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10 must-have security technologies in 2026
Discover the top security technologies for 2026, from AI-enabled tools to quantum-safe protocols, as CISOs brace for evolving cyberthreats and attack surfaces.
The ever-evolving threat landscape looks particularly ominous to security executives scanning the 2026 horizon.
CISOs and their teams are bracing for more sophisticated, challenging and targeted AI-enabled cyberattacks. They're anticipating more geopolitically motivated attacks. And they're seeing their organizations' attack surfaces grow in size and complexity, making them harder to defend.
Against that backdrop, CEOs told the World Economic Forum for its "Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026" January report that they were most concerned about cyber-enabled fraud and phishing and AI vulnerabilities, while CISOs reported being most concerned with ransomware attacks and supply chain disruptions.
These worries are prompting a 2026 security technologies spending boom as organizations work to reinforce their defenses. Precedence Research, for example, reported that the global cybersecurity market will hit $339.96 billion in 2026, a 12% increase from 2025. By 2034, security spending will eclipse $875 billion, more than double 2026 expenditures, the company said.
The projected increase in spending is attributed to several factors, including existing and evolving threats, data privacy regulations, digital transformation, data breaches, privacy issues and more.
So, which technologies will help CISOs and their teams counter these challenges and defend their networks? Security practitioners require a range of technologies to get the job done in 2026, including the following.
1. AI-enabled security
AI-based security tools are viewed as the only way enterprises can keep pace with bad actors using AI to craft attacks.
"AI is being used effectively as a defense tool, and that's going to be useful to improve the resiliency of the organization," said Katrina Rosseini, a cybersecurity expert whose professional roles include serving as executive board chair for the Civilian Reserve Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
Many enterprise security products already boast machine learning, behavioral analytics and first-gen AI, but vendors are now using more powerful AI capabilities to further improve the accuracy and skillfulness of their products. For example, AI capabilities are now found in numerous enterprise security products and platforms, including threat detection tools, endpoint protection software, vulnerability management software, and security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR) platforms.
2. Identity and access management
IAM has become an even more critical technology in today's security environment, according to Damon McDougald, global security services lead at professional services firm Accenture.
IAM helps enterprises verify that only authorized users -- both human and machine -- can access systems and resources. "IAM is going to be a cornerstone of security as organizations move into the agentic AI realities of today and tomorrow," he said.
3. Continuous monitoring and remediation
Cyberattacks never stop, and the amount of time between an attacker's infiltration and exploitation continues to shrink. That makes point-in-time scans and tests -- checks at specific times to take a snapshot of the environment at that moment -- increasingly invaluable, said Kris Lovejoy, global head of strategy at Kyndryl, an IT infrastructure services provider. Organizations, she said, need tools that continuously monitor, diagnose and remediate so cybersecurity teams can "create a cycle between identifying problems and implementing solutions that gets a lot shorter."
This tech capability is found in various types of security software and systems, including endpoint detection and response (EDR), cloud-native application protection platforms, vulnerability management software, third-party risk management software and external attack surface management software.
4. Threat intelligence platforms
Demand for threat intelligence platforms -- which comb through various sources to collect, analyze, and operationalize data on known and emerging threats -- is rising as enterprises struggle with an increasing number of adversary tactics and alert volumes.
These platforms turn raw data coming from numerous feeds into actionable insights that security teams can use to proactively detect and identify malicious activity with greater speed and precision.
5. Unified intelligence platforms
Similar to threat intelligence platforms, unified intelligence platforms collect and aggregate data from disparate sources, including ERPs, CRMs and endpoint devices, to provide security teams with a single, real-time view of operations. These tools also have data management, analytics and AI capabilities that support security teams as they review, prioritize and act on generated information.
According to Virginia Romero, global delivery lead of incident response at cybersecurity and intelligence firm S-RM, the technology helps security teams "understand the IT environment holistically" and eliminate blind spots that attackers can more readily exploit.
6. Quantum-safe protocols and post-quantum cryptography
Quantum computing might not be here yet, but CISOs need to prepare now by adopting quantum-safe protocols and post-quantum cryptography, said Josh Schmidt, a partner in the advisory practice at professional services firm BPM. Post-quantum cryptography will be required to protect data from quantum computers able to break today's widely used encryption methods.
"There are quantum-safe protocols and algorithms that have been developed and need to be put in place," he said. "Starting now and over the next three to four years, organizations need to be implementing these technologies so when quantum arrives, they don't have a problem."
7. Secure access service edge
SASE is a cloud-based architecture that unifies a variety of network and cloud-native security technologies into a single cloud service.
Organizations can no longer rely on legacy defenses, such as firewalls, to secure their perimeters. That's because organizations no longer have a perimeter in this hyperconnected era. Yet, they still need defenses along their edge. That's where SASE comes in.
According to tech company Xalient, the SASE market will more than triple by 2033, growing to $33.54 billion from $9.27 billion in 2025.
8. Products that enable zero trust
Zero trust is what the name implies: The approach denies trust to entities trying to access systems or data until they prove who or what they claim to be and that they are doing the work they're authorized to do.
"We're going to see a lot more focus on architecting and engineering zero-trust principles in our network and identity frameworks so that we have better overall defense against AI-automated attacks," Kyndryl's Lovejoy said.
9. Shadow AI detection tools
Shadow AI can -- and often does -- expose protected and sensitive data. That's a significant concern, especially because eight out of 10 workers already use unauthorized AI tools, according to a survey from security company UpGuard.
The use of unsanctioned AI products might help employees get work done, but it also increases risk. These risks make shadow AI detection tools a must, said BPM's Schmidt.
10. Longstanding foundational security capabilities
CISOs and their teams must be flawless at the fundamentals even as new security tools come to market, new threats emerge and new best practices take hold.
Legacy tools will continue to play a key role, Lovejoy said. Among them are vulnerability and patch management, SOAR, SIEM and EDR. Even with the rollout of advanced security technologies in 2026, she said, "the reality is that security still has to be great at security basics."
Mary K. Pratt is an award-winning freelance journalist with a focus on covering enterprise IT and cybersecurity management.
