Signal "Permanent instability" becomes the founding premise of 2026 cybersecurity strategy

Summary

Security practitioners have adopted "permanent instability" as the founding premise of 2026 cybersecurity strategy, framing the threat landscape as continuous atmospheric instability rather than periodic crises. The article, authored by Zeina Zakhour, VP Global CTO for Eviden and Cybersecurity at Atos Group, argues investment should shift from coverage toward operational continuity, decision-grade visibility, and controlled adaptation. Recommended attack-surface strategies include Automated Moving Target Defense (AMTD), Advanced Cyber Deception, and Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM), aimed at making attacker intelligence unreliable and short-lived. AI is described as increasingly embedded within security tools across prevention, detection, and response, with security operations centers evolving into decision engines. Access management moves toward continuous decisioning rather than one-time authorization, with added attention to non-human identities such as service accounts and API tokens. EU governments and critical infrastructure operators face 2026 milestones to develop post-quantum cryptography roadmaps in response to "harvest now, decrypt later" threats.