Insights
Skills Lab Team
09 October 2025
Cybersecurity has always been a never-ending race, but the rate of change has now accelerated. As regulations expand, attackers innovate, and technology continues to reshape the digital landscape, organisations cannot afford to treat compliance as a one-off annual exercise. It demands continuous monitoring, stronger collaboration across disciplines, and the ability to adapt to artificial intelligence.
The question, then, is not just how to meet compliance requirements, but how to anticipate what those requirements will become. How will AI change the nature of both attack and defence? And what practical steps can organisations take today to ensure they are not only compliant but also resilient?
What’s in this article?
- What is cybersecurity compliance?
- The future of compliance
- What are cybersecurity compliance frameworks?
- How AI is shaping the future of cybersecurity
- The biggest compliance risks of 2026
- Staying ahead of the curve
What is cybersecurity compliance?
At its core, cybersecurity compliance is the practice of aligning an organisation’s policies, processes, and technologies with established laws, regulations, and industry standards designed to protect sensitive information and digital systems. It is not simply about avoiding fines or passing an audit; it is about demonstrating that an organisation can be trusted to manage the risks that come with handling data, operating online services, and using AI.
Compliance typically requires organisations to put systems in place to protect data from theft, misuse, or breaches. Research shows that Breaches cost businesses almost $220,000 more on average when noncompliance with regulations was indicated as a factor in the event.
What makes cybersecurity compliance particularly complex is that it sits at the intersection of technology, regulation, and human behaviour. Different industries face different obligations: healthcare providers must follow strict rules for protecting patient data, financial institutions are held to rigorous anti-fraud standards, and technology firms increasingly need to demonstrate how they are using AI responsibly.
In an era where digital trust is a competitive advantage, cybersecurity compliance is becoming as much a business enabler as it is a legal necessity.
The future of compliance
Looking ahead, the evolution of cybersecurity compliance will be driven by three broad trends: regulation, technology, and organisational behaviour.
From a regulatory perspective, we can expect a sharper focus on artificial intelligence. Laws like the EU AI Act are paving the way for global frameworks that require transparency, bias testing, and human oversight of AI systems, particularly in high-risk industries such as healthcare and finance.
Technological shifts are equally influential. The move to cloud and edge computing will make misconfigurations, insecure APIs, and over-privileged identities a persistent source of risk. Compliance frameworks will adapt by requiring proof of secure design, continuous penetration testing, and strict configuration management.
Organisational behaviour will play a decisive role. Compliance will not only be about preventing breaches; it will extend into areas of ethics, fairness, and even environmental responsibility.
Regulators and consumers alike will expect companies to demonstrate that their AI systems do not perpetuate bias, that their operations minimise harm, and that they are accountable for outcomes. In other words, compliance will intersect with ESG concerns, making it a board-level priority rather than a purely technical function.
What are cybersecurity compliance frameworks?
A compliance framework is essentially a structured set of guidelines, best practices, and controls that organisations adopt to manage cybersecurity risks and demonstrate accountability to regulators, customers, and partners. These frameworks provide the blueprint for building policies, implementing technical safeguards, and documenting evidence of compliance.
According to a 2025 cybersecurity report, 43% of businesses that experienced a data breach identified phishing attacks, underscoring the importance of maintaining internal training support.
Some frameworks are regulatory in nature, meaning they are mandated by law. The GDPR, for example, sets clear expectations around how personal data must be handled, while the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) governs healthcare data in the United States. Others, like the upcoming EU AI Act, will specifically address artificial intelligence, requiring companies to audit and explain their models.
Then there are voluntary or industry-driven frameworks that organisations adopt as a matter of best practice. ISO 27001 is one of the most widely recognised, providing a comprehensive standard for information security management systems.
Certifications like ISO/IEC 27001 also signal a strong security culture within your organisation. It demonstrates that an organisation has implemented rigorous policies, processes, and controls to safeguard sensitive data, protect against cyber threats, and ensure business continuity.
“Earning ISO 27001 certification reflects our deep commitment to information security and maintaining client confidence,” says Sawan Joshi, Global Director of Information Security. “In an era where data is at the heart of every business transformation, our clients can be confident that security is at the heart of our consulting services”
“At FDM Group, we don’t see security as an add-on—it is embedded in how we deliver value,” says Jon Taplin, FDM Group Operations Director. “ISO 27001 certification signals to our clients that they can innovate, scale, and transform with us, knowing that their data and operations are protected to the highest international standard.”
For organisations, this means frameworks will become less about passing an audit and more about embedding security into daily operations.
How AI is shaping the future of cybersecurity
AI sits at the centre of both opportunity and risk. On the defensive side, AI offers the potential to transform detection and governance. Security teams are already using machine learning to identify anomalous behaviour and reconstruct attack timelines. On the other side of the ledger, attackers are using AI to their own advantage.
AI has already revolutionised phishing, making fraudulent messages almost indistinguishable from legitimate ones. AI tools like Senseon can detect anomalies, flag suspicious behaviour, and respond to them.
Deepfakes add another layer of risk, enabling attackers to impersonate executives in real time. In the US, 72% of firms experienced ransomware attacks in the past year, with average recovery costs hitting USD 4.5 million. While 42% were able to recover within a day, a worrying 5% took more than two weeks. Despite the risks, nearly half of the affected businesses still chose to pay the ransom.
Cloud environments and “shadow AI” — the unsanctioned use of AI tools by employees – create additional vulnerabilities. Study finds that workers at more than 90% of companies are using personal chatbot accounts for daily tasks, often without approval from IT.
The biggest compliance risks of 2026
The landscape of risks that organisations will face is broad, but several stand out as particularly pressing. By understanding the drivers behind these risks and their implications, organisations can enhance their legal and compliance programs to address new challenges effectively.
1. Regional variances
As different jurisdictions develop their own AI and data protection laws, global organisations will struggle to keep up with inconsistent requirements. A practice deemed compliant in one region might fall short in another, creating both operational and legal headaches.
2. Legacy systems
Many organisations remain heavily invested in outdated infrastructure that is difficult to secure or integrate with modern compliance tools. Modernising legacy software systems should be a top priority for cybersecurity teams, especially as the threat landscape grows more sophisticated and regulations become stricter. By updating critical components, organisations can enhance overall operational resilience, performance and future readiness.
3. Supply chain
The growing reliance on third-party AI models, open-source components, and global hardware supply chains makes it nearly impossible to guarantee complete security. Attackers are aware of this, and supply chain attacks have been growing year on year.
4. Data privacy
Organisations regularly collect user data. It’s important that they take steps like obtaining user consent before processing data, protecting data from misuse and enabling users to manage their data actively.
5. Human element
Insiders, whether malicious or careless, pose ongoing risks, and AI-powered phishing is making it harder for employees to recognise attacks. A survey found 46% of remote workers were compromising data security, highlighting ongoing challenges of data protection in hybrid work settings.
6. Cybersecurity skills shortage
Many security teams are overstretched and under-resourced, and the human factor will continue to challenge compliance programmes. To solve this, everyone from interns to C-suite executives needs to understand basic cyber hygiene. Real readiness comes from a culture of security.
Staying ahead of the curve
Given the complexity of these challenges, how can organisations prepare themselves for the compliance environment of 2026?
The first step is to treat horizon scanning as a formal process. Someone in the organisation must be responsible for monitoring regulatory developments, threat intelligence, and emerging technologies. Engagement with industry groups and peer networks can also provide early warnings of trends and best practices.
Equally important is investing in people. Training should not be confined to the IT department; every employee needs to understand their role in maintaining compliance, whether that means spotting phishing attempts, handling data responsibly, or using AI tools ethically. Upskilling security and compliance teams in areas like adversarial AI and privacy engineering will be essential.
Technology can play a role too, particularly automated compliance tools that provide real-time dashboards, manage configuration drift, and generate machine-readable evidence for auditors. Policies must be reviewed regularly, with particular attention to AI usage, vendor relationships, and incident disclosure. Above all, compliance must be a leadership priority. Boards and executives should be engaged with cybersecurity metrics, not only from a risk perspective but as a measure of organisational trustworthiness. Compliance in 2026 will be as much about demonstrating accountability to customers and partners as it is about satisfying regulators.
Conclusion
Cybersecurity compliance in 2026 will look very different from the compliance models of the past. Instead of annual audits and paper-based evidence, organisations will need continuous, automated, and collaborative approaches. Artificial intelligence will both strengthen and challenge our ability to secure systems, forcing regulators and companies alike to adapt. The risks — from fragmented regulations to supply chain vulnerabilities and AI-driven attacks — are significant, but so are the opportunities to build trust and resilience.
