Cybersecurity Threats and AI Disruptions Top Concerns for IT Leaders in 2026, Veeam Survey Finds

76% of leaders rated compliance pressures around data sovereignty as extremely or moderately important.

88% of IT leaders believe it will be extremely (50%) or moderately important (38%) in 2026 to ensure partners and suppliers meet their cybersecurity and data protection standards.

66% of IT leaders view AI-generated attacks as the most significant threat to data security, surpassing ransomware at 50%.

49% of IT leaders cited cybersecurity threats as the biggest disruptor in 2026.

45% of IT leaders selected strengthening cybersecurity as the single 'must win' IT initiative for 2026.

Only 29% of IT leaders expressed very high confidence in their ability to recover critical data after a zero-day exploit, while 59% were only somewhat confident.

54% of IT leaders plan for a moderate or significant increase in their budget for data protection and resilience in 2026.

60% of senior IT and business decision-makers worldwide reported reduced visibility of where their data resides due to the growth of multi-cloud and SaaS environments.

72% of IT leaders support a ban on ransomware payments, with 51% strongly supporting it.

41% of IT leaders believe increased executive-level accountability would have a major impact on improving cybersecurity and data protection.

22% of IT leaders identified AI maturity and regulation as the second-largest disruptor in 2026.

71% of IT leaders are either not confident (30%) or somewhat confident (41%) in maintaining operations during a multi-day cloud provider outage.

44% of IT leaders reported that their data visibility has somewhat reduced, while 16% reported a significant reduction due to the growth of their IT environment.