2026 CrowdStrike Global Threat Report: Key Takeaways

The analysis of the 2026 Global Threat Report clearly shows that threats are centered around several strategic areas that defined adversaries’ effectiveness in 2025 – and which will be crucial for building organizational resilience in 2026.

1. Adversary Operational Speed

The reduction of the average eCrime breakout time to just 29 minutes (that is 65% faster than in 2024). The fastest recorded attack was just 27 seconds. Reaction time has become a critical factor. Attacks develop faster than traditional decision-making processes in SOCs, and organizations without real-time response automation and correlation operate significantly delayed.

Simultaneously, the report shows that the scale of adversaries is growing – CrowdStrike currently tracks 281 active adversary groups, with 24 new groups identified in 2025 alone. The threat ecosystem is not only accelerating but also expanding.

2. Malware-Free Intrusions and Identity Abuse

82% of detections in 2025 concerned activities without the use of classic malware (while in 2020 it was 51%). Techniques based on:

• compromised credentials,
• abuse of legitimate administrative tools,
• manipulating access policies,
• operations in SaaS and the cloud using valid authentication mechanisms

Identity has become the main battleground, and the “identity-first security” model is becoming a foundation.

3. AI as a Multiplier of Attack Effectiveness

The year 2025 saw an 89% increase in attacks carried out using artificial intelligence. AI is used for:

• generating credible phishing and vishing campaigns,
• automating reconnaissance,
• creating and modifying code,
• supporting post-exploitation activities.

CrowdStrike Services and CrowdStrike OverWatch responded in over 90 client cases where systems executed malicious code from an attacker utilizing local AI tools (e.g., Claude and Gemini) to generate commands for stealing credentials and cryptocurrencies. AI today plays a dual role: accelerating attackers’ activities and creating a new attack surface. Without appropriate monitoring, AI becomes an uncontrolled risk vector.

4. Cloud Under Pressure – Especially in State Operations

35% of cloud incidents were associated with the abuse of valid accounts (valid account abuse). The report points to a 37% increase in targeted attacks on cloud environments year over year, with state-associated cybercriminal groups experiencing an increase of up to 266%. This huge disparity is a clear signal that state operations are focusing on:

• identity environments,
• federations and tenant relationships,
• data in SaaS,
• strategic infrastructure sectors.

5. China-nexus and the Logistics Sector

Activity of entities linked to China increased by 38% in 2025, and in the logistics sector by as much as 85%. Of the vulnerabilities they exploited, 40% concerned edge devices exposed to the internet. Attackers consistently targeted, among others, VPN devices, firewalls, gateways, and other perimeter systems, treating these as the preferred vector for initial access.

6. Utilization of Zero-day Vulnerabilities and the Shrinking “Security Window”

The report points to a 42% increase in the use of zero-day vulnerabilities before their public disclosure, which shortened the time between the discovery of a flaw and its active exploitation. In practice, this means that organizations may find themselves in a situation where an exploit is operating in a production environment even before the official patch is implemented.

Therefore, not only is the reaction time shortened, but the “security window” between discovering a vulnerability and its operational use by an adversary is also shrinking. In this reality, patch management must be supplemented with segmentation, privilege restriction, and advanced detection, which allow mitigating the attack’s impact even when the vulnerability is already being actively used.

The conclusions from the 2026 Global Threat Report are clear: in the era of the ‘evasive adversary,’ the traditional, siloed security model is no longer effective. CrowdStrike recommends an approach based on several key pillars:

1. Securing AI and mitigating new operational risks

With the increasing integration of AI in business processes, the attack surface is also expanding. Organizations should implement comprehensive security and governance mechanisms for AI systems — covering access control, monitoring employee use of AI tools, data classification, and protecting their own models from runtime attacks (e.g., prompt injection). It is also necessary to include AI in incident response plans and business continuity strategies.

2. Treating identity and SaaS as primary attack surfaces

Identity has become a key attack vector. Adversaries are increasingly basing their actions on phishing, vishing, and OAuth token theft. Organizations should implement phishing-resistant MFA, the principle of least privilege (also for service accounts and non-human identities) and active anomaly monitoring in SaaS environments to detect abuses before escalation occurs.

3. Eliminating ‘blind spots’ between security domains

The most advanced attacks do not exploit a single vulnerability — they exploit the lack of consistency between systems. Attacks combine endpoints, cloud, SaaS, and unmanaged resources. Therefore, it is crucial to ensure telemetry consolidation and event correlation in the XDR model and modern SIEM, enriched with threat intelligence. Only full visibility of the attack path allows for a reduced response time.

4. Securing the software supply chain and development environments

Software updates and open-source dependencies have become an attractive target for attacks. Organizations should strengthen the security of development environments, enforce code signing, dependency validation, repository scanning, and security control of CI/CD pipelines. Supply chain protection is now a component of the organization’s cyber resilience.

5. Prioritizing patching and monitoring of border devices

VPNs, firewalls, and other perimeter systems are one of the most common points of entry for advanced groups. It is necessary to reduce the triage and patching time of internet-facing devices, enable full logging and monitoring, and implement network segmentation to limit lateral movement in case of compromise.

6. Proactively leveraging Threat Intelligence and Threat Hunting

In a world where attacks evolve within minutes, organizations should adopt an intelligence-driven approach — understanding which adversaries are active in their sector and how they operate. Continuous Threat Hunting allows the detection of hidden footholds before an incident escalates. AI support increases the scale and speed of security teams’ operations.

7. Strengthening organizational resilience against social engineering

The human factor remains a key element of the security chain. Cybersecurity awareness programs should reflect the real techniques used by adversaries, not just theoretical scenarios. It is essential to conduct regular red/blue team exercises, which allow testing the readiness of teams under time pressure and reduce the gap between detection and response.

The 2026 Global Threat Report clearly shows that cybersecurity is entering a new phase. Attacks are faster, more targeted, and increasingly conducted without the use of classic malware. Adversaries exploit artificial intelligence, abuse user identities, bypass traditional protective mechanisms, and combine actions across multiple areas simultaneously — from workstations, through the cloud and SaaS applications, to edge devices.

The report’s findings clearly indicate that effective protection today requires a cohesive security architecture, full visibility of events across the environment, and response automation. This approach, which CrowdStrike is consistently developing, integrates endpoint protection, identity, cloud environments, and threat analysis into a single operational model.

If you wish to discuss how to translate the report’s conclusions into specific actions for your company, please contact us. We are happy to help select strategies and technologies tailored to the real challenges of your organization!

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