Darktrace releases 2026 AI cybersecurity report and unveils SECURE AI

Darktrace released the 2026 State of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cybersecurity Report and unveiled Darktrace / SECURE AI, citing survey findings that raised concerns about agentic AI and AI-driven attacks.

The report found that 76% of security professionals were worried about the security implications of integrating AI agents, and 47% of security executives reported they were very or extremely concerned as agents gained direct access to sensitive data and business processes. The research also found 46% felt unprepared to defend against AI-driven attacks, while 92% said those threats were driving upgrades to defenses.

Darktrace characterized Darktrace / SECURE AI as designed to give security teams visibility and control over how AI tools and agents were being used, what data and systems they could access, and how they behaved across the organization. The company presented the capability as building on its Self-Learning AI approach and as intended to enable management and safe scale of AI usage. In October, Darktrace recorded a 39% month-over-month increase in anomalous uploads to Generative AI (GenAI) services, with an average anomalous upload of 75MB.

The survey sampled 1,540 cybersecurity leaders and practitioners across 14 countries and was fielded online between October and November 2025. Respondents identified data exposure as the top risk (61%), followed by potential violations of data security and privacy regulations (56%) and misuse or abuse of AI tools (51%). Only 37% of organizations reported having a formal policy for securely deploying AI, down eight percentage points from the prior year.

“Enterprises are embracing AI fast, and while AI tools are helping security teams better defend against attacks, agentic AI introduces a new class of insider risk,” said Issy Richards, VP of Product, Darktrace.

“Darktrace / SECURE AI isn’t about slowing AI adoption, it’s about giving leaders the visibility and control they need to deploy AI safely, responsibly, and at scale.” said Issy Richards, VP of Product, Darktrace. A webinar was scheduled for February 3 to discuss the report's findings.