Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

In 2024, we talked to AI. In 2026, AI is talking to our systems, our customers, and increasingly, acting on our behalf. With AI agents, we are moving AI from a tool to an actor, from assistance to agency and from outputs to actions. And that changes the nature of risk. AI agents plan, execute, and interact with the world on our behalf. They send emails, move data, trigger workflows, and increasingly operate across systems without human intervention.

Threat actors are increasingly augmenting their attacks with AI tools, according to researchers at Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG). For the first time, GTIG observed a threat actor using a zero-day exploit developed by AI, although Google blocked the attack before it succeeded. Threat actors also continue to use Large Language Models (LLMs) for research, reconnaissance, and malware development.

The era of "typing into a box" is over. For years, we viewed artificial intelligence as a digital assistant—a sophisticated autocomplete tool that waited for human input. But according to Martin Kraemer, KnowBe4’s CISO Advisor for Europe and the Middle East, that dynamic has shifted. We have moved from asking AI questions to giving AI jobs. In a recent deep-dive webinar, Martin explored the transition from AI tools to AI agents.

2026 has officially become the year of speed, scale and support. The delta between a phishing email landing and a full organizational compromise has shrunk to mere seconds. The reality by the numbers: To close this window, your defense strategy must evolve into a two-step strategy of accuracy and automation.

There is no question that AI is changing cybersecurity in a massive way. In many respects, its impact is comparable to the rise of the internet. AI tools are helping organizations improve efficiency, automate repetitive tasks, and process data at a speed humans simply cannot match. Unfortunately, the same technology helping defenders is also being adopted by cybercriminals just as quickly. For cybersecurity professionals, keeping up with AI and agentic developments is no longer optional.

GitHub disclosed that attackers accessed its internal repositories after compromising an employee device through a poisoned Visual Studio Code extension. The company said the activity appears limited to GitHub-owned internal repositories, with the attacker’s claim of roughly 3,800 repositories being “directionally consistent” with its investigation. GitHub also said it found no evidence that customers’ own enterprises, organizations or repositories were impacted.

A phishing campaign exploited a glitch in Robinhood’s account creation process to send phishing emails from the investment platform’s own systems, SecurityWeek reports.