Security strategy is entering a more disciplined phase as AI adoption, identity sprawl and regulatory pressure move from emerging considerations to structural constraints that now define resilience and operational stability.
At CISO Sydney this year, the direction was unmistakable. Security leaders are reorganising around identity clarity, continuous validation and operating model maturity, recognising that their ability to scale securely depends on how well those foundations are designed and governed.
This is less a change in tooling and more a shift in how security is structured, integrated and measured.
Key themes shaping 2026 security strategy
Security leaders are prioritising:
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Identity governance across human and non-human accounts
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Structured control of AI-enabled access
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Continuous adversary-informed validation
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Automation-first SOC operating models
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Executive-level security maturity reporting
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1. Identity is now the organising layer of security
Identity emerged not simply as a supporting control within Zero Trust architectures, but as the layer through which exposure is expressed and managed, particularly as organisations extend identity controls to internet access, SaaS, and cloud environments.
Most organisations now oversee a mix of:
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Human users across hybrid environments
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Service accounts embedded in applications
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OAuth trust relationships across SaaS platforms
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Machine-to-machine integrations
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AI agents operating with delegated permissions
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While governance around employee access has improved over time, non-human identity controls have not evolved at the same pace.
Service accounts are introduced to enable integration. API permissions are granted to accelerate workflows. AI tools are connected to internal systems to improve productivity. Each step makes operational sense, but the cumulative effect is expanding access complexity.
As a result, security leaders are asking more direct questions:
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Is every identity, human and non-human, inventoried and owned?
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Are service accounts reviewed with the same discipline as employee roles?
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Is least privilege consistently enforced across machine identities and delegated tokens?
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Can access paths be traced across SaaS, cloud, and internal systems without manual effort?
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Why is identity now the primary security control?
Identity determines who or what can access systems, data, and APIs. As cloud adoption, SaaS integrations and AI agents increase, exposure is increasingly shaped by access design rather than network boundaries.
In practical terms, identity has moved from being one control among many to becoming the foundation of security architecture.
Because of this shift, identity clarity is becoming the starting point for architectural control. Organisations that begin with structured visibility into human and non-human access are better positioned to manage privilege growth as environments evolve.
2. AI is accelerating privilege expansion
AI was discussed in practical terms, with attention focused less on innovation and more on access implications.
AI systems retrieve data, call APIs, generate content, and trigger workflows. In operational terms, they behave as active participants inside enterprise environments rather than passive tools.
Security teams are observing:
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Rapid AI integrations introduced without structured review
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Broad OAuth permissions granted during experimentation
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Limited oversight of delegated access and token reuse
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More sophisticated impersonation and phishing techniques
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Although AI is also being deployed defensively to summarise alerts and enrich telemetry, efficiency gains do not eliminate the need for disciplined governance.
The central challenge is speed. AI integrations scale quickly, and access privileges expand incrementally. Without lifecycle management and periodic reassessment, privilege can grow faster than oversight mechanisms adapt.
Organisations responding effectively are embedding AI systems into existing identity governance frameworks and applying consistent ownership, review, and monitoring standards rather than treating AI as a separate innovation stream.
3. Validation is becoming embedded, not occasional
Throughout the event, there was a consistent shift in emphasis from confidence to verification.
Many organisations have already invested significantly in tooling. Attention is now turning to how those controls perform under realistic conditions.
This is reflected in increased emphasis on:
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Red and purple team exercises
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Identity attack path analysis
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Cloud configuration validation
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API security testing
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Threat-informed defence alignment
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Automated scanners are effective at identifying individual weaknesses, yet they often fail to reveal how low-risk misconfigurations interact across systems.
An over-permissive service account may appear minor in isolation. A stale conditional access policy may seem low-impact. A loosely governed OAuth consent may not immediately raise concern. When combined, however, these elements can form a coherent attack path.
Human-led validation exposes how weaknesses interact across identity, cloud and SaaS environments and clarifies what an attacker could achieve in practice. Embedding this validation into a recurring cycle of assessment, remediation and reassessment helps ensure that control effectiveness keeps pace with ongoing operational change.
4. The SOC operating model is maturing
AI within the Security Operations Centre was framed as an operating model consideration rather than a standalone technology shift.
Traditional SOC structures depend heavily on manual correlation across fragmented tools. As adversaries automate reconnaissance and exploitation, that model becomes increasingly difficult to sustain.
Security leaders are focusing on:
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Consolidating telemetry across identity, endpoint, cloud and network layers
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Automating repetitive tier 1 and tier 2 workflows
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Establishing detection engineering as a formal capability
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Using AI selectively for reasoning and context synthesis
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Automation is increasingly regarded as foundational. Alert triage, evidence collection and low-impact containment are being automated before more advanced AI reasoning layers are introduced.
When used selectively, AI can assist in correlating signals and producing structured incident summaries. Human judgement remains central for strategic risk decisions, regulatory considerations and ambiguous cases where context is critical.
A mature SOC is defined less by its tooling stack and more by its ability to unify context, respond consistently and articulate risk in terms that align with business priorities.
Organisations looking to understand how their detection, automation and governance capabilities compare to emerging best practice often begin with a Security Operations Maturity Assessment, which benchmarks identity visibility, validation discipline and SOC capability within a single framework.
5. Security is embedded in executive governance
Security discussions are now framed primarily around resilience and operational reliability.
Boards are asking structured questions about:
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Where is exposure concentrated?
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How quickly can recovery occur?
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How does maturity compare to peers?
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What new risk is introduced by AI integration?
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Answering these questions requires measurable baselines. Reporting activity metrics alone is insufficient. Controls must be mapped to business impact and tested for reliability over time.
As a result, security leaders are investing in formal maturity reviews to establish defensible benchmarks and support governance discussions with evidence. The emphasis has shifted from the existence of controls to the reliability and repeatability of those controls in dynamic environments.
What this means for 2026 execution
Across identity governance, validation practices and SOC evolution, the direction is consistent. Security maturity is increasingly defined by disciplined access management, continuous validation and structured executive reporting.
Organisations that treat identity, testing and SOC automation as separate initiatives will struggle to scale. Those integrating them into a unified operating model are building resilience that is measurable and defensible.
As 2026 priorities take shape, the central question is straightforward:
Does your identity governance, validation discipline and SOC capability operate as a unified system, or are they still managed independently?
Understanding that answer begins with a clear baseline. A Security Operations Maturity Assessment provides structured visibility across identity, validation and SOC capability.
