I was researching cyberattacks, and a common theme popped out. “We had an unprecedented cyberattack… and we shut down our operations to protect stakeholder interests.”

I know, breaches can be strenuous.

The initial hours following a breach are often marked by chaos and urgency as crisis leaders call vendors, disconnect systems, analyze logs, and brief executives. The focus is on containing the damage. But over time, the organization has grown into a connected digital enterprise, with everything seamlessly integrated. And this is why companies shut down entire operations.

But as soon as order is restored, after the initial chaos, stakeholders will question why, despite so many security tools, the defenses were fragmented. And why did the organization not focus on being unaffected by cyberattacks, despite millions spent on cybersecurity? The good news as we enter 2026 is that it is possible to keep large parts of the organization unaffected by cyberattacks.

We Need to Shift from Cybersecurity to Breach Readiness

Let us face it: as AI adoption increases, and innovation determines who leads the competition, industry leaders will have to live with a few realities in their efforts to be cyber-resilient. Unless we shift from being secure to being breach-ready, attackers will bypass defenses, use automation and AI to discover misconfigurations, and identify exposed identities and data faster, while resource shortages in our ability to defend will continue to haunt us.

To truly become breach-ready, it is an existential imperative to divide the digital enterprise into much smaller zones, interconnected via conduits that can be disconnected at the slightest indication of an attack. Breach-ready organizations thus remain largely (upwards of 80%) unaffected, while business continuity is invoked for the affected parts, as seemingly “unprecedented” cyberattacks happen. Considering that trusted supplier access was exploited by attackers in most major breaches in 2025 (partial list here).

Breach readiness expects organizations to adopt Zero Trust architectures that integrate and optimize existing cybersecurity investments to withstand the next cyberattack. With microsegmentation capabilities that scale to integrate EDR, firewalls, SIEM, and SOAR at machine speed, it is time to set it up as a foundational cybersecurity fabric, especially since these capabilities are now AI-enabled, agentless, and can enforce Zero Trust controls in hours, not months, across IT, OT, or cloud computing.

In 2026, Defenders Will Define Which Attack Paths Are Acceptable

Operational cyber-resilience practices must leverage AI-based capabilities to anticipate and prepare for attackers, using available information from CISA, MITRE, and others to narrow attack surfaces, leaving far less elbow room for attackers to navigate. Incident response plans can leverage the fact that a reduced blast radius would render seemingly normal lateral movement malicious much earlier. And if AI-enabled decoys are set up in the denied path, a simple recon attempt can deny a future attack before it begins. With a foundational microsegmentation fabric in place, defenders define what can be attacked, not the attackers.

Most CISOs and other cyber leaders know that breach readiness is never a permanent state, but a continuously evolving leadership practice that builds stakeholder trust. Breach readiness is never tested during normal operations, but during uncertainty, when information is incomplete, time is limited, and resources are strained. And in the age of AI, the importance of breach readiness as the primary investment narrative is probably understated.

AI-based attackers will automate reconnaissance, vulnerability discovery, and exploit development at machine speed, bypassing signature-based tools that rely on known patterns. AI attackers will learn network behaviors and craft attacks that mimic legitimate traffic to evade anomaly detection. AI will identify and misuse legitimate administrative tools for lateral movement, rendering perimeter controls ineffective. In 2026, we will see more misuse of the supply chain, especially by those using valid accounts and stolen credentials.

In 2026, attacks will increasingly originate inside the digital enterprise, triggered by external instructions that bypass traditional defenses designed to detect malicious content.

So, How Much Material Impact Is Acceptable?

The material impact of a breach extends beyond data theft or financial losses; it includes physical downtime, safety incidents, environmental damage, and brand destruction. Every second a ransomware worm or malicious attack propagates through your control network, the recovery time increases from hours to weeks or months. Investing in breach readiness directly reduces this operational and financial impact.

As Dwight Eisenhower once famously said,
“A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.”

Let us change the narrative. Let us invest in breach readiness today.

The only safe ship in a storm is trustworthy leadership. Let the new headline be:

“We had an unprecedented cyberattack… and we continue operations to serve stakeholder interests, as our cybersecurity experts address the unlawful intrusion in the affected areas.”