As the year 2026 approaches, the landscape of cybersecurity threats is advancing rapidly. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in particular are at increased risk as perpetrators utilise advanced artificial intelligence (AI), commercialise cybercrime platforms, and amplify nation-state cyber activities.
Insights from the CrowdStrike 2025 European Threat Landscape Report underscore how attackers are enhancing their speed, capability, and diversity of methods, thereby raising concerns across the UK's interconnected supply chains.
Key cybersecurity concerns
Several pressing risks are set to define the 2026 cybersecurity threat environment:
Escalation of AI-enhanced social engineering
AI technologies are poised to significantly boost social engineering efforts. The rise of hyper-realistic deepfake voice cloning will make vishing attacks exceptionally persuasive, allowing criminals to accurately impersonate executives, suppliers, and authority figures.
This poses a significant threat to SMEs that typically have limited training and internal checks, making them susceptible to targeted social engineering strategies.
Increasing importance of identity protection
The swift adoption of cloud-based applications and SaaS platforms often surpasses organisations
The swift adoption of cloud-based applications and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms often surpasses organisations' capabilities to secure them adequately. This environment, characterised by misconfigurations and fragmented access controls, is ripe for exploitation.
Hence, identity protection strategies, including multi-factor authentication (MFA), conditional access, and behavioural monitoring, will be crucial in combating identity-focused vulnerabilities.
Growth of as-a-service Cybercrime Platforms
With cybercrime now largely commercialised, platforms like Ransomware-as-a-Service and Phishing-as-a-Service enable attackers of all skill levels to launch advanced attacks efficiently and cost-effectively.
Reports, including the CrowdStrike 2025 analysis, note the burgeoning trend of such platforms, emphasising the swelling number of ransomware victims across Europe. SMEs, often entry points for larger supply chain breaches, will face increased targeting.
Intensification of state-sponsored cyber operations
Amid rising geopolitical tensions, state-backed cyber activities are becoming more frequent and ambitious
Amid rising geopolitical tensions, state-backed cyber activities are becoming more frequent and ambitious. Critical infrastructure, logistics, healthcare, and essential supply chains remain prime targets for these operations.
Advanced reconnaissance, automated methods, and AI-driven attacks are now standard, exerting unprecedented pressure on UK organisations. Proactively addressing these threats is essential for prevention.
The necessity of patch and vulnerability management
Despite the growing complexity of threats, many successful cyberattacks continue to capitalise on unpatched systems and known vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals use automated tools to identify these weaknesses swiftly upon disclosure.
Organisations with inconsistent patching strategies or outdated systems will face disproportionate risks. Effective patch and vulnerability management is a proven strategy to limit attack windows.
Strategic threat management
Importance of threat intelligence
With expanding attack surfaces and a surge in security alerts, many organisations, particularly SMEs, struggle to discern which threats warrant immediate attention.
Thus, actionable threat intelligence becomes vital for security teams and partners to prioritise responses and focus resources on high-impact risks. Moving beyond reactive approaches to intelligence-driven, proactive security will be crucial in 2026.
Rising supply chain and third-party risks
Interconnected supply chains present a significant systemic risk, as compromising a single SME can trigger widespread disruptions across various sectors. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, food distribution, energy, and logistics could face severe consequences from attacks. Both criminal and state actors are increasingly targeting these chains, necessitating enhanced third-party risk management and overall resilience.
As 2026 looms, organisations must prioritise robust identity protection encompassing the entirety of their cloud engagement, alongside intensified patch management, intelligence-led security operations, and fortified supply chain resilience. Employing AI to counteract cyber threats mirrors the strategy of combating fire with fire, equipping businesses with the necessary tools to avert potential cyber crises.
As 2026 approaches, cybersecurity threats are evolving at an unprecedented speed. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face rising exposure as perpetrators adopt advanced AI, expand commercialised cybercrime platforms, and intensify nation-state activity.
Recent intelligence, including the CrowdStrike 2025 European Threat Landscape Report, highlights how attackers are becoming faster, more capable, and more varied in their methods, raising the stakes across the UK’s interconnected supply chains.
Seven critical risks
Below, they discuss seven critical risks that will shape the 2026 threat landscape.
- Vishing and deepfake-driven social engineering will surge
AI will supercharge social engineering. Hyper-realistic deepfake voice cloning will make vishing attacks dramatically more convincing, enabling criminals to impersonate executives, suppliers, and public authorities with unprecedented accuracy. As these tools become widely accessible, SMEs, often with limited training and internal verification controls, will face a sharp rise in targeted social engineering campaigns.
- Identity protection will become a top priority amid rising SaaS and cloud adoption
The rapid proliferation of cloud applications and SaaS platforms continues to outpace many organisations’ ability to secure them. Misconfigurations, fragmented access controls, and an expanding set of user identities create ideal conditions for attackers. Identity protection, including MFA enforcement, conditional access controls, and behavioural monitoring will become an essential foundation for modern cyber defence as attackers increasingly exploit identity-based vulnerabilities.
- Commercialised as-a-service cybercrime will open the door to more diverse attackers
Cybercrime is now fully commercialised, with Ransomware-as-a-Service and Phishing-as-a-Service platforms enabling criminals of varying skill levels to launch sophisticated attacks quickly and cheaply.
Many reports, including the previously mentioned CrowdStrike 2025, confirm the acceleration of these trends, noting that European organisations account for a growing share of ransomware victims and that both criminal and nation-state campaigns continue to escalate. As these platforms continue to evolve, SMEs, often serving as entry points to larger supply chains, will experience intensified targeting.
- Nation-state attacks will intensify as geopolitical tensions grow
State-backed cyber operations are increasing in frequency and ambition. Critical infrastructure, logistics networks, healthcare, and essential supply chains remain high-value targets for nation-state actors seeking strategic advantage or disruption.
With advanced reconnaissance, automation and AI-enabled attack methods now standard among these groups, the pressure on UK organisations has never been greater. This is a threat the UK must get ahead of; prevention is far more effective than the cure.
- Patch and vulnerability management will remain core to preventing breaches
Even as threats become more complex, many successful attacks will continue to exploit unpatched systems and well-known vulnerabilities. Automated scanning tools allow cybercriminals to detect weaknesses within minutes of disclosure. Organisations with inconsistent patching, outdated systems, or weak vulnerability governance will be disproportionately exposed. Effective patch and vulnerability management remains one of the most reliable ways to reduce an attacker’s opportunity window.
- Threat intelligence will be essential to prioritising cyber workloads
With expanding attack surfaces and increased alert volumes, many organisations, particularly SMEs, struggle to understand which threats genuinely matter. Actionable threat intelligence will become indispensable, enabling security teams and outsourced partners to prioritise patching, triage alerts, and focus resources on the most likely and most damaging risks. Reactive models are no longer viable; 2026 will demand intelligence-led, proactive security operations.
- Supply chain and third-party attacks will continue to rise
Interconnected supply chains remain one of the greatest systemic risks. Attackers know that compromising a single SME can trigger cascading disruption across multiple sectors. In critical industries, such as pharmaceuticals, food distribution, energy and logistics, the consequences could be severe, even societal. As both criminal and nation-state groups increase their focus on supply chain infiltration, organisations must strengthen third-party risk management and invest in resilience across their entire ecosystem.
2026 will be a defining year for cybersecurity. To best withstand the challenges ahead, organisations must prioritise comprehensive identity protection that covers the whole business, including all cloud applications, configurations, workloads and infrastructure. This must be combined with an emphasis on patch and vulnerability management, intelligence-led security operations, and reinforced supply chain resilience. As far as AI is concerned, it’s vital to fight fire with fire: use the same tools cybercriminals use, and adapt them to fight the good fight. This way, businesses stand the best possible chance of steering clear of trouble.
