Insider Brief
- NordVPN experts warn that cybersecurity risks in 2026 will intensify due to internet monoculture, AI-driven attacks, misinformation, erosion of digital trust, and emerging quantum threats.
- Cybercrime is becoming more scalable and automated, with AI enabling faster attacks, synthetic identities, deepfakes, and “harvest now, decrypt later” strategies.
- The report stresses that improving digital hygiene and security habits is critical as technical defenses alone are no longer sufficient.
Experts at NordVPN Reveal Five Emerging Cyberthreats Set to Mark a New Era of Digital Danger
Cybercriminals are entering 2026 with new capabilities powered by artificial intelligence, automation, and increasingly sophisticated deception techniques. As people rely more than ever on digital services, smart devices, and online communication, the threats facing everyday users are growing in both scale and complexity. As new tools and tactics continue to emerge, it’s crucial to stay informed about the risks ahead and understand the forces shaping tomorrow’s attacks.
What Are the 5 Major Cybersecurity Threats in 2026?
1. Risk of Internet Monoculture
Internet monoculture is a cybersecurity vulnerability that occurs when millions of users rely on identical infrastructure providers, creating systemic single points of failure. The concentration of internet traffic through dominant cloud platforms (AWS, Azure), content delivery networks (Cloudflare), and productivity suites (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365) means a security breach or outage in one service can simultaneously compromise millions of users, fundamentally reducing internet resilience and increasing attack profitability.
This monoculture makes hacking more profitable because even a small gain per person, when scaled across millions of users on a single platform, results in large earnings for criminals. Historically, using heterogeneous networks (Sun Microsystems, Linux, Windows servers) made systems less appealing targets by increasing the cost for attackers.
Internet monoculture creates the following cybersecurity vulnerabilities:
- Cascading failures: A single service outage affects millions of users simultaneously
- Attack scalability: Hackers can exploit one vulnerability across multiple organizations
- Reduced diversity: Homogeneous systems eliminate defensive redundancy
- Increased profitability: Small per-user gains scale to massive criminal earnings
“Because the digital ecosystem nowadays is largely monocultural, everyone becomes a target. Online, there is no such thing as being uninteresting. Any small piece of data, even something as simple as DNS records, can be sold, aggregated, and monetized. Simply existing online makes you a target,” explains Adrianus Warmenhoven, cybersecurity expert at NordVPN.
2. Increasing Misinformation Through New Channels
Over the course of 2025, it was observed that on discussion platforms like Reddit, as well as other social media and streaming platforms, sensible security measures and online privacy habits were often ridiculed by other users. This trend is expected to increase in 2026, with serious repercussions for individual online safety and privacy.
Criminal organizations, which are sometimes better organized than legitimate businesses, have dedicated marketing and advertising units aimed at promoting poor security habits to keep users vulnerable. Capable of spending significant funds, these organizations are increasingly likely to buy or create influencers to promote insecure habits or products with weaker security standards.
3. AI-driven Vulnerabilities and Accelerated Cyberattacks
AI chatbot platforms, including ChatGPT and similar tools, commonly store conversation histories in browser local storage—an insecure location vulnerable to information-stealing malware. This storage method exposes sensitive user data, including passwords, financial information, personal health details, and confidential business communications to info-stealer attacks. Despite security warnings, users continue sharing sensitive information with AI systems, creating an expanding attack surface for cybercriminals in 2026. While attackers will increasingly target such information, AI companies also use user data to train their models.
“2026 will also see a dramatic escalation in AI-powered offense and defense. AI has altered the accessibility and sophistication of cybercrime, lowering barriers for less technical actors while amplifying the capabilities of experienced criminals”, says Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN.
Cybercriminals are already experimenting with autonomous AI systems that can probe networks, identify weaknesses, and exploit vulnerabilities with minimal human oversight. These systems can learn, iterate, and adapt, making attacks faster and harder to predict, supporting phishing campaigns or social engineering. Advanced AI models like “Evil GPT” are easily and cheaply available on the dark web, often for around $10.
| AI Capability | Attack Application | Impact Level |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomous network probing | Self-learning vulnerability detection | High |
| Natural language processing | Hyper-personalized phishing campaigns | Critical |
| Pattern recognition | Behavioral analysis for social engineering | High |
| Rapid iteration | Real-time attack adaptation | Critical |
| Dark web AI models (e.g., Evil GPT) | Accessible advanced attack tools (~$10) | Moderate-High |
4. Erosion of Trust
Trust is expected to become one of the biggest security challenges in 2026. As more services become fully cloud-based, authentication processes will be increasingly targeted. This includes deepfakes, voice cloning, realistic synthetic personas, automated phishing chats, and hyper-personalized attacks that blur the line between authentic and artificial.
Criminals will create entirely fake synthetic identities, combining real user data with fabricated information, to access cloud accounts, open bank accounts, apply for credit, and commit crimes for years before detection. AI-enabled scams and fraud will increase productivity for criminals and make fraudulent websites and services increasingly difficult to detect. Ultimately, trust in digital devices and services may erode completely.
5. Viability of Quantum Security Threats
“The quantum computing market is projected to surpass $5 billion in 2026, with much of the new investment aimed at commercializing its impact beyond niche applications. As a result, cybersecurity will become a major focus”, explains Marijus Briedis, CTO at NordVPN.
Quantum computing is reaching cryptographic relevance thresholds that threaten current encryption standards, particularly RSA-2048 and elliptic curve cryptography. While full-scale quantum decryption capabilities remain 5-10 years away, cybercriminals are actively executing “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) attacks—systematically stealing encrypted data today with the objective of retroactively decrypting it once quantum computers achieve sufficient qubit stability and error correction. Once viable quantum decryption emerges, potentially decades of archived encrypted communications, financial transactions, and classified information could be simultaneously exposed.
Once quantum decryption becomes viable, decades’ worth of private information could be exposed. For organizations and individuals alike, quantum resilience should no longer be a future concern but a current priority.
“As the borders between the physical and digital worlds blur, cybersecurity is no longer just a technical issue but a societal one. It’s like teaching a child to eat a sandwich but not how to brush their teeth. Digital education has focused on literacy (how to use devices) whereas the focus must shift to digital hygiene, cultivating good security habits. In 2026, this will become more important than ever,” concludes cybersecurity expert Adrianus Warmenhoven.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is internet monoculture and why is it dangerous?
Internet monoculture refers to the widespread reliance on identical cloud providers, CDNs, and software platforms across millions of users, creating concentrated single points of failure. This consolidation makes cyberattacks more profitable and reduces the internet’s overall resilience, as one security breach can simultaneously compromise millions of users.
What does “harvest now, decrypt later” mean in cybersecurity?
“Harvest now, decrypt later” is a strategy where cybercriminals steal encrypted data today with the expectation that future quantum computers will be able to decrypt it. This approach allows attackers to accumulate encrypted communications, financial records, and sensitive information that may become readable within 5-10 years as quantum computing advances.
How are AI tools like ChatGPT creating new security vulnerabilities?
AI chatbots often store conversation histories in browser local storage, an insecure location vulnerable to information-stealing malware. Users frequently share sensitive personal, financial, and business information with these tools, creating an expanding attack surface that cybercriminals can exploit through info-stealer attacks.
What are synthetic identities and how do criminals use them?
Synthetic identities are fraudulent personas created by combining real user data with fabricated information, allowing criminals to pass authentication systems. These fake identities are used to open bank accounts, access cloud services, apply for credit, and commit fraud for years before detection becomes possible.
Why is digital trust eroding in 2026?
Digital trust is eroding due to the proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes, voice cloning, hyper-personalized phishing attacks, and synthetic personas that are increasingly indistinguishable from authentic communications. This technology makes it progressively harder to verify the authenticity of digital interactions, messages, and identities.
What is Evil GPT and why is it concerning?
Evil GPT refers to advanced AI models designed specifically for malicious purposes that are available on the dark web for approximately $10. These accessible AI tools enable even non-technical criminals to launch sophisticated cyberattacks, lowering barriers to cybercrime and amplifying threat capabilities.
How can individuals protect themselves against 2026 cyber threats?
Individuals can improve protection by practicing strong digital hygiene including using unique passwords with password managers, enabling multi-factor authentication, avoiding sharing sensitive information with AI chatbots, verifying identities through multiple channels, and staying informed about emerging threats. Technical defenses alone are insufficient without behavioral security practices.
When will quantum computers be able to break current encryption?
While large-scale quantum decryption capabilities remain approximately 5-10 years away, quantum computing is rapidly approaching thresholds where current encryption standards like RSA-2048 may become vulnerable. The quantum computing market is projected to exceed $5 billion in 2026, accelerating research toward cryptographically relevant quantum computers.
Why are criminals promoting poor security habits on social media?
Criminal organizations operate dedicated marketing units that deliberately promote insecure online habits to keep users vulnerable to attacks. These groups invest in buying or creating influencers on platforms like Reddit and other social media to ridicule security measures and promote products with weaker security standards, increasing the pool of exploitable victims.
What makes AI-powered cyberattacks more dangerous than traditional attacks?
AI-powered cyberattacks are autonomous systems that can probe networks, identify weaknesses, and exploit vulnerabilities with minimal human oversight while continuously learning and adapting. This makes attacks faster, harder to predict, more personalized, and capable of operating at unprecedented scale compared to manual attack methods.
