Three SOC challenges you need to solve by 2026

2026 will mark a pivotal shift in cybersecurity. Threat actors are moving from experimenting with AI to becoming a primary weapon, using it to scale attacks, automate reconnaissance, and create highly realistic social engineering campaigns.

storm on the horizon

Global instability and rapid technology advancements are forcing security teams to adapt not just their defensive technology, but their entire workforce approach. The average SOC already processes approximately 11,000 alerts each day, but the volume and sophistication of threats is accelerating. For business leaders, this has a direct impact on business continuity, regulatory compliance, and ultimately financials.

SOCs that can’t keep up the pace won’t just struggle. They will fail spectacularly. Fix these three major issues now or pay big bucks later.

1. Evasive threats are slipping through the cracks and getting smarter fast.

Attackers have learned evasion. ClickFix campaigns trick employees into pasting malicious PowerShell commands themselves. LOLBins are exploited to hide malicious behavior. Multi-step phishing hides behind QR codes, CAPTCHAs, rewritten URLs, and fake installers. Traditional sandboxes stop because you can’t click “next”, solve challenges, or follow human-dependent flows. result? Accurate threat detection rates are low, which will explode after 2025.

Fix problems with interactive malware analysis

With automated interactivity, ANY.RUN’s interactive sandbox uses machine learning to automatically interact with malware samples to bypass phishing site CAPTCHAs and complete the necessary actions to force the malware to run. The platform doesn’t just monitor; it proactively responds to threats at machine speed, just like a human analyst.

ANY.RUN’s sandbox handles links from QR codes

Through smart content analysis, Sandbox automatically identifies and detonates key components at each stage of the attack chain. It extracts URLs from QR codes, removes security rewrites from modified links, bypasses multi-step redirects, processes email attachments, and executes payloads hidden within archives.

Sandbox to automatically run PowerShell commands in ClickFix attacks

The impact on your business is immediate. By uncovering the complete attack chain in real-time, ANY.RUN allows SOC teams to uncover the entire attack sequence, capture IOCs, and adjust detection rules within seconds instead of hours.

2. Tier 1 teams are exhausted by the alert avalanche

Thousands of alerts occur every day, most of which are false positives. According to the 2024 SANS SOC study, the average SOC processes 11,000 alerts each day, but only 19% of alerts are worth investigating. Lacking context, Tier 1 analysts drown in noise and escalate everything. All alerts become research projects. All research starts from scratch. Burnout hits hard.

Sales are doubling, morale is dropping, and the real threat is hiding in the backlog. By 2026, AI-coordinated attacks will flood systems even faster, turning vigilance fatigue into a full-blown crisis.

Cut through the confusion with actionable threat intelligence

ANY.RUN’s threat intelligence lookups and TI feeds transform alert triage by delivering 24x more IOCs per incident from over 15,000 SOC environments conducting real-world investigations, instantly providing detailed context on emerging threats so analysts can see and stop attacks in seconds.

Rather than starting all investigations from scratch, analysts can query a single artifact and instantly receive complete intelligence, including metric determinations, geographic targeting and urgency, associated campaigns, targeting patterns, associated metrics, MITER ATT&CK mapping, and more.

Determining suspicious domains: Newly discovered belonging to Lumma thieves

Sandbox integration is especially useful for junior analysts who may lack the skills and experience required for advanced malware analysis.

3. Prove ROI: Build a business case for cyber defense

From a finance leader’s perspective, security spending often feels like a black hole. That is, money is spent, but risk reduction is difficult to quantify. SOCs face the challenge of justifying investments, especially when security teams appear to be cost centers with no clear benefit or business-driving impact.

ANY.RUN shows that threat intelligence can actually save costs and deliver business value. Here’s how:

Preventing breaches: Threat intelligence feeds provide real-time IOCs collected from live sandbox investigations across 15,000+ organizations to help prevent attacks before they occur. Reduce false positives: Reduce the time your SOC team spends tracking noise by filtering out low-risk alerts and revealing only reliable malicious indicators. Triage automation: Use contextual intelligence to automatically enrich alerts (via API/SDK) to reduce Tier 1 workloads and reduce overtime and turnover costs. Rapid response: TI Lookup links each IOC to a sandbox report, giving you complete visibility into malware behavior for faster and more effective containment. Continuous updates: TI feeds are continuously updated with proprietary, verified IOCs, allowing your SOC to stay ahead of emerging threats without manual investigation.

Why this matters in 2026: In an era where cyber risk can directly impact financial performance, being able to demonstrate that your security investments reduce risk, save resources, and improve operational efficiency is essential. ANY.RUN’s modern threat intelligence transforms your SOC from a cost center to a value-producing asset.

Take control before 2026 hits

AI is rewriting the rules of cyber defense. Evasive threats, over-warning, and budget scrutiny are not tomorrow’s problems, but today’s warnings. Address these issues with interactive analytics and real-time intelligence that actually works. Future-proof your SOC, keep your team healthy, and turn security into a business asset.