At the dawn of 2026, cybersecurity is no longer just a "technical" issue, but an essential component of business strategy: customer trust, business continuity, added value. In 2025, organizations faced a more complex environment than ever before: widespread adoption of AI, highly exposed supply chains, expanding machine identities, and more. This article first summarizes what we can learn from 2025, then discusses the major trends that will shape 2026, before offering some concrete suggestions for B2B companies.

2025 review: what we observed

The financial and operational impact of incidents

In 2025, according to the IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, the average global cost of a data breach stands at $4.44 million.
Despite a slight decrease compared to previous years (due to improved response and containment times), this figure remains high and clearly shows that even well-prepared organizations are not immune.
In addition, IBM draws attention to a new phenomenon: organizations that have adopted AI without robust governance are more exposed. Thus:

"97% of companies that experienced an AI-related breach did not have appropriate AI access controls in place."
This figure shows that innovation—AI, automation—can become a risk if it is not accompanied by good governance.

Major attack vectors and trends

Several reports concur that certain threat vectors are now unavoidable:

The World Economic Forum's Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025 report highlights the increasing complexity of the cyber landscape, fueled by geopolitics, dependence on global supply chains, and the gap between highly organized and resilient companies and those that are less prepared.

Gartner reports that managing machine identities is becoming a major challenge: "IAM teams currently control only 44% of machine identities in their organizations."

The CyberArk State of Machine Identity Security Report 2025 highlights that 81% of security managers consider securing machine identities to be critical for AI.

Finally, sources such as SentinelOne and Deloitte show that the adoption of AI through governance flaws ("shadow AI," unsupervised models) and the speed at which vulnerabilities are exploited are increasingly active areas of attack.

What this means for businesses

The rise of AI, cloud computing, and automation has brought benefits but also new areas of exposure.

The fact that governance does not always keep pace with innovation creates "gray areas" in which attackers can operate.

For B2B companies, this means that they must not only protect themselves, but also demonstrate their cybersecurity posture to their customers and partners. Protection is no longer just an internal matter.

Identity control (human users or machines), third-party/supplier visibility, and data governance have become essential.

Trends emerging for 2026

AI and the shadow of "shadow AI"

In 2026, one of the major challenges will be to master AI not only as a defense tool, but also as a risk vector. The concept of "shadow AI"—i.e., AI models deployed without supervision or governance—is becoming critical. IBM points out that organizations without AI policies are seeing their breach costs increase.
For companies, this means mapping internal AI uses, establishing governance policies, ensuring that the data used is protected, that access is controlled, and that audits are in place.

Machine identities, APIs, automation: the new scope

While cybersecurity has long focused on human users, 2026 will emphasize what are known as "machines": services, APIs, automated systems, and cloud workloads. Gartner points out that this scope of machine identity is still largely under-controlled. The consequence for businesses is to establish an "Identity-First" strategy that goes beyond human users; apply the principle of least privilege, monitor machine access, and automate controls.

Supply chain, third parties, and interconnection: limiting contagion

A company is no longer isolated: its suppliers, partners, subcontractors, and cloud services interact with it. An attack on a weak link in the supply chain can lead to a major crisis. The WEF report identified this "interdependence" as a factor of complexity. For a B2B player, this means auditing its third parties, including cybersecurity in contracts, monitoring flows, and planning for disruption scenarios.

IT/OT convergence and focus on business continuity

Increasingly, attacks are targeting not only "office" systems but also the operational technology (OT) layer, infrastructure, and production. In 2026, the convergence between IT and OT will increase, and with it the need for strong cyber resilience: segmentation, supervision, and recovery plans. This means that companies, even non-industrial ones, will have to consider availability, redundancy, and rapid incident response as part of their customer service.

Regulation, insurance, cyber maturity: a new level

Regulators are stepping up their requirements, cyber insurance is becoming more selective, and companies will have to demonstrate a level of maturity. The KPMG report "Cybersecurity considerations 2025" refers to this shift: "The role of the CISO is evolving, trust is becoming central, and cybersecurity is being integrated into corporate governance." As a result, B2B companies that can demonstrate a strong stance will have a competitive advantage: proof of trust, customer differentiation, and reduced risk of disaster.

Cybersecurity is no longer just an IT issue, but a business issue.

In summary, cybersecurity should not be viewed as a mere "cost" or technical obligation, but rather as a driver of trust and growth.

The year 2025 confirmed that cybersecurity is a playing field where innovation (AI, cloud, automation) and advanced threats (machine identities, supply chains, interconnection) converge. Successful companies are those that have realized that cybersecurity is not just an IT issue, but a business issue.

In 2026, the challenge will expand: mastering AI, securing machine identity, dominating the supply chain, ensuring continuity, and proving maturity. For a company, this is not only a defensive imperative, but also a strategic opportunity. It is a chance to show that its services are not only high-performing, but also reliable, resilient, and ready to face the challenges of tomorrow.

Bibliography:

IBM Security – Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025, IBM Corporation, 2025.
World Economic Forum (WEF) – Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025, WEF, 2025.
Gartner – Top Trends in Cybersecurity 2025, Gartner Research, 2025.
CyberArk – State of Machine Identity Security Report 2025, CyberArk Software, 2025.
KPMG – Cybersecurity Considerations 2025, KPMG International, 2025.
Deloitte – Cybersecurity Trends 2025: Building Digital Trust in the AI Era, Deloitte Insights, 2025.
SentinelOne – AI-Driven Threat Landscape 2025 Report, SentinelOne Labs, 2025.
ENISA (European Union Agency for Cybersecurity) – Threat Landscape 2025: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Identities, ENISA, 2025.
McKinsey & Company – Cyber Resilience in the Age of AI and Automation, McKinsey Digital, 2025.
Forrester Research – The State of Zero Trust and Machine Identity 2025, Forrester, 2025
Accenture – State of Cybersecurity Resilience 2025, Accenture Security, 2025.
ANSSI (French National Cybersecurity Agency) – Overview of cyber threats in 2025, ANSSI, 2025.
CNIL – AI and cybersecurity: governance, compliance, and emerging risks, National Commission on Informatics and Liberties, 2025.
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) – AI Risk Management Framework (AI RMF) 1.1, NIST, 2025.
ISO/IEC – ISO/IEC 27001:2025 – Information Security Management Systems, International Organization for Standardization, 2025