Cybersecurity Prediction 4: Threat Actor Lineup Shifts.

In 2026 two classes of threat actors will rise in the overall impact rankings: Data Harvester and Vulnerability Researcher. AI tools will benefit them greatly in their pursuits, which will have a cascading impact on the types of attacks and damage caused.

Nation States and Cybercriminals won’t be displaced from their top spots, but are you ready for the impacts of these two up-and-coming threat actor archetypes?


If you are interested in a complete list of the 26 different cybersecurity Threat Agent archetypes, you can download a full spreadsheet that details the attributes, motivations, and objectives of each group. The list is available for free at Cybersecurity Insights: https://www.cybersecurityinsights.us/

Read the full predictions paper here: https://matthewrosenquist.substack.com/p/top-10-cybersecurity-predictions
 
Full predictions breakdown video, where I go into great detail for each of the Top 10 predictions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7sKkqU1hSk
 
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