Kim Larsen, CISO at Keepit sharing and collaboration among criminals and the continued democratisation of Ransomware-as-a- Service. Criminals only need time, a laptop and an Internet connection to wreak untold havoc.
Security teams are feeling the heat: facing alert fatigue and even burnout as attacks increase in scale, sophistication and frequency. In light of this, automation has emerged as a central pillar for Q1’ s cybersecurity playbook. AI-enabled security tools aren’ t a‘ silver bullet’, but they can take some of the pressure off overburdened teams by cutting through the sea of alerts to find what really matters. Next-gen tools can detect anomalies and remediate threats that the human eye might otherwise miss.
But tech is only one piece of the puzzle. Even the best tools are rendered ineffective without wider buy-in across the business. The most effective cybersecurity playbooks will aim to bring together people, processes and technology to respond quickly, adapt continuously and stay resilient in the face of shared, evolving threats. Delivering on this promise requires CISOs to become great strategists, not just technologists. Traditionally, security has been viewed as the department of‘ no’, but it’ s not just there to block things. When every stakeholder understands that security is a collaborative function, not an obstacle, every employee will recognise the unique role they have to play in protecting the wider business.
Kim Larsen, CISO at Keepit:
We can see that in 2026, preparing for the unpredictable is more important than ever. Hybrid threats that test our infrastructure and showcase our hidden dependencies on hyperscalers underscore the need for rigorous planning and testing of company systems – especially with AIdriven attacks becoming more adaptive.
As attackers aim to instill uncertainty, CISOs should respond by increasing transparency within their organisations. This can start by working with your organisation, mapping out and prioritising all of your critical systems, which will also help you to identify shadow IT looming inside your organisation. This is key for understanding what you need to protect and how to do so if disaster strikes.
Creating a prioritised Business Continuity plan and testing your Disaster Recovery capabilities regularly are non-negotiables. These will be the first steps in making sure your organisation can access crucial systems during a blackout from your cloud provider or recover if hit by a cyberattack.
Transparency also means including the whole organisation in this process. Clarity and understanding on all levels from the board to your HR department will not only ensure correct prioritisation, but also increase accountability across teams.
Luca Rognoni, CSO at YEO Messaging:
As CISOs look ahead to 2026, the playbook needs to reflect the hard lessons of the past year – and fast. 2025 proved that threats are evolving faster than traditional defensive assumptions, with AI-powered identity spoofing, destructive ransomware and noisy tool stacks exposing real weaknesses. Q1, 2026 is where CISOs must reset, simplify and build architectures that behave predictably under pressure.
Identity must now be treated as the primary control surface. Attackers are no longer breaking in; they are logging in. This means verification must be continuous, adaptive and contextual, combining continuous facial verification with per-message identity validation. Only by removing identity ambiguity, can the defensive baseline change.
Equally, resilience overtakes security as the boardlevel priority. Leaders need provable survivability and resilience in their revised playbooks: clarity on blast radius, trusted recovery pathways and a defensible understanding of data lineage. The upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill becomes law in Q1, which will only accelerate expectations on deeper resilience.
Finally, CISOs should enter the year with a disciplined approach to data. Over-collection is now a liability. The new standard is to collect only what can be justified, secured and defended in a regulatory context.
The threats will not slow down in 2026, but our models can become smarter, more contextual and far more durable. Q1 is the moment for CISOs to stop reacting and instead build systems engineered to endure.
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