, and those incidents often led to data loss or disrupted operations (IBM). The World Economic Forum found that 87% of respondents saw AI-related vulnerabilities as the fastest-growing cyber risk of 2025, and the share of organizations that assess the security of AI tools before using them nearly doubled, from 37% to 64% (WEF).

What helps: an approved list of AI tools, clear rules about what data can go into them, logging of AI use, and a review step before new AI features or agents get access to company systems or data.

2. Keeping up with AI-enabled attackers

Attackers use AI too, mainly to make existing techniques faster and more convincing. Verizon found the median threat actor used AI assistance across 15 documented techniques, though most AI-assisted malware still performed well-known functions (Verizon). IBM reports that more than one in four organizations hit by a malicious attack said it was AI-driven, and deepfake impersonation drove the largest share of those incidents. At the leadership level, the WEF says CEOs now rank cyber-enabled fraud as their top concern, ahead of ransomware.

The strategic challenge is that controls built on “recognize the fake” are weakening. Organizations need processes that don’t depend on spotting a fake voice or video, such as callbacks to known numbers, second approvers for payments and phishing-resistant MFA.

3. Building resilience to ransomware and extortion

Ransomware showed up in 48% of breaches in Verizon’s 2026 report, although 69% of victims didn’t pay and the median payment fell to $139,875. Paying less is progress, but recovery is still slow and expensive. Attacks on Marks & Spencer and Jaguar Land Rover in 2025 disrupted operations for weeks; M&S estimated a hit of about £300 million to operating profit (BBC).

The challenge is less about blocking every attack and more about continuing to operate: offline, tested backups, rehearsed recovery plans and decisions made in advance about ransom payments and communications. CISA’s #StopRansomware Guide is a good starting checklist.

4. Managing third-party and supply chain risk

Nearly every organization depends on SaaS providers, managed service providers and software vendors. According to the WEF, 65% of large companies say third-party and supply chain vulnerabilities are their greatest resilience challenge, up from 54% a year earlier. Verizon found a third party involved in 48% of breaches, up from 30%, and only 23% of the third-party organizations it tracked fully fixed missing or weak MFA on their cloud accounts.

What helps: tiering vendors by how much access they have, requiring MFA and prompt breach notification in contracts, limiting vendor access to what’s needed, and having a plan for when a critical provider goes down.

5. Controlling identity sprawl

Employees, contractors, service accounts, API keys and now AI agents all have identities, and attackers increasingly log in rather than break in. The 2024 Snowflake customer breaches happened because attackers used credentials stolen by infostealer malware on accounts without MFA (Google Mandiant). The Scattered Spider group targets IT help desks to get passwords and MFA reset (CISA).

The organizational challenge is ownership: identity often sits between IT, HR and security. Clear joiner-mover-leaver processes, strong help desk verification and phishing-resistant MFA for privileged accounts close most of the gaps. Our comparison of IAM, PAM, ZTNA and ITDR explains which tools address which part of the problem.

6. Working down the vulnerability backlog

Exploited vulnerabilities were the top way into organizations in Verizon’s 2026 report, at 31% of breaches, up from 20%. VPNs, firewalls and other edge devices are frequent targets, and only 26% of the vulnerabilities on CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities list were fully fixed in the organizations Verizon studied. The underlying challenge is technical debt: old systems, devices that can’t be patched without downtime, and too many findings to fix at once.

What helps: fix exploited-in-the-wild flaws first using the KEV catalog, keep an accurate asset inventory, and budget to replace end-of-life equipment.

7. Securing cloud and SaaS environments

Cloud platforms move fast, and the provider secures only part of the stack. The customer is still responsible for identities, configuration and data. IBM found breaches involving data in public clouds were among the most expensive, averaging $5.38 million. Verizon found that when third parties had weak passwords or permission misconfigurations in cloud accounts, it took almost eight months to fix half of those findings.

For a primer on the shared responsibility model and common controls, see our cloud security overview.

8. Closing skills gaps with limited budgets

The shortage has shifted from headcount to skills. ISC2’s 2025 study of more than 16,000 professionals found 59% reported critical or significant skills needs, up from 44% in 2024, and 88% had experienced at least one significant security consequence because of a skills shortage. AI (41%) and cloud security (36%) were the most-needed skills. Budgets are still tight: 36% reported budget cuts and 24% layoffs, and 33% said their organization lacks the resources to staff its team adequately (ISC2; ISC2 press release).

What helps: training existing staff, hiring for aptitude, automating repetitive work, and using managed services for 24/7 monitoring. If you’re building your own skills, our guide to the best cybersecurity certifications in 2026 shows which credentials employers value.

9. Keeping up with regulation

Security rules now come from many directions: SEC disclosure within four business days of deciding an incident is material, sector rules like HIPAA and the FTC Safeguards Rule, 24 state privacy laws, CMMC for defense contractors, and EU laws such as NIS2, DORA and the Cyber Resilience Act. Deadlines differ, and some rules, like CIRCIA, are still being finalized. Our guide to cybersecurity laws and regulations tracks where each one stands, and our cybersecurity compliance guide explains how to meet overlapping requirements with one program.

10. Governance, measurement and geopolitics

Boards are expected to oversee cyber risk: U.S. public companies must describe board oversight in their annual reports, and NIST CSF 2.0 added a new “Govern” function. Measuring risk in business terms is still hard. Geopolitics adds more uncertainty: 64% of organizations in the WEF survey account for geopolitically motivated attacks, and 31% have low confidence in their country’s ability to respond to a major incident. Our guide to cybersecurity frameworks explains how CSF 2.0 and other frameworks help structure governance and reporting.

How to prioritize

1. Protect identities first: phishing-resistant MFA, strong help desk checks and fast offboarding.
2. Patch what’s being exploited, starting with internet-facing systems.
3. Make sure you can recover: offline backups and a rehearsed incident response plan.
4. Know your critical vendors and what they can reach.
5. Set AI rules before AI tools spread further.
6. Pick a framework and report progress to leadership in business terms.

For more on why these investments matter, see why cybersecurity is important. To track new threats, breaches and rules as they happen, sign up for the CyberExperts Daily Brief, a short weekday email.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• World Economic Forum, Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 (Jan 12, 2026): weforum.org
• IBM and Ponemon Institute, Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026: ibm.com
• Verizon, 2026 Data Breach Investigations Report: verizon.com
• ISC2, 2025 Cybersecurity Workforce Study (Dec 4, 2025): isc2.org and press release
• BBC, M&S cyber-attack disruption to last until July and cost £300m: bbc.com
• CISA, #StopRansomware Guide: cisa.gov
• Google Mandiant, UNC5537 Targets Snowflake Customer Instances for Data Theft and Extortion: cloud.google.com
• CISA, Scattered Spider advisory (AA23-320A): cisa.gov
• CISA, Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog: cisa.gov

George Mutune

I am a cyber security professional with a passion for delivering proactive strategies for day to day operational challenges. I am excited to be working with leading cyber security teams and professionals on projects that involve machine learning & AI solutions to solve the cyberspace menace and cut through inefficiency that plague today's business environments.