EMA Research Blog: Navigating IT and Security Horizons

The cybersecurity world descended on San Francisco's Moscone Center this week for RSAC 2026, the 35th annual flagship event – and the numbers alone tell you this is no niche gathering. Around 43,500 attendees, 700 speakers, 600 exhibitors, and 400 members of the media converged on the conference, which spans multiple stages and countless hands-on experiences. That's a lot of people, and a lot of opinions; some of which are ones I hope you are paying attention to, and some that I would prefer you ignore. After spending the week meeting with some of the best vendors at the conference, as well as a few passing conversations in elevators and airplane queues, four themes kept coming up again and again – and if you're serious about your security program, they're worth paying attention to.

As I sit here watching the very soggy Rose Parade, my thoughts drift to the cybersecurity topics and trends we will talk about in 2026 (yes, that is how much of a nerd I actually am).

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

If you’ve tried to track the blizzard of OpenAI partnership announcements lately, you might feel like you’re watching the most ambitious infrastructure strategy ever conceived, or a Three Stooges-style routine where everyone keeps paying the same $20 back and forth…except now it’s $20 billion.

The recent news brings to light a topic that is top of mind in my research and studies lately: technology resiliency.

The Nobel Committee has spoken, and for those of us living in the bright lights of the cybersecurity world, it is a day of celebration. The 2025 Physics Prize, awarded to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis for their work on "macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation," isn't just a headline; it is a validation of the potential of the Quantum Age.

The world of digital marketing thrives on data, and for years, Google Search Console (GSC) and third-party SEO tools have been our compass. But as an industry analyst, I can tell you that the past few weeks have felt like driving a car without windows! What initially appeared as inexplicable fluctuations in our SEO dashboards has coalesced into a clear, albeit unsettling, picture: Google quietly pulled the plug on a foundational data-gathering mechanism, unleashing a wave of disruption that impacts everyone from enterprise marketers to cybersecurity businesses.