As organisations brace for another year of rapid change across networking, security and cloud, the pace of innovation and cyberthreat evolution shows no sign of slowing. Infoblox experts tell us what IT teams should expect in 2026, from AI-driven attacks and autonomous operations to expanding attack surfaces and rising regulatory pressures.
2025 has proven itself to be a groundbreaking year for networking, security and cloud. With the proliferation of AI technologies, new global regulations and the growing complexity of cloud infrastructure, IT teams have found themselves on constantly shifting sands.
That state of flux is only set to accelerate in 2026. IT teams should not just try to weather the storm.
They need to be dynamic and adaptive, leaning into new approaches and continuously staying ahead of emerging cyberthreats.
To help teams prepare for what is next, Infoblox experts shared their predictions for how the IT landscape will evolve in 2026.
AI-driven threats reshape the cyber battlefield
Scott Harrell, Chief Executive Officer, said: “The mass personalization of cyberattacks will disrupt the classical kill chain model, making it more challenging for security teams to predict and prevent attacks and making it more likely organizations will be patient zero. With AI, attackers can tailor their strategies to target specific individuals or organizations, rendering traditional defence mechanisms less effective.”
Brad Rinklin, Chief Marketing Officer, said: “Polymorphic and sentient malware will become more prevalent, posing a significant threat to cybersecurity.”
Craig Sanderson, Principal Cybersecurity Strategist, highlighted the rise of hyper-personalised attacks and the shift toward AI-generated threat intelligence and infrastructure-focused defence.
Cybercrime-as-a-Service and the democratisation of attacks
Coleman Mehta, Head of Global Public Policy and Strategy, warned of an increase in cyberthreats driven by low-skill attackers accessing easy-to-use toolkits.
Chris Usserman, Global Public Sector Chief Technology Officer, said: “Cybercrime-as-a-service will supercharge financially motivated threat actors.”
John Wojcik, Senior Threat Researcher, pointed to accelerating AI adoption across fraud networks in Southeast Asia, including deepfake-enabled social engineering.
The rise of autonomous systems and Agentic Operations
Harrell noted that the scale of modern cloud environments is pushing human troubleshooting “to its limits” as autonomous systems become essential for real-time resolution.
Danelle Au, Vice President, Product Marketing, highlighted SOC automation gains.
Faraz Aladin, Vice President, Technical Marketing, stressed the mindset shift required for security teams to stay ahead of threats.
The expanding attack surface: IoT, cloud and supply chain vulnerabilities
Harrell said IoT devices will become more attractive gateways for attackers due to ease of compromise.
Dr Renée Burton, Head of Infoblox Threat Intel, warned of ongoing risks linked to dangling DNS records.
Usserman noted that supply chain targeting will intensify, accelerating demand for Zero Trust.
DNS as the foundation of cyber-resilience
Cricket Liu, Executive Vice President and Chief Evangelist, said Protective DNS will become a mandated control for critical sectors.
Burton added that DNS security remains essential even as attackers adopt deepfakes and advanced language models.
Balancing security, usability and regulation
Mukesh Gupta, Chief Product Officer, said that user trust remains essential, especially in banking.
Ed Hunter, Senior Director, Information Security, forecast continued global debate on data governance as AI-driven processing expands.
