Infoblox Expert Commentary: How AI-Driven Threats Will Outpace Legacy Defences

In an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just an accelerator but an active participant in global cyber offensives, the threat landscape is shifting faster than most organisations can adapt. Needless to say, we stand at an inflection point: Adversaries are scaling with AI, while many enterprises remain anchored to legacy controls built for a different age.

The commentaries below from Infoblox leaders offer a stark preview of 2026—a year in which AI-powered attacks will not simply challenge traditional defences, but render them obsolete unless organisations fundamentally rethink how resilience is built, governed, and operationalised.

Lee Anstiss, Regional Director, Southeast Asia and Korea, at Infoblox

“In 2026, APAC’s cyber landscape will be defined by systemic, AI-driven threats that outpace legacy defences, demanding a shift to proactive strategies and continuous monitoring to build resilience.

The industrialisation of crime will make attacks more frequent and sophisticated, as plug-and-play exploit kits, darknet ‘as-a-service’ offerings, and AI tools make hacking accessible to everyone. Meanwhile, rapid adoption of agentic AI across IT operations will increase efficiencies but also create new high-value hacking targets. Compromised agents could autonomously disrupt services or hand over sensitive data at scale. The lines between what’s fake and real will be blurred further, as deepfakes, and polymorphic, autonomous malware exploit human weaknesses and render signature-based controls obsolete.

As AI governance and regulations in APAC remain fragmented, CISOs and business leaders must invest in internal frameworks to securely manage AI agents and train internal teams against personalised scams like deepfakes. Reinforcing foundational and often overlooked network weaknesses, such as the Domain Name System (DNS), will continue to be critical. Protective DNS services, enhanced by machine learning and real-time analysis, can block malicious domains before hackers can even get close, and will soon be mandatory in critical sectors.”

John Wojcik, Senior Threat Researcher at Infoblox

“In 2026, Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) will supercharge financially motivated threat actors in Southeast Asia. Alongside industrial-scale scam centres, the region is experiencing a growing number of organised hacker groups which offer malicious software and leaked credentials in exchange for money on the dark web. The rise of CaaS means cybercriminals are no longer limited by their own in-house skills, as they can shop around for plug-and-play tools that make hacking look easy.

The use of deepfake software suites and jailbroken large language models for social engineering has grave implications, making it increasingly difficult to detect and prevent fraud. These advanced tools enable financially motivated groups to execute highly convincing attacks against employees, bypassing traditional defences and exploiting human trust to gain access to networks from within.

This trend is particularly worrying for governments and businesses in the public sector amid the rising digitalisation of services. A successful breach could not only pass sensitive data into the hands of criminals, but lead to real-world disruption of essential services across healthcare, power, water, and transportation. In order to address this growing threat, investing in advanced deepfake training for employees and deploying proactive threat intelligence will be vital to stay ahead of the game.”

The Mandate for 2026: Fortify Defences with AI

As AI continues to weaponise scale, speed, and sophistication, the gap between attacker capability and enterprise readiness will widen unless CISOs act decisively. Legacy controls rooted in detection after compromise will not withstand adversaries that move autonomously, adapt in real time, and exploit human vulnerabilities at industrial speed.

Thus, the mandate for 2026 is clear: Fortify foundational layers like DNS, invest in AI-aware governance frameworks, upskill teams against deepfake-enabled manipulation, and shift from reactive protection to continuous, intelligence-driven resilience. AI has changed the rules—and only those prepared to modernise their defences at the same pace will be able to safeguard their organisations in the years ahead.