2026 Cybersecurity Predictions: Why Kron PAM and Kron DAM / DDM Sit at the Center

Gartner’s 2026 Planning Guide for Cybersecurity makes one message unmistakably clear: the center of gravity in cybersecurity is shifting toward identity, access, and data control. As geopolitical instability, AI-driven workflows, and hybrid infrastructures expand attack surfaces; organizations can no longer rely on perimeter defenses or fragmented tooling. Instead, resilience in 2026 will be determined by how well enterprises control privileged access and data usage across humans, machines, and AI systems. This is precisely where Privileged Access Management (PAM) and Database Activity Monitoring and Dynamic Data Masking (DAM / DDM) move from “important” to foundational.

Gartner’s Expectations for 2026: Identity and Data as the New Control Plane

Gartner identifies six major cybersecurity trends for 2026, but several themes recur consistently throughout the guide: zero trust maturity, data-centric security, attack surface reduction, and exposure management. Across all of them, identity and data are treated as the most reliable control points in an increasingly decentralized environment.

Gartner explicitly emphasizes identity-first security as a core security-by-design principle. Over-permissioned users, standing privileges, and lack of visibility into machine identities are highlighted as persistent weaknesses that enable ransomware, lateral movement, and account takeover attacks. By 2026, organizations are expected to enforce just-in-time, just-enough access not only for human administrators but also for workloads, APIs, and AI agents.

At the same time, Gartner places strong emphasis on data-centric security. Data is described as the “lifeblood of modern business,” yet much of it remains invisible, overexposed, or inadequately governed. Gartner notes that sensitive data increasingly flows through AI pipelines, analytics platforms, and vector databases, creating new insider and misuse risks that traditional DLP approaches cannot fully address.

The implication is clear: who can access what data, under which conditions, and with what level of monitoring becomes the defining security question of 2026.

Meeting Gartner’s PAM Expectations With Kron PAM

Gartner’s vision of zero trust maturity hinges on eliminating implicit trust, especially privileged identities. Kron PAM aligns directly with this expectation by operationalizing identity-first security across hybrid and cloud-native environments.

Rather than relying on static administrator accounts, Kron PAM enforces ephemeral privilege elevation, ensuring that privileged access exists only when explicitly required and is automatically revoked afterward. This directly addresses Gartner’s concern around standing privileges and over-permissive access models that undermine zero trust strategies.

Equally important is Gartner’s emphasis on machine and workload identities. As AI agents, automation scripts, and cloud services proliferate, privileged access is no longer a human-only problem. Kron PAM extends privilege controls to non-human identities, applying the same least-privilege and context-aware access principles Gartner recommends for modern zero trust architectures.

From an operational resilience perspective, Gartner warns that organizations focusing only on advanced attacks often overlook basic hygiene and access governance, leaving them exposed to ransomware and credential abuse. Kron PAM mitigates this by embedding access approvals, session monitoring, and full auditability into daily operations, reducing both risk and operational friction.

Addressing Gartner’s Data-Centric Security Mandate with Kron DAM / DDM

While PAM controls who can access systems, Gartner makes it clear that controlling data access is equally critical in 2026. Kron DAM / DDM directly maps to Gartner’s call for discovery, classification, and continuous monitoring of sensitive data across environments.

Gartner highlights the growing challenge of “dark data” - information organizations do not fully understand or track, yet which poses material breach and compliance risk. Kron DAM / DDM addresses this gap by continuously discovering and classifying sensitive data across data repositories, enabling organizations to identify their true “crown jewels.”

Beyond visibility, Gartner stresses that static data controls are insufficient in AI-driven environments. Data must be protected dynamically as it moves through analytics pipelines, AI training workflows, and third-party integrations. Kron DAM / DDM enforces data access policies and dynamic data masking, ensuring that sensitive data is accessed only by authorized identities, for approved purposes, and under monitored conditions.

Crucially, Gartner positions data access governance as a key enabler of AI adoption rather than a blocker. By applying least-privilege principles at the data layer, Kron DAM / DDM allows organizations to safely enable AI, and analytics use cases without exposing sensitive data to unnecessary risk — a balance Gartner explicitly calls out as essential for 2026 and beyond.

PAM and DAM / DDM Together: Enabling Exposure Management and Resilience

One of Gartner’s strongest messages is that exposure management must replace siloed vulnerability management. Understanding real-world risk requires correlating identities, access paths, data sensitivity, and usage patterns.

Used together, Kron PAM and Kron DAM / DDM create exactly this kind of contextual visibility. Privileged access events can be directly correlated with sensitive data access, allowing security teams to identify risky combinations of identity, privilege, and data exposure before they are exploited. This aligns tightly with Gartner’s Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM) model and supports more accurate risk prioritization.

From a resilience standpoint, Gartner emphasizes that organizations must assume breaches will occur and design controls that limit blast radius and support rapid recovery. By restricting privileged access and continuously monitoring data usage, Kron reduces lateral movement opportunities and accelerates incident investigation through high-fidelity audit trails.

Looking Ahead to 2026

Gartner’s 2026 cybersecurity outlook does not call for more tools - it calls for better control of identity and data. PAM and DAM / DDM are no longer niche capabilities; they are foundational to zero trust, AI security, exposure management, and cyber resilience.

Kron PAM and Kron DAM / DDM are designed to meet these expectations head-on, translating Gartner’s strategic guidance into operational reality. As organizations plan for 2026, the question is no longer whether to invest in PAM and data access governance — but how quickly they can mature them into core security control planes.