Cybersecurity in 2026 will be shaped by accelerating AI adoption, expanding cloud environments, and increasingly sophisticated attackers who target identities, data, and third‑party ecosystems. Organizations across financial services, payments, and technology are facing both unprecedented risks and unprecedented opportunities to strengthen defenses.
Here we distill the latest research into clear, actionable information you can use to strengthen your cybersecurity posture today.
1. AI‑Driven Cyberattacks and AI Security Strategies
Artificial intelligence is now deeply embedded in business workflows – but it is equally embedded in cyberattack patterns. NIST’s adversarial AI research highlights how attackers are exploiting AI systems through techniques like data poisoning, model manipulation, and malicious prompt injection.
IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 reveals the consequences:
What this means for you:
Organizations must secure AI the same way they secure any critical system – by enforcing identity controls, verifying data integrity, and monitoring for prompt‑based and model‑level attacks.
2. Why Cyber Resilience Is Essential for Financial Institutions
Gartner predicts that cybersecurity programs are shifting toward resilience – ensuring business continuity even during an incident. By 2028, half of CISOs will be asked to own disaster recovery responsibilities in addition to security operations.
Gartner also identifies machine identity management, AI‑native security platforms, and confidential computing as pivotal to building resilience. These trends enable organizations to contain incidents faster and safeguard sensitive data in distributed, AI‑heavy environments.
What this means for you:
Your strategy should prioritize rapid recovery, strong identity governance, and protection of data‑in‑use – particularly across cloud and AI workloads.
3. Rising Third‑Party Cyber Risks
Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report signals an alarming shift:
For small and midsize organizations, the impact is even greater – 88% of SMB breaches involved ransomware.
What this means for you:
Modern risk management requires continuous monitoring of vendor access, secrets, API integrations, and software supply chain integrity – not just annual reviews.
4. How FIs Are Integrating Fraud, AML, and Cybersecurity
Datos Insights finds that financial institutions are rapidly integrating fraud prevention, AML, and cybersecurity functions to keep pace with AI‑enabled criminal activity. Top recent priorities include:
- API security for open banking.
- Modern identity verification.
- AI‑assisted fraud detection.
At the board level, cyber risk oversight is becoming a top strategic priority. 57% of financial institution leaders rank improving cyber governance at the board level as their No. 1 objective.
What this means for you:
Expect tighter integration between risk programs, more rigorous API security expectations, and increased regulatory scrutiny of cyber governance.
5. AI‑Driven Fraud Trends Impacting Payments and Banking
Jack Henry’s 2026 banking and payments research shows the industry is experiencing a structural shift in fraud threats as mobile wallets, digital payments, and open‑banking APIs surge. FIs must respond with:
- Risk‑adaptive authentication.
- Real‑time fraud analytics.
- AI guardrails embedded directly into consumer‑facing platforms.
Attackers increasingly use AI to personalize scams, evade detection, and automate credential theft – making traditional fraud defenses less effective.
What this means for you:
Your fraud strategy must evolve in parallel with customer expectations for seamless, low‑friction digital experiences.
6. Cloud Misconfigurations and Identity Gaps Remain the #1 Causes of Breaches
Gartner’s cloud security architecture guidance highlights the root problem: almost all cloud breaches stem from misconfiguration and inadequate identity controls. Organizations struggle with multi‑cloud complexity, inadequate logging, and inconsistent policies across SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS.
Industry research on cybersecurity further indicates that:
- 99% of cloud security failures are now the customer’s responsibility, primarily due to identity and configuration gaps.
- Data breaches involving cloud resources have increased 25% year‑over‑year.
What this means for you:
Cloud‑native security – Zero Trust, posture automation, encryption, and continuous monitoring – is now mandatory to reduce exposure.
7. Why Identity Security Is the New Cyber Battleground
Verizon DBIR confirms the continued dominance of identity‑based attacks:
- Credential abuse accounts for 22% of breaches.
- 60% of breaches involve human error.
- Unmanaged devices were behind 46% of compromised systems.
Meanwhile, Gartner warns that machine identities (API keys, service accounts, automation credentials) now outnumber human identities dramatically – and are often unmanaged.
What this means for you:
Identity-first security (for humans and machines) is now the strongest predictor of breach prevention.
Key Cybersecurity Priorities for Financial Institutions in 2026
Final Thoughts
The cybersecurity landscape in 2026 will reward organizations that prioritize resilience, unify identity management, secure AI workflows, and modernize cloud and third‑party defenses. The threats outlined above are significant – but they are manageable with the right strategy and investments.
As a trusted partner, Jack Henry® is committed to helping you navigate these evolving risks with clarity, confidence, and industry‑leading expertise. Interested in learning more about how you can protect your institution and your accountholders? Connect with a Jack Henry technology expert today.
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