FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. - s4story -- CyberEdge Group today announced the release of its 13th annual Cyberthreat Defense Report (CDR), a comprehensive global study capturing the perspectives of 1,200 IT security professionals across 17 countries and 19 industries. The 2026 report reveals a cybersecurity landscape increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence (AI), workforce transformation, and escalating threat sophistication.

AI Reshaping the Cybersecurity Workforce and Threat Landscape
This year's findings underscore the profound and accelerating impact of AI on cybersecurity operations and talent:

• Pink slips on the horizon. 80% of IT security professionals believe AI will significantly reduce the number of people required to perform their current roles. Among them, 46% expect this shift to occur within the next two years, signaling possible rapid workforce disruption.
• AI skills for new hires. 97% of IT security hiring managers are actively seeking candidates with at least one AI-related skill, highlighting a critical shift in workforce requirements.
• The dark side of AI. 46% of respondents report that AI is contributing to a rise in adaptive and evasive malware, reflecting attackers' growing use of AI-powered techniques.
• LLM headaches. From a list of 14 IT components, proprietary large language models (LLMs) are viewed as the most difficult to secure, emphasizing new and complex risk vectors introduced by AI adoption.

"AI is no longer an emerging technology in cybersecurity—it is a defining force," said Steve Piper, founder and CEO of CyberEdge Group. "Organizations are simultaneously leveraging AI for defense while contending with adversaries who are weaponizing it, creating a rapidly evolving and highly dynamic threat environment."

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Persistent Challenges Beyond AI
While AI dominates this year's narrative, the report also highlights ongoing operational and strategic challenges:

• Stretched too thin. "Lack of skilled personnel" remains the top inhibitor to cybersecurity success, reinforcing the urgency of talent development—particularly in AI-related domains.
• A quantum problem. 94% of organizations are beginning to prepare for quantum computing security risks, with 54% actively developing plans to strengthen their security postures and risk mitigation strategies.
• More paying up. 64% of organizations experienced a ransomware attack in the past year. Of those that were victimized, the percentage paying a ransom increased substantially, from 41% to 55%.
• Fewer left empty-handed. Of those victimized organizations that paid ransoms, 61% successfully recovered their data – up from 54% last year.

On a positive note, 90% of organizations increased their IT security budgets in 2026—a record high for the report...

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Download the full report from any sponsor or visit: www.cyberedgegroup.com/CDR.