2026 Security Priorities: What to Focus On Now

Summary: In 2026, security leaders should prioritize (1) locking in CMMC and compliance roadmaps and POA&M, (2) securing agentic AI and LLM use with guardrails and NIST AI RMF alignment, and (3) resilience and incident readiness—tabletops, playbooks, and backup verification. Defer non-critical compliance and new tools until core controls are solid.

Heading into 2026, security leaders are balancing CMMC and other compliance deadlines with a fast-moving AI and threat landscape. Budgets are finite and priorities compete. Here's what we're telling clients to prioritize—and what can wait.

1. Lock In Compliance Roadmaps

CMMC 2.0 and contract flow-down are real. If you're in the defense supply chain, lock your Level 1/2/3 roadmap and POA&M now. Same for SOC 2, ISO 27001, or sector-specific frameworks—align scope and evidence so you're not scrambling at audit time. Compliance debt compounds: the longer you wait, the more expensive and disruptive catch-up becomes. Assign an owner, set milestones, and track progress in leadership meetings.

2. Secure Agentic AI and LLM Use

Agentic AI is in production in more enterprises. Prioritize guardrails, data governance, and access control around LLMs and agents. Map to emerging AI security guidance (NIST AI RMF, OWASP for LLMs) so you're not retrofitting later. Many organizations rolled out ChatGPT or custom agents quickly; now is the time to harden them—prompt safety, output filtering, and least-privilege tool access—before an incident or audit forces the issue.

3. Resilience and Incident Readiness

Tabletop exercises and incident response playbooks pay off when something goes wrong. Refresh contacts (internal and external—legal, forensics, cyber insurance), run a tabletop, and tighten backup and recovery so you can recover quickly. Verify backups are immutable or offline where possible and that you've tested restore recently. Resilience is often under-invested until after an incident; a modest investment now reduces impact later.

What Can Wait

Not everything has to be done in Q1. If you're not in a regulated space or defense supply chain, some compliance work can be phased. New tools and point solutions can wait until core controls—identity, backup, detection, response—are solid. A vCISO or security program review can help you sequence priorities so the most important items get attention first. Need a vCISO or security program review to set priorities? Contact us.