Justin Rutherford, chief technology officer at cloud managed services company OryxAlign, discusses the biggest threats to cloud security in 2026 and the measures businesses should take to enhance resilience.
According to Cybersecurity Insiders, unauthorised access is cited as the top cloud threat by nearly two‑thirds of security professionals, while phishing and social engineering have surged as a dominant force of attack. The addition of AI and automation only add layers of intricacy and sophistication to such attacks and businesses should now be taking further precautions as well as traditional cybersecurity practices.
Automation as the new battle force
AI is now the engine powering both attacks and defences in cloud networks, with cybercriminals leveraging the technologyI to mimic human behaviour and discover weaknesses faster than ever. Cloud adversaries conduct convincing impersonations and tailored social engineering content to execute credential compromise at large scales. For organisations with weak identities and poor policy controls, these attacks can unfold in hours rather than weeks.
Industry data supports these concerns. Cybersecurity insights for 2026 consistently highlight “identity and access management failures as one of the most common contributors to breaches, with unauthorised access and credential misuse featuring heavily across reported incidents.” With machine identities and AI-powered impersonation rapidly emerging as dominant attacks, organisations without robust identity and access management controls, are increasingly exposed.
But AI’s dual role complicates defence. While it empowers threat actors, it also enhances defensive capabilities through predictive threat detection, behavioural analytics and rapid incident response. However, organisations should still be cautious. Automated mitigation is not a cure-all. If not deployed carefully, automation itself can disrupt services and widen attack surfaces. Instead, organisations must script automation playbooks that safely escalate incidents while preserving operational continuity.
Persistent vulnerability
Cloud environments are inherently dynamic. This agility aids innovation, but it also introduces systemic risk. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) listed misconfiguration as a leading cause of cloud breaches worldwide, as up to 33 per cent of cloud security incidents in 2024 were linked to configuration errors in 2024. Even with tools in place, inconsistent application of policies and default permissions can open doors wide for attackers.
Beyond static configuration, maintenance and visibility are critical. Organisations often set up cloud services without enforcing ongoing review cycles, leaving dormant credentials and excessive entitlements to accumulate unchecked. Without a unified view of identities, application programming interfaces (APIs) and access patterns, risk grows invisibly until it’s exploited.
For this reason, strong Identity and access management (IAM) practices, including multi-factor authentication and least‑privilege access, are foundational to cloud security. To increase resilience further, processes like just‑in‑time access and single sign‑on integration are recommended to simplify governance and shrink privilege surfaces
Cloud misconfiguration not only exposes data, but also undermines compliance. Missteps in policy alignment with frameworks such as NIS2, GDPR and UK regulations like the upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill can have financial and reputational consequences. Achieving continuous compliance, rather than periodic audit checks, builds resilience against both internal oversight risk and external threat actors.
Old threats reimagined
Despite the sophistication of modern threats, basic social engineering remains an enduring problem. Phishing is still a significant contributor to cloud security breaches and identity compromise. In fact, human error, frequently triggered by misleading links or credential harvesting, still accounts for most data filter breaches globally.
Just as technology has evolved, so have phishing tactics. Attackers now craft communications tailored to cloud platforms, mimicking SaaS tools and trusted services, often bypassing legacy email filters. The rise in generative AI has only escalated this threat. Recent reports highlight that AI policy violations, where users inadvertently upload sensitive data to unmanaged AI tools, have more than doubled, creating fresh attack surfaces that standard controls often miss.
This makes behavioural awareness and security culture just as critical as the latest cyber defence software. Visibility enables awareness, once an organisation can see what’s happening in its estate, it can effectively educate teams about real‑world threats and reduce risky behaviour.
Building updated resilience
So, what does resilience look like in 2026? For OryxAlign, it starts with comprehensive visibility. Capturing a unified data layer across identities, services and event streams gives security teams the context they need to respond confidently to anomalies. Coupled with zero‑trust architectures and encrypted traffic inspection, this visibility closes blind spots that attackers exploit.
From there, continuous compliance mapping ensures that security isn’t reactive but proactive, matching real‑time controls with regulatory expectations and evolving threats. Purple teaming exercises, which simulate genuine breach scenarios, extend beyond theoretical policy into actionable preparedness. This kind of intentionally adversarial testing reveals gaps that audits alone often miss, forcing teams to refine strategies before a real incident occurs.
The work is iterative and never complete, but organisations that treat cloud security as a strategic priority will be better positioned to withstand threats that are only growing in scale and sophistication.
Cloud security in 2026 is more than a set of tools. It requires both a mindset shift and strategic investment. As attackers use AI to automate and escalate their operations, businesses must respond with equal intelligence, Misconfiguration and human error still lie at the heart of many breaches, but with unified visibility and continuous compliance, organisations can dramatically improve their security posture.
The transformation isn’t easy, but the alternative is untenable. By prioritising identity security, contextual awareness and advanced automation playbooks, organisations can protect sensitive data and maintain resilience in the face of evolving threats like AI.
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