The SANS Security Awareness and Culture Report has been tracking the human side of cybersecurity for eleven years. Each edition maps where programs stand, what risks are rising, and what the data tells us about how to respond. The 2026 edition is our most expansive report to date, drawing on responses from over 1,700 security awareness practitioners across the globe.
This year, for the first time in the report's history, the data demanded something new: a dedicated section on AI.
In this webcast, report authors Lance Spitzner and Rachael Saffer walk through the complete findings of the 2026 report. In it, they cover where the industry currently stands, how the risk landscape is shifting, and what this year's practitioner responses reveal about the state of the field today.
In this session you'll get:
- A clear benchmark of where security awareness programs stand in 2026: maturity, team size, program age, and what the data says actually drives progress
- The full human risk landscape, including why AI jumped from #4 to #2 in a single year and what that meant for how we had to approach this report
- A deep look at AI as a human risk. GenAI, Vibe Coding, and Agentic AI from a practitioner perspective, grounded in what organizations are actually experiencing right now, and how the most effective teams are using AI to amplify their own programs
- A curated look at what this year's open-ended responses reveal: as practitioners shared what's working, what failed, and what surprised them
The full 2026 SANS Security Awareness & Culture Report is available to download alongside this webcast.
