India’s digital economy is racing toward the $1 trillion mark, but cybercriminals are moving even faster. As businesses digitise at scale, attackers are no longer relying on brute force or random scams—they’re using AI, automation, and deep intelligence to strike with precision.
According to the India Cyber Threat Report 2026 by Seqrite,
Indian organisations were hit with a staggering 265.52 million cyberattacks in
the past year—that’s one new attack every 12 seconds. The message is clear:
reactive security is broken. In 2026, survival depends on predictive,
intelligence-driven defence.
Here are the five major cybersecurity trends reshaping how
enterprises protect themselves.
1️⃣
AI-Powered Phishing Is Beating Humans and Machines
Phishing has evolved from obvious scam emails into highly
personalised, AI-crafted messages that feel alarmingly real. These attacks
mirror internal emails, reference real projects, and exploit job roles and live
events.
Security experts at Barracuda Networks warn that such attacks
routinely bypass traditional filters and awareness training. The new defence?
Adaptive email security, real-time threat intelligence, and continuous risk
scoring—not once-a-year training slides.
2️⃣
Ransomware Is No Longer a One-Time Attack
Today’s ransomware doesn’t just lock files—it moves in
stages. Attackers steal data, encrypt systems, threaten public leaks, and often
return for repeat extortion.
Threat data from Seqrite Labs shows ransomware activity at
historic highs, with attackers deliberately targeting cloud workloads, identity
systems, and backups. Enterprises are now prioritising immutable storage,
network segmentation, and rapid recovery plans to stay operational.
3️⃣
Shadow AI Is the New Shadow IT—And Far More Dangerous
The rise of autonomous AI agents has quietly created a new
risk: Shadow AI. These tools can copy themselves, evolve, and access sensitive
data—often without leaving audit trails.
The result? Companies know data leaked, but can’t trace
which AI did it or why. This “exposure without visibility” is becoming one of
the most urgent enterprise risks of 2026.
Read Also:Stolen PAN Numbers Fuel a New Wave of Financial Fraud AcrossIndia
4️⃣
Quantum Threats Are No Longer Theoretical
Cybersecurity leaders now call 2026 the post-quantum
inflection point. With “harvest-now, decrypt-later” attacks already underway,
encrypted data stolen today could be broken tomorrow.
Forward-thinking enterprises are shifting to crypto-agility,
ensuring they can rapidly switch encryption standards when quantum-safe
algorithms become mandatory.
5️⃣
Zero Trust Grows Smarter—and More Aggressive
Security has moved from static defence to continuous
AI-driven testing. Zero Trust 2.0 now extends into applications and AI systems
themselves, treating AI agents as identities that must be monitored,
restricted, and sandboxed.
Read Also: CrowdStrike Acquires SGNL to Bring Real-Time IdentitySecurity Into the AI Era
At the same time, geopolitical tensions are driving “geopatriation”—the migration of sensitive workloads to sovereign and regional clouds to ensure data residency, compliance, and national security alignment.
By Aaradhay Sharma
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