cyber Adventura

The verdict is out. AI is the buzzword.

Governments, regulators, utilities, society at large, global and local corporations are grappling with the proliferation of Artificial Intelligence and its impact on our lives.

A simple illustration can be made out of a that of a benign photograph will become a tool of misinformation taking form of a deepfake. Scraping information from the digital space can stitch together a fake but believable identity and can create headaches for enforcement and service industries.

On the other hand a deepfake picture can create misinformation, inflating bias in polarized societies and create potential rift and riots in multicultural/multiethnic societies.

Imagine the impact of AI on healthcare, economy, business, education, mass media and creative fields.

AI will touch every part of our lives, and its influence will ultimately converge on security and will have the potential to snowball into a bigger impact in 2026 and beyond.

But AI is not the only big security topic. The next topic affecting security is Post Quantum Cryptography.

In simplistic terms , Post-quantum cryptography is about protecting today’s data from tomorrow’s quantum computers.

Cryptographic encryption is used everywhere today. From using your email accounts, to transacting on your banking application, to browsing the internet and accessing websites. You don’t see the application of cryptography but it is everywhere from internet security in form of VPNs to HTTPS to data stored in your computers/disks.

Current encryption (like RSA and ECC) is secure against normal computers, but powerful quantum computers could break it much faster.

Post-quantum cryptography uses new types of encryption that are designed to stay secure even if quantum computers exist.

Think of today’s encryption like a strong lock: Normal computers take years to break it. A quantum computer is like a master key that can open it quickly.

Post-quantum cryptography replaces that lock with a new design that even the master key can’t open.

Why it will be a serious topic for organizations in 2026 is not only the current cryptographic algorithms broken in the advent of quantum computing but also pre-data leakage scenarios. Hackers can steal encrypted data today and store it to decrypt later when quantum computers improve (“harvest now, decrypt later”).

The third area would be Digital Sovereignty.

Digital sovereignty means a country or organization has control over its data, technology, and digital infrastructure instead of depending entirely on external providers.

For example a country like Indonesia or Chile stores all citizen data on foreign cloud servers:

• Data could be accessed under foreign laws.
• Services could be restricted during political conflict.

With digital sovereignty:

• Data stays local.
• Control remains with national authorities.

Digital sovereignty protects data, strengthens security, and ensures long-term independence in a digital world which also means localization of data centers in countries of origin.

The fourth and final area would be the impact on Identity and access management area especially management of identities and determining what constitutes a privilege access.

This is a continuously evolving topic as we will enter into an age where machine identities and/or non personal identities will outnumber human accounts. Organizations as well Enforcement agencies would like to have a clear overview of identities and structure them in a coherent and cohesive manner to create decisions and risk analysis and context awareness.

The above topics are just the tip of the iceberg. What will follow will branch out into different patterns of impact in security ecosystems . Thus 2026 will continue to be disruptive and contagious. But the best part of it is Governments, society and organizations and individuals at large are pondering over it and geared up for the challenge.

See you in 2026.