Global Scans · Machines · Weekly Summary

• [New] Prediction: NHIs will decisively become the number one cloud breach vector in 2026, a trend driven by myriad machine identities with excessive privileges. Tenable
• [New] By 2026, machine identities will outnumber human employees by 82 to 1, creating unprecedented opportunities for AI-driven identity fraud where a single forged identity can trigger cascades of automated malicious actions. Cryptika Cybersecurity | Cryptika Cyber Security
• [New] The next decade will be defined by the convergence of artificial intelligence, tokenised finance, and a fundamental shift in how corporations manage human and machine intelligence. The Fintech Times
• [New] The machine that Microsoft and Atom Computing will be delivering, called Magne, will have 50 logical qubits, built from some 1,200 physical qubits, and should be operational by the start of 2027. IEEE Spectrum
• [New] QuEra has delivered a quantum machine ready for error correction to Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and plans to make it available to global customers in 2026. IEEE Spectrum
• [New] In 2026, defenders will evolve from alert handlers to orchestrators of the agentic SOC: intelligent agents that reason, decide, and act across the security lifecycle at machine speed, always under human command. Frontier Enterprise
• [New] In 2026, security operations will move closer to what FortiGuard Labs describes as machine-speed defence - a continuous process of intelligence, validation, and containment that compresses detection and response from hours to minutes. Frontier Enterprise
• [New] By 2026, organizations will expect their defences to anticipate and respond to threats in real time, guided by machine learning models that study behaviour rather than static signatures. Frontier Enterprise
• [New] In 2026, machine learning and cloud-native platforms will be central to life sciences R&D, minimizing clinical trial failures and accelerating regulatory approvals. Cision PR Newswire
• [New] Quantum machine learning will be successfully applied to the predictive toxicology of novel drug candidates in 2026. Cision PR Newswire
• [New] In 2026, quality manufacturing will focus on statistical process control and on integrating AI and machine learning. Quality Magazine
• [New] Machine learning algorithms can analyze vast datasets to identify potential disruptions before they occur, making AI a key player in risk management in 2026. MRINetwork
• [New] 2026 will be the year of greater industrial automation trends, with AI and human-machine collaboration becoming more evident, supported by significant efforts in manufacturing workforce development. MRINetwork
• While 2026 is not expected to produce a quantum machine capable of breaking ECDSA - the rapid progress observed in 2025 makes it clear that the window for preparation is narrowing. CoinDesk
• For the first time, a machine capable of breaking elliptic-curve cryptography could realistically emerge in the late 2020s or early 2030s. CoinDesk
• A machine-learning tool developed by researchers in China was shown to be able to predict the stereoselectivity and activity of engineered enzymes by analysing their amino acid sequence. Chemistry World
• By 2026, the way we handle auto insurance claims will be nearly unrecognizable, thanks to advancements in machine learning, computer vision, and predictive analytics. Fort Wayne Business Weekly
• Google's decades of machine learning will help ads in AI Mode, which will be bought and sold per impression in the absence of clicks, seem as relevant as organic information. Forrester

Last updated: 04 January 2026