Summary

In 2025, cybersecurity will be defined by advanced technologies and evolving threats. Organizations will adopt AI-driven defenses to counter increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks, including AI-powered phishing and ransomware. Zero Trust Architecture and Cybersecurity Mesh Architecture (CSMA) will become standard approaches for securing decentralized and cloud-based environments. Quantum computing’s potential to disrupt encryption will push organizations toward quantum-resistant cryptographic solutions. Regulatory scrutiny will intensify, requiring robust compliance measures across industries. Meanwhile, state-sponsored attacks and supply chain vulnerabilities will demand heightened vigilance. As the landscape grows more complex, automation, continuous monitoring, and strong governance will be key to maintaining resilience.

Threat Trends in 2025

• Securing the Expanding Attack Surface
• Zero-Day Vulnerability
• Ransomware 3.0
• The Rise of AI-Powered Attacks

Cybersecurity Trends

• FIDO2 Passkeys Explained
• Increased Focus on Data Privacy
• Zero Trust Architecture Adoption
• Quantum Computing Concerns

Threat Trends in 2025

There’s no expected end in sight for the ever-changing landscape of cybersecurity threats in 2025. Understanding the breadth and complexity of attacks is the first step in preventing them.

Securing the Expanding Attack Surface

Many organizations have made fundamental shifts in their IT estates in the last few years. From adopting remote work for employees to increasing the use of IoT and shifting to cloud computing, organizations have very different digital landscapes than they did five years ago.

The continued rise of remote work increases the attack surface, making it easier for attackers to exploit vulnerabilities on employee devices. Many employees now work remotely from a variety of locations, but this means that an attacker could target an employee’s laptop on a coffee shop’s Wi-Fi network. This means it’s essential to ensure employee devices are efficiently patched and correctly secured.

The growing number of connected devices creates a massive and increasingly vulnerable attack surface. The proliferation of IoT devices, such as cameras, TVs, and speakers in the workplace, introduces new security risks that need to be addressed. Many IoT devices have weak security measures and do not integrate with traditional security controls, making them easy targets for attackers looking to gain a foothold within networks.

Protection Steps

• Adopting proper device management procedures is essential to secure employee devices correctly.
• Adopt vulnerability scanning procedures and IoT security to reduce the risk from devices connected to organization networks.
• Organizations should include cloud security posture management in their 2025 plans. Depending on the size and scope of cloud adoption, remediation projects may be needed to

As cloud adoption grows, so does the complexity of cloud environments, leading to more misconfigurations and vulnerabilities. Many organizations lack complete visibility into their cloud environments, making identifying and addressing security issues difficult. In 2025, stakeholders should look at how they are securing data within the cloud and ensure they have clear visibility and oversight on cloud security.

Zero-Day Vulnerabilities

Zero-day vulnerabilities in 2025 present significant concerns due to attackers’ increasing sophistication, the expanding attack surface, and the interconnected nature of modern systems. Attackers increasingly exploit zero-day vulnerabilities (unknown software flaws), making them difficult to defend against.

Zero-day vulnerabilities in widely used third-party software or supply chain components can propagate to numerous organizations, creating widespread disruption. This also means that organizations delivering software will be asked to create Software Bill of Materials (SBOMs) for their customers.

Zero-day exploits are often targeted at critical systems and software, making them highly impactful. Successful exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities can lead to severe financial losses, operational downtime, and reputational damage, especially in finance, healthcare, and energy industries.

Protection Steps

• Organizations need to adopt proactive security measures such as vulnerability detection and the use of threat intelligence
• To defend against zero-day exploits, rapid patching is crucial.
• Implementing a solid MDM like Intune is a good choice for vulnerability management and patching.

Addressing Zero-Day Vulnerabilities in 2025 will require strong collaboration within organizations and proactive measures to detect and resolve vulnerabilities.

Ransomware 3.0

Ransomware continues to evolve, and by 2025, several trends and developments are likely to shape its landscape.

Increased Sophistication

• AI-Powered Attacks: Ransomware may incorporate AI to evade detection better, identify high-value targets, and optimize encryption strategies.
• Advanced Encryption Techniques: Attackers may develop more robust encryption algorithms that make decryption without a key nearly impossible.
• Stealthier Tactics: Future ransomware could operate more covertly, staying dormant or mimicking legitimate software for extended periods before activation.

Double and Triple Extortion

• Data Theft and Extortion: Beyond encrypting files, ransomware gangs will increasingly steal data and threaten to release it unless paid.
• Targeting Third Parties: Threats may extend to customers, partners, or stakeholders to amplify pressure on the primary victim.

Targeted and Personalized Attacks

• Reconnaissance: Attackers may conduct detailed research on victims to craft highly personalized attacks.
• Insider Threats: Exploiting insider access through bribery or coercion could become more common.

Human and Social Engineering

• Phishing Innovations: Social engineering techniques will evolve to trick even the most vigilant users.
• Deepfake Usage: Attackers could use deepfake videos or voice technology to manipulate or impersonate individuals during attacks.

Protection Steps

• Organizations should deploy a SIEM solution to leverage proactive monitoring. This will allow for quicker detection and containment of ransomware.
• Ensure employees have recurring training in detecting ransomware attempts.
• Develop and implement robust backup and recovery plans to ensure data can be recovered in the event of a ransomware outbreak.

While 2025 will bring more advanced and destructive ransomware threats, ongoing advancements in cybersecurity, international collaboration, and public awareness are critical in mitigating these risks. Staying vigilant and proactive will be essential.

The Rise of AI-Powered Attacks

Cybercriminals are expected to increasingly leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to craft sophisticated, personalized attacks. Techniques such as AI-generated phishing emails and deepfake technology will enhance the effectiveness of social engineering schemes, making them more challenging to detect and counter.

Organizations are likely to encounter a rise in AI-generated phishing attacks, which are increasingly realistic and far more sophisticated than the traditional “Nigerian prince” email scams of the past. This shift emphasizes the need for users to be highly vigilant and to “think before they click.” The 2024 Verizon DBIR reports that human error accounts for 68% of data breaches—a figure that remains alarmingly high despite some fluctuation over time. Organizations must maintain a robust defense-in-depth strategy to combat these evolving threats to safeguard their systems and avoid becoming the next major cybersecurity incident.

Top AI Attacks

• AI as a weapon: Attackers increasingly leverage AI for more sophisticated phishing attacks (like deepfakes), automating malware creation and bypassing traditional security measures. AI-generated phishing emails and adaptive malware will make it increasingly difficult for traditional security measures to detect and mitigate threats.
• AI-Powered Deception: AI will enable attackers to create more convincing and personalized social engineering attacks, making them harder to resist.
• Insider Threats: Social engineering attacks can manipulate employees into providing access to sensitive data or systems, creating significant insider threats.
• AI Agent Compromise: Expect attackers to target AI-enabled software, often in the form of prompt injection attacks. In 2025, threat actors might swindle AI agents into leaking sensitive data or resetting a user’s password.

Protection Steps

• Organizations must invest in AI-driven cybersecurity tools to counter these threats, creating an AI “arms race”.
• AI Security controls should be deployed to protect against data loss to AI.
• The need to deploy sophisticated email security is more critical than ever to protect against more sophisticated phishing attacks.
• Ensure good security practices are applied to newly deployed AI agents.

Organizations will need to develop a clear strategy for dealing with AI-based threats and leveraging mature cybersecurity tools to keep pace with evolving threats, emphasizing real-time monitoring and adaptive defenses.

Cybersecurity Trends

In 2025, we expect to see the continuation of some existing themes and the introduction of some new topics.

FIDO2 Passkeys Explained

FIDO2 passkeys are a modern, passwordless authentication solution designed to enhance security and usability in online interactions. They are based on the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) standard, which aims to replace passwords with more secure and user-friendly cryptographic methods.

Passkeys and hardware FIDO2 keys utilize the FIDO2 standard to enable secure, passwordless authentication, but they differ in form, use cases, and convenience. Hardware security keys, such as YubiKey, utilize a physical token to store the security key. A passkey stores the security key on a user’s device (e.g., smartphone or computer) and is often backed up to a cloud service for cross-device access. Passkeys offer the improved level of security associated with FIDO2 but leverage the existing device ecosystem that most users use.

Significant Benefits of Passkeys:

• Phishing Resistance: Passkeys rely on public-key cryptography, making them incredibly resistant to phishing attacks. Since the private key never leaves the user’s device, attackers cannot steal it through phishing emails or websites.
• Credential Stuffing Protection: Passkeys are unique to each device and website, making them useless for automated credential stuffing attacks commonly used to compromise accounts.
• No More Password Reuse: Passkeys eliminate the need to reuse the same password across multiple accounts, significantly reducing the impact of a single account compromise.
• Easy to Use: Passkeys often leverage existing device authentication methods (biometrics like fingerprint or face recognition, PINs, or patterns), making logins quick and convenient.
• Cross-Device Convenience: Passkeys can be synced across multiple devices, allowing users to access accounts easily from their trusted devices.
• No More Password Fatigue: Users no longer need to remember and manage complex passwords, reducing frustration and improving overall user satisfaction.

Protection Steps

• Ensure your authentication strategy includes enabling passkeys and migrating off legacy MFA like SMS or email codes.
• Most major identity providers, such as Okta, Microsoft, and AWS, support passkeys.

Passkeys represent a significant leap forward in online security. They address the vulnerabilities of passwords while offering a more seamless user experience. They are rapidly becoming a standard for secure and convenient authentication across the web.

Increased Focus on Data Privacy

Evolving data privacy regulations will compel organizations to adopt robust data governance practices. Emphasis on data encryption, incident reporting, and compliance with regional laws will be crucial to maintain customer trust and avoid legal repercussions.

Since California’s passage of the California Consumer Protection Act, later superseded by the California Privacy Rights Act, over twenty states have passed comprehensive privacy laws. Many of these have already been passed into law but will take effect on a rolling basis through 2026 and beyond.

To address compliance paralysis, organizations must prioritize organization and efficiency. Strong governance at all levels, consistent processes, and effective tools—such as Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) platforms—will mitigate compliance-related risks.

As AI systems become more common, cybersecurity issues related to data privacy, manipulation of AI models, and misuse of AI-generated content will grow. Compliance frameworks will be introduced to ensure organizations secure their AI training data, model accuracy, and user interactions. The U.S. federal government may identify AI Governance and Security as an operational risk and require additional security controls for contractors.

Protection Steps

• Many organizations will want to look at adopting Privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs). Technologies like encryption, anonymization, and data masking will become essential for minimizing data breach risks.
• Implement a security framework-based Information Security program in 2025.
• Adopt AI Security controls to prevent data loss through the use of GenAI tools like ChatGPT.

With evolving data privacy laws, businesses must prioritize data protection and ensure compliance. New compliance requirements and evolving technologies will force organizations to address these challenges.

Zero Trust Architecture Adoption

Traditional cybersecurity relies on a castle-and-moat mentality. Once inside the network perimeter, users and devices are trusted. This approach is increasingly vulnerable in today’s interconnected world with remote work, cloud computing, and mobile devices. Zero Trust Solution: Imagine a world where nothing is implicitly trusted. Regardless of location, every user, device, and application must be verified and authorized before accessing any resource.

Organizations are anticipated to widely implement Zero Trust Architecture throughout 2025, which operates on the principle of “never trust, always verify.” This approach requires continuous authentication and monitoring of every user, device, and application, thereby enhancing security in increasingly complex IT environments.

In 2025, AI and ML will play a more prominent role in Zero Trust environments, enhancing threat detection, response, and automation. Behavioral analytics will be used to identify and respond to anomalous user behavior in real-time. AI will aid in relating threat intelligence data to proactively identify and mitigate risks. Automating security actions based on real-time threat assessments will be another improved function of Zero Trust Architecture.

Historically, Zero Trust Architecture has focused on providing network security. But in 2025, we’re expecting a greater shift to data security. This will mean using data classification and labeling to ensure the appropriate security controls are applied based on data sensitivity. Data Loss Prevention controls and Data Encryption will be leveraged to further protect data.

Protection Steps

• Adopt a VPN solution that leverages Zero Trust Architecture.
• Ensure your Microsoft environment is configured in alignment with Zero Trust Architecture.

Zero Trust will become the de facto standard for cybersecurity, moving beyond early adopters to widespread implementation across various industries. This will be driven by increasing cyberattacks, regulatory pressures, and the need to secure remote workforces and cloud environments. Zero Trust isn’t just a framework, it has become a baseline expectation for securing modern enterprises. This means that customers will increasingly ask organizations if they’ve implemented Zero Trust.

Quantum Computing Concerns

Quantum computing is a cutting-edge field of computing that leverages the principles of quantum mechanics—the fundamental theory in physics that describes nature at the smallest scales. Unlike classical computers, which use bits as the smallest unit of data (representing 0 or 1), quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits, which can exist in multiple states simultaneously.

Quantum computing holds the potential to revolutionize technology, science, and industry in the coming decades. The advent of quantum computing poses potential risks to current encryption methods. Quantum computers could eventually break many of the encryption algorithms (TLS, AES-256) currently used to safeguard data. This would allow attackers to decrypt HTTPS website traffic or encrypted laptop drives and access sensitive information.

“Q Day” is the term used to describe the future date when quantum computers will be able to break current encryption standards. Most experts predict “Q Day” will arrive within the next 10 years. But before this time, organizations will need to start deploying Post-Quantum Cryptography in their systems to avoid getting caught off-guard.

While still in its early stages, quantum computing poses a significant long-term threat to cybersecurity. Organizations are advised to transition to quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms to safeguard data against future quantum threats. Risk-averse organizations should make Post-Quantum Cryptography a priority in 2025.

In Conclusion

Cybersecurity in 2025 will be characterized by increasingly sophisticated attacks, a greater focus on data privacy, and the need for businesses to secure their expanding digital footprint. By understanding these concerns and implementing proactive security measures, businesses can better protect themselves from evolving cyber threats.