7 cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities to watch in 2026

The CVE Program published 48,162 CVE records in 2025, illustrating how quickly the vulnerability landscape continues to expand. While there’s clearly no shortage of security vulnerabilities, a few types tend to spring up more than others, especially in business contexts.

Defending against cybersecurity vulnerabilities, especially unpatched software flaws, requires continuous detection and rapid remediation. Organizations should scan their environment for known CVEs, prioritize vulnerabilities by actual risk, deploy the appropriate patches or mitigations, and verify that each issue is resolved.

Phishing

Threat actors use phishing to trick an unsuspecting person into completing a desired action. For example, a hacker may send an email blast to everyone at a company that directs them to take immediate action or else they’ll lose their benefits. The immediate action? Clicking on a malicious link that masquerades as legitimate. In turn, the user unknowingly executes malware or is redirected to a page asking for sensitive information.

Phishing is one of the most popular cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Why? Because it works. Over 3.4 billion phishing emails are estimated to go out daily. Phishing was also the most common initial attack vector among all data breaches at organizations last year. It’s simple: People respond to urgency without thinking, which is exactly what threat actors bet on.

How to defend against phishing attacks

To defend against a phishing attack, you first have to be able to recognize a phishing attack. Make sure your end users know to look for typos and inaccuracies, examine the tone, identify and verify the sender, and use common sense when reading emails. And when in doubt, they should enlist the help of an IT professional such as yourself to play it safe. (Beats dealing with a security incident at 3 a.m., am I right?)

Other ways to defend your business against phishing include installing updates, using multifactor authentication, enforcing password policies, using up-to-date antivirus software, setting up firewalls, using a secure email gateway, backing up your devices, and — of course — training your end users.

Zero days

A zero-day vulnerability is a newly discovered vulnerability for which an effective patch is not yet available or defenders have had little or no time to apply one. Some zero-days are already being exploited when they become publicly known, which can leave organizations relying on mitigations and compensating controls until a fix is released.

Zero days vary in severity. For example, an exploited vulnerability in a not-so-popular program is significantly less dangerous than one in an application that serves as the backbone for many programs (e.g., Java in Log4j). Either way, you should address zero days as soon as possible — because while security researchers are working on a fix, hackers are exploiting the vulnerability in the wild. 

How to defend against zero days

You cannot guarantee that you will prevent every zero-day attack, but layered defenses can reduce the likelihood and impact of exploitation.

These threats are unique because threat actors — not software vendors or security researchers — usually discover them first. So, when security researchers discover there’s a problem, it’s only because the zero day is already being exploited in the wild.

There are ways to minimize damage from a zero-day attack, however. Keep your endpoint security tools up to date. Modern antivirus and endpoint detection and response tools may identify known malware signatures, suspicious behavior, unusual processes, or other signs of exploitation. However, no security tool can guarantee protection against every zero-day attack.

You should also maintain an incident response and disaster recovery plan, but preparation shouldn’t stop there. Accurate asset inventories, network segmentation, strong access controls, centralized logging, dependency visibility, and tested backups can all help you detect exploitation faster and limit the damage.

You can also look for ways to remediate or mitigate a zero day while waiting for an official patch to be released. This could look like disabling services or features or deleting software or files. You might also consider increasing your log audits and limiting your attack surface however you can. If a zero day impacts a business-critical component, it’s better to find other ways to minimize your risk rather than being a sitting duck, waiting on a patch.

How to prioritize a zero-day vulnerability

Check whether CISA has added the vulnerability to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog, which tracks vulnerabilities confirmed to be exploited in the wild. If affected assets are exposed or business-critical, apply the vendor’s mitigation immediately and prepare an emergency deployment for the patch when it becomes available.

Remote code execution

Remote code execution (RCE) is an attack tactic that enables hackers to run malicious code on infected devices. If attackers successfully exploit an RCE vulnerability, they may be able to run code on the affected system. Depending on the privileges and network access they obtain, they may then attempt to steal data, establish persistence, escalate privileges, or move laterally to other systems.

One common way hackers launch a remote code execution attack is through Structured Query Language (SQL) injection. For example, say you have a website with a form that asks for typical user information: name, address, phone number, etc. A hacker might try inserting SQL code instead of their name on the form. When the hacker hits submit, the website processes the entry, running the code the hacker inserted. Once the malicious code runs, the hacker can perform nefarious activities — such as data exfiltration, where the hacker exports all the data in the database for their own use.

How to defend against remote code execution

The SQL injection scenario we just walked through could have been prevented through secure database query practices. Developers should use parameterized queries or prepared statements so user-supplied information is treated as data rather than executable SQL code. Input validation can provide another layer of protection, but it shouldn’t be the only defense.

Other ways to reduce the risk of remote code execution include promptly patching vulnerable software, following secure coding practices, running applications with the least privilege necessary, segmenting networks, using application allowlisting, and regularly scanning for vulnerabilities. Web application firewalls and intrusion prevention systems may also help block known exploit patterns.

Unpatched software

Unpatched software has an available security update that has not yet been applied. If the underlying flaw has a published CVE, attackers and defenders can use that identifier to find details about affected versions, severity, exploitation activity, and available remediation.

And I get it — it’s virtually impossible to patch every single program that runs in your environment. Vendors release new patches every day, and keeping up with them all could easily warrant several full-time jobs. That’s why it’s so important to prioritize vulnerabilities and patch them accordingly.

For example, an actively exploited vulnerability affecting an internet-facing, business-critical system will usually require faster action than a lower-severity vulnerability on an isolated, tightly controlled device. However, no single factor determines priority. Consider known exploitation, exploitability, asset criticality, exposure, potential business impact, privileges, compensating controls, and the availability of a reliable remediation.

How to manage patches

Patch management is an inherently difficult undertaking. You have all these available patches in front of you with very little time to prioritize, test, or deploy them.

Manage patches by maintaining an accurate software inventory, identifying missing security updates, prioritizing patches by exploitation risk and business impact, testing updates, deploying them in stages, and verifying installation. Patch-management tools can automate inventory, scheduling, deployment, reporting, and retry workflows.

Insider threats

An insider threat occurs when a current or former employee, contractor, partner, or other trusted user intentionally or unintentionally puts an organization’s systems, data, or operations at risk.

You’ve likely seen news stories where a disgruntled employee “gets back” at their company by exfiltrating sensitive data. This is an example of an intentional threat. Alternatively, some insider threats are unintentional, where an employee finds themselves the victim of an insider threat. For example, they may unknowingly assist a threat actor by performing an action that’s beneficial to a hacker (e.g., inadvertently downloading malware).

How to defend against insider threats

One way to defend against both intentional and unintentional insider threats is to adhere to the principle of least privilege. This entails issuing each user in your environment the bare minimum access they need to perform their duties. This ensures that even if an insider threat is present, the damage is minimal and (hopefully) easy to recover from.

Another way to defend against insider threats is to monitor your users’ activity with an eagle-eye lens. You don’t need to read every email, but you might consider setting up alerts to warn you when an employee signs on from an unusual location.

Security misconfigurations

A security misconfiguration is exactly what it sounds like: a misconfiguration of security settings in applications. Some of these misconfigurations occur when settings are improperly configured while others result from not configuring these settings at all (😅).

The National Security Agency (NSA) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a bulletin in late 2023 noting the top 10 most common network misconfigurations:

1. Default configurations of software and applications

2. Improper separation of user/administrator privilege

3. Insufficient internal network monitoring

4. Lack of network segmentation

5. Poor patch management

6. Bypass of system access controls

7. Weak or misconfigured multifactor authentication (MFA) methods

8. Insufficient access control lists (ACLs) on network shares and services

9. Poor credential hygiene

10. Unrestricted code execution

How to defend against security misconfigurations

The NSA and CISA offer a multitude of tips to defend against security misconfigurations. In summary, these suggestions include the following steps:

• Modify default settings of applications before deploying them to prod

• Change default passwords on devices, such as routers

• Implement authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) systems

• Adhere to the principle of least privilege

• Deploy next-generation firewalls

• Have a patch management plan in place

Configuration compliance scanning can help IT teams compare systems against an approved security baseline and flag settings that drift out of compliance. Depending on the environment, teams may assess devices against internal standards or benchmarks such as the CIS Benchmarks, then correct the affected policy, account, service, firewall rule, or application setting.

Weak or stolen user credentials

Weak or stolen credentials give attackers a way to access systems while appearing to be legitimate users. Common causes include reused passwords, predictable passwords, phishing, credential theft, missing MFA, and poorly secured service accounts.

Yes, this includes the legendary solarwinds123 vulnerability. We joke a lot in the industry about easy-to-guess passwords, so I know I'm preaching to the choir when I say that weak credentials are one of the more common cybersecurity issues we deal with. Weak credentials are significantly easier for attackers to guess — and thus, steal — than strong ones. And because 13% of initial access vectors
of breaches are stolen credentials, weak credentials are the gifts that keep on giving (you nightmares).

How to defend against weak or stolen user credentials

The best way to defend against weak or stolen user credentials is to implement a good company password policy. Provide guardrails for your end users so they can’t create easy-to-crack passwords to access company systems. Doing so helps your end users help you.

When possible, also centralize authentication through SSO, require phishing-resistant MFA, disable legacy authentication, and use conditional-access controls. Password managers can help users maintain unique credentials for systems that still require passwords.

That way, your end users only need to remember one complex password to access their systems. And let’s be honest: It’s far more likely that your end users will be up for remembering one complex password than remembering a laundry list of semi-complex passwords. And the more passwords they have to remember, the less likely it is that they’ll make those passwords complex and secure. (No, we’re not spying on your end users — we just know that’s how they’re programmed. 😉)

Cybersecurity vulnerability detection and remediation summary

Use this table to compare how common cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities are detected, remediated, and managed with security tools.

How to protect your organization from cybersecurity vulnerabilities

No security control can eliminate every cybersecurity vulnerability. Organizations can reduce risk by maintaining asset visibility, prioritizing vulnerabilities, patching exposed systems, enforcing secure configurations, strengthening identity controls, and verifying that remediation was successful.

Any vendor promising 100% protection is selling optimism with a licensing fee. What we can guarantee is that taking a few common-sense steps makes it that much harder for hackers to do their jobs. And what fun is IT if we’re not making attackers work hard to earn their access?

Here are some steps you can take to defend against cybersecurity vulnerabilities — and make our adversaries question why they chose their day jobs.

Prioritize vulnerability management

Two things in life are constant: change and vulnerability exploitation. Vulnerabilities will be exploited, and even your best efforts won’t be enough to thwart threat actors at all times. But we can at least complicate the barrier of entry through an organized vulnerability management plan.

There are five main steps to vulnerability management:

1. Inventory the assets in your environment

2. Assess vulnerabilities across monitored devices

3. Prioritize vulnerabilities by severity and potential impact

4. Remediate vulnerabilities

5. Monitor vulnerabilities

Following these steps helps you know which vulnerabilities need addressing immediately and which can wait. Pivot to those vulnerabilities that carry the most risk for your environment, and go from there.

Enlist the help of a vulnerability scanner

Vulnerability scanning doesn’t have to be a manual process. In fact, vulnerability scanners are built to find vulnerable components in your environment and flag them for review. Some vulnerability scanners paint a picture of your attack surface by giving you a vulnerability scan report to review. This report helps you tackle the steps of vulnerability management.

Patch vulnerable software promptly

I know you already know this, but given the risks of unpatched software vulnerabilities, it bears repeating. Test and deploy security patches based on exploitation risk, exposure, and business impact. After deployment, verify that the update installed successfully and that the affected vulnerability is no longer present. Patch management should be one of the crucial steps in your vulnerability management process.

Cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities FAQs

How are CVEs assigned to software vulnerabilities?

CVE Numbering Authorities, commonly called CNAs, evaluate reported vulnerabilities and assign eligible issues a unique CVE ID. The published CVE record generally identifies the affected product, describes the vulnerability, and links to public references.

The National Vulnerability Database then analyzes publicly available information and may enrich the record with data such as CVSS metrics, weakness classifications, and affected product configurations. Security teams can search the CVE ID in the NVD, review the vendor advisory, and compare the affected versions with their software inventory.

How quickly should you patch vulnerabilities?

CVSS provides a consistent severity baseline, but it should not be the only factor in your patching decision. The following targets are example internal service-level objectives, not universal requirements.

Move any vulnerability to a faster response window when it is actively exploited, listed in CISA’s KEV Catalog, reachable from the internet, associated with ransomware, or present on a critical asset.

What is the vulnerability detection-to-remediation workflow?

1. Scan endpoints and other assets. Use a vulnerability scanner to discover software, operating systems, services, and devices affected by known CVEs.

2. Prioritize the findings. Triage open CVEs using CVSS severity, CISA KEV status, exploitability, asset exposure, business impact, and the number of affected endpoints.

3. Deploy the remediation. Test the vendor’s patch or mitigation, then push it to the affected systems with PDQ where applicable.

4. Verify closure. Run another vulnerability scan and confirm that the vulnerable version, configuration, or service is no longer present.

Do not treat deployment success as proof that the vulnerability is closed. A patch may install unsuccessfully, require a restart, leave behind another affected component, or fail to remediate the exact CVE.

What is the difference between a cybersecurity threat, vulnerability, and risk?

A cybersecurity vulnerability is a weakness that could be exploited, while a threat is an actor, event, or action that could exploit it. Risk is the potential impact and likelihood of that exploitation affecting an organization.

How do you prioritize cybersecurity vulnerabilities?

Prioritize vulnerabilities using active exploitation, CISA KEV status, internet exposure, asset criticality, exploit availability, required privileges, CVSS severity, and potential business impact. An actively exploited vulnerability on a critical or internet-facing system usually requires the fastest response.

Automate the tedious steps of vulnerability management with PDQ, the cloud-based endpoint management solution for Windows and macOS. Let PDQ inventory your software and flag vulnerabilities that you can patch in just one click. And should something go wrong with a patch (which would totally not be Microsoft’s fault, of course), use PDQ’s built-in remote desktop control and access feature to get things back up and running again. Try PDQ free for 14 days.