India’s digital infrastructure is expanding rapidly, while security capabilities are struggling to mature at the same pace. As organisations scale cloud adoption, AI-driven operations, and digital customer engagement, cyber threats are becoming more frequent, targeted, and disruptive. The India Cyber Threat Report 2026 recorded more than 265 million cyberattacks over the past year, indicating that existing defence approaches are increasingly under strain. Looking ahead to 2026, many cybersecurity failures are likely to arise not from a lack of tools, but from strategic and operational gaps. Five common missteps stand out.1. Many organisations continue to rely on static, rule-based controls and signature-driven detection. These approaches are poorly suited to adaptive and AI-enabled attacks. Modern phishing campaigns, for instance, are highly contextual and use role-specific and organisational signals to bypass traditional defences. This exposes the limitations of security architectures that depend on predefined rules rather than systems that can continuously adapt to evolving threat behaviour.

2. Ransomware is often treated as a one-time incident, even though it is increasingly deployed as a multi-stage operation. Attackers now combine encryption with data theft, extortion, and repeat targeting of the same environment. Failing to recognise this pattern leaves organisations exposed to prolonged disruption, particularly when backups, recovery processes, and network segmentation are inadequate or poorly tested.

3. The growing use of automation and AI in security operations has improved detection and response speed, but automation without governance introduces new risks. Over-reliance on automated decision-making can result in misprioritised incidents or compliance gaps. Effective use of AI in security operations requires clear oversight, with human judgment guiding responses in line with business risk and regulatory obligations.

4. Cybersecurity efforts often focus primarily on internal systems, while external digital risks receive less attention. Threats such as brand impersonation, fake domains, and social media fraud directly affect customer trust and organisational reputation. As attackers increasingly target brand identity rather than infrastructure alone, continuous monitoring of external digital exposure becomes a necessary part of enterprise security strategy.

5. AI adoption is frequently pursued as a standalone transformation initiative, separate from cybersecurity planning. As enterprises deploy agentic and orchestrated AI systems across core workflows, the absence of embedded security controls increases the risk of data exposure and operational failure. Integrating governance, access management, and security-by-design principles into AI initiatives is essential to prevent new vulnerabilities from being introduced at scale.>

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