Summary Bullets:

• New research from the IBM X-Force threat intelligence team said the most sweeping developments in cybersecurity are threat actor exploiting exposed systems, gaps in supply chain defenses and fissures in interlinked application and cloud ecosystems to increase the volume and effectiveness of their attacks.

• IBM X-Force saw a dramatic rise in the number of active ransom groups, noting that cybercriminals are employing leaked tools and playbooks while using AI to automate attacks.

It is no secret that the enterprise is under threat from ambitious and aggressive cybercriminals, and that these threats have been escalating. Recently published research from IBM X-Force bears that out, highlighting the fact that adversaries are quick to exploit some major vulnerabilities to breach their targets. Compiling data from incident response, penetration tests, the dark web, and other intelligence, the newly published X-Force Threat Intelligence Index 2026 uncovered that the most common entry point for bad actors is publicly-facing applications. Citing the increasing complexity of applications and the frequency of misconfigurations, these applications are easily breached. There was a 44% increase in the number of publicly facing applications breached this year versus last.