Cyberattacks are no longer isolated incidents carried out manually by individual attackers. According to Fortinet’s 2026 Global Threat Landscape Report, modern cybercrime is becoming more organised, automated, and AI-enabled. Fortinet reported that cybercriminals are using AI tools, dark web services, access brokers, and automated attack methods to move faster across the entire cyberattack lifecycle. For businesses, this means cybersecurity can no longer depend only on basic protection or reactive response. Organisations need stronger visibility, faster detection, secure access controls, and proactive defense before threats turn into business disruption.
AI is Accelerating the Speed of Cyberattacks
Fortinet’s report highlights that AI is helping attackers reduce the time needed for reconnaissance, weaponisation, and execution. For critical outbreaks, FortiGuard Intelligence observed time-to-exploit shrinking to 24-48 hours, compared with 4.76 days in earlier reports. This is a major warning for businesses. When attackers can act within hours, delayed patching, weak monitoring, or slow incident response can create serious exposure. Vulnerabilities that were once considered manageable over several days may now need attention almost immediately.
For organisations, this means cybersecurity must become faster and more proactive. Regular patching, vulnerability management, firewall protection, endpoint monitoring, and real-time threat intelligence are now essential parts of business resilience.
Ransomware Victims Increase Sharply Year over Year
Ransomware remains one of the most damaging cyber threats for businesses. Fortinet identified 7,831 confirmed ransomware victims globally, rising from approximately 1,600 in the previous Fortinet Global Threat Landscape Report. The report links this 389% year-over-year increase to the availability of crime-service kits such as WormGPT, FraudGPT, and BruteForceAI. The top targeted sectors included manufacturing, business services, and retail. This shows that ransomware is not limited to large enterprises or one specific industry. Any organisation with valuable data, weak across control, unpatched systems, or poor backup readiness can become a target.
For businesses, ransomware prevention must include more than antivirus. A stronger approach should cover endpoint security, email protection, secure backups, network segmentation, firewall policies, access control, and disaster recovery planning.
Stolen Credentials and Infostealer Malware are Expanding Business Risk
Fortinet also highlighted the growing role of stolen credentials, cloud identity exposure, and infostealer malware. The report found that most confirmed cloud incidents in 2025 originated from stolen, exposed, or misused credentials rather than direct infrastructure exploitation. Infostealer malware remains a major upstream driver of exposure. Fortinet reported that stealer logs dominated dark web database activity, making up 67.12% of advertised and shared datasets. These logs can include browser data, identity material, and other contextual information that attackers can reuse quickly.
This creates a serious risk for businesses because attackers may not need to “break in” if they can simply log in using stolen or misused credentials. Strong identity security, multi-factor authentication, privileged access management, endpoint protection, and account monitoring are now critical parts of cybersecurity.
How JK Tech Helps
JK Tech helps businesses strengthen their cybersecurity posture with Fortinet solutions for network security, firewall protection, secure access, endpoint visibility, threat detection, and business continuity. This includes support for Fortinet firewalls, network security planning, endpoint protection, secure remote access, VPN setup, threat monitoring, vulnerability management, backup, disaster recovery, and managed IT support. As cybercriminals become more automated and AI-enabled, businesses need security that can respond just as fast. JK Tech can help organisations review security gaps, improve access control, deploy stronger protection, and build a more resilient defence strategy against ransomware, credential theft, AI-enabled attacks, and fast-moving threats.
Further Reading & Resources
https://investor.fortinet.com/news-releases/news-release-details/fortinet-2026-global-threat-landscape-report-reveals-surge-ai/ – Fortinet Newsroom
Source: Fortinet, Inc.
Need help turning this into action?
Speak with JK Tech about practical next steps, technology planning, cyber resilience, deployment, and business-ready IT implementation.
Contact Us
Need help with your enquiry? Speak with JK Tech to get more information.
Tell us what you need, and our team will get back to you shortly.