In 2026, cybersecurity will continue to evolve across technological, geopolitical, economic and strategic dimensions.

Over the past year, cyberspace has become deeply intertwined with geopolitics, the global economy and the daily lives of individuals and institutions alike. A new generation of cyber incidents has exposed the fragility of these connections: disruptions in retail and manufacturing chains, aviation slowdowns, intrusions into public-sector systems and hyperscale cloud outages. Each event underscored how tightly interlinked the digital ecosystem has become – where a single local fault or targeted attack can rapidly cascade into global-scale consequences.

In 2026, cybersecurity will continue to evolve across technological, geopolitical, economic and strategic dimensions. In this landscape, cybersecurity is no longer a backroom technical function; it is a core strategic concern for governments, businesses and societies. The coming year will test not only global technological preparedness but also the capacity to align policy, ethics and collaboration in defending an increasingly digital world.

Over the past five years, the Global Cybersecurity Outlook has traced the developments in risks related to the digital landscape – from the urgency of the pandemic-driven digitalization to today’s environment of accelerating complexity, fragmentation and technological transformation.

The 2022 edition captured a world adapting to unprecedented connectivity. As organizations raced to digitize operations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the report warned of widening capability gaps that left smaller institutions and nations struggling to defend their increasingly digital infrastructure.

By 2023, cyber risk had become inseparable from geopolitics. The report documented how escalating geopolitical instability and supply chain interdependencies reshaped corporate priorities.

The 2024 edition described a world of polarization and uneven progress. The cybersecurity economy grew faster than the global economy, but this growth masked deepening cyber inequity between resilient, well-resourced organizations and those falling behind.

In 2025, the fourth edition found that a series of compounding factors – geopolitical tension, intricate supply chains, regulatory proliferation and rapid technological adoption – were creating an era of escalating complexity and unpredictability.

Across these four years and leading into the fifth, one theme stands out: collaboration has become indispensable in a fragmented world facing rising threats, a widening tech divide and growing inequity that risk deepening the cyber resilience gap.