Huntress: RMM Abuse Jumps 277 Percent in 2026 Cyber Threat Landscape

Huntress published a new analysis of the 2026 threat landscape, identifying the abuse of trusted IT tools as a primary concern for security leaders. The firm’s data indicates that remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform misuse has surged by approximately 277 percent year over year, marking it as a defining attack pattern for the current period.

This shift represents a move away from traditional breach methods. Attackers are no longer attempting to break into systems externally; instead, they are exploiting credentials or access rights granted to legitimate administrative tools. By hijacking platforms like ScreenConnect, threat actors blend their malicious activity with normal administrative behavior, effectively evading defenses that assume approved tools are inherently safe.

The Evolution of Attack Techniques

The broader threat environment has become more sophisticated and coordinated compared to previous years. Huntress notes that trends observed in 2025, including rising ransomware activity and AI anxiety, have matured into more brazen operational models. Defenders have also improved their capabilities, but the firm questions whether organizational defenses have kept pace with the speed and complexity of current attacker tradecraft.

Generative AI has significantly lowered the barrier to entry for sophisticated cybercrime. Threat actors now employ AI to create deepfakes impersonating executives, craft hyper-personalized phishing emails that mimic a target’s communication style, and develop adaptive malware designed to evade detection. Huntress describes this AI-powered approach as the current operating model for advanced groups, rather than a future possibility.

Who Is Affected

Security leaders and IT administrators are the primary audience for these findings, as they are responsible for managing the tools and identities attackers now target. The report emphasizes that the responsibility for securing RMM platforms falls on those who deploy them. Because these tools are essential for IT efficiency, they provide attackers with a direct pathway to lateral movement and persistence if not properly monitored for anomalous behavior.

Employees are also heavily impacted by the evolution of social engineering. Techniques have grown more aggressive, incorporating fake CAPTCHAs, ClickFix scams, smishing, and vishing. These methods exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities, making user awareness and behavioral detection critical components of a defense strategy against AI-crafted deception.

What should you do?

Huntress suggests that organizations must shift from trusting their tools to distrusting them by default. This involves implementing behavioral monitoring that looks for unusual process chains and persistence mechanisms, even when activity originates from sanctioned RMM tools. The firm advocates for a hybrid approach where AI handles telemetry correlation at scale, while human threat hunters make final judgments on validated findings.

Background: Generative AI

Generative AI examples include text completion, image synthesis and code generation. These systems predict the next likely token based on vast training datasets. Understanding the underlying mechanics helps you identify risks like data leakage and hallucination in your infrastructure.

Read the full guide: Generative AI Examples: Mechanisms, Risks and Control

What to do and how to stay safe: Huntress

• Monitor administrative tools for unusual process chains and lateral movement, regardless of whether the tool is approved.
• Implement security awareness training that specifically addresses generative AI scams, deepfakes, and AI-crafted phishing attempts.
• Correlate endpoint, identity, and log telemetry to detect anomalies that traditional signature-based defenses might miss.
• Ensure that detection capabilities focus on attacker behavior during the staging phase, rather than waiting for encryption or data exfiltration.

Step-by-step guide: Social Engineering Warning Signs and How to Respond

General security guidance from the Threat Times newsroom. It is not confirmed advice from the organisations named in this story.

Frequently asked questions

How much has RMM abuse increased according to Huntress?

Huntress data shows that abuse of remote monitoring and management platforms jumped roughly 277 percent year over year in 2026.

What new social engineering techniques are attackers using?

Attackers are employing nastier techniques including ClickFix scams, fake CAPTCHAs, smishing, and vishing to bypass user defenses.

How does Huntress recommend using AI in security operations?

Huntress uses AI to triage and correlate massive telemetry, then passes validated findings to human threat hunters for judgment.