Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

Over the years, cybersecurity predictions tend to all sound the same. Ransomware attacks will continue, supply-chain incidents will increase, and phishing will remain a problem. However, the tail end of 2025 and 2026 presented the cybersecurity industry with a new concern, Agentic AI. Agentic AI capabilities far exceed the basic AI concerns that were reported in the past. Its ability to make decisions and take actions on its own, without needing a human to approve every step, is a game-changer.

For centuries, threat actors, both cyber and physical, have understood the benefits of using extortion to further their criminal activities. This has led some cyber threat groups to create Extortion-as-a-Service (EaaS) businesses. These are a formalized way for cybercriminals to offer extortion services to others for a fee or profit share. And, as we shall see, it is just one of many newer -as-a-service models that threat actors are applying.

In 2026, I expect the Australian cybersecurity landscape to look less like a loose collection of tools and more like a contested systems market where a handful of platforms quietly run the show. After 20 years in this industry, I can see the center of gravity shifting from individual point products to integrated decision engines that sit across identity, data and operations.

LevelBlue SpiderLabs ransomware tracker noted a slight dip in the overall number of attacks that took place in November 2025, but the research team saw the threat group Cl0p surge, conducting 98 attacks during the month, up from just 13 in October. LevelBlue SpiderLabs derived the information from its ransomware-tracking tool, which gathers data from a variety of open intelligence sources and our own proprietary research.

Unexpected attacks are the hardest to fend off. In the realm of cyber, Zero Day vulnerabilities are among the greatest risks, as these software flaws are unknown and exploited before a fix is available, potentially compromising the thousands of organizations that are unwittingly using vulnerable software.

The merits of deploying offensive testing to strengthen an organization’s security posture are well-understood by today’s security leadership. Much to the relief of defenders, obtaining approval for an offensive security exercise has never been easier. However, the process of selecting the most appropriate offensive testing solution requires untangling overlapping definitions and vaguely defined terminology that leaves security teams more confused than when they started.

Black Friday is only days away, and despite many stores sneaking holiday decorations onto their shelves since mid-September, it marks the official start of the December shopping frenzy. The coming days will not only bring a massive surge in sales, but also an equally large spike in cyber threats. For retailers of all sizes, this peak season is prime time for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities.

Crowdsourced penetration testing promises broad coverage, flexible resourcing, and cost efficiency by tapping into a distributed pool of security testers. Trustwave, A LevelBlue Company, realizes not every organization has the financial resources to partner with a security firm with dedicated penetration testing capabilities. At the same time, we want to make organizations aware of the many pitfalls in the crowdsourced pen-testing market and offer a few pointers on choosing the right vendors.

In eight short minutes on October 25, 2025, a group of thieves captured the world’s attention and imagination, perpetuating a daring heist in broad daylight and escaping with approximately €88 million worth of prized artwork from the planet’s most visited museum: The Louvre. Within the security community, the first successful robbery from the iconic Parisian landmark since 1998 was a bombshell story.