Geopolitics, AI, and Regulation to Intensify CISO Challenges in 2026

The year 2025 marked a turning point where cybersecurity evolved from a technical concern into a geopolitical and regulatory battleground. 
  
As political transitions in the U.S. and global instability reshaped digital defense strategies, CISOs found themselves at the intersection of technology, governance, and international tension.
 
In the U.S., the shift from one administration to another disrupted continuity in cybersecurity programs.
 
 The outgoing government’s emphasis on strengthening cyber defenses contrasted sharply with the new administration’s plans to revise funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). 
 
This uncertainty destabilized critical systems like the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) framework and the CyberSentry program, amplifying risk across sectors.
 
At the same time, Generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI rapidly penetrated cybersecurity ecosystems, offering both opportunity and peril. 
 
Malicious actors began exploiting AI tools to execute sophisticated cyberattacks with minimal expertise.

 
 Forrester predicts that by 2026, an agentic AI deployment will trigger a major public breach, leading to employee dismissals and internal crises.
 
The root cause won’t be a single actor but a cascade of systemic failures—inadequate governance, rushed automation, and lack of security oversight. 
 
Many organizations are unprepared for how autonomous AI agents trade accuracy for speed, especially in customer-facing environments.
 
To mitigate these risks, Forrester recommends adopting its AEGIS framework — securing AI intent, strengthening identity and access controls, monitoring agent activity, and enforcing data provenance and integrity standards.
 
Meanwhile, compliance pressures are mounting under new EU laws such as the Cyber Resilience Act and Digital Operational Resilience Act m. As CISOs balance innovation and regulation, the coming year will demand a shift from reactive defense to proactive, AI-aware cybersecurity leadership.