Top 7 Cyber Security predictions for 2025

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7 Cybersecurity predictions for 2025

As we head towards the end of 2024, we have seen how cyber threats menacingly disrupted organizations, destroyed their data and caused massive damage to their reputation.

Despite developments in tactics and increased cybersecurity regulations to step up cybersecurity posture, this year has been a struggle with the rising frequency of threats, rapid evolution in methods, increased risk of compromise, and stricter compliances.

What does 2025 hold for cybersecurity? Let us look at what experts say.

Looking back at 2024 from a cybersecurity lens

Here are some key cybersecurity insights to consider from 2024:

Record increase in the cost of data breaches

The global cost of data breaches increased to 4.88 million (a record high). The average lifecycle of a data breach lifecycle rose to 277 days. (SANS)

Rise in cyber attacks per organization

Cyber attacks per organization grew by 75% in Q3 compared to 2023. (Checkpoint)

Millions of records exposed

Over 422 million records were exposed in data breaches in the third quarter alone. (Statista)

Skills gap widened

The global skills shortage stood at 4,762,963 at a rate of 19.1% on a YoY basis (ISC2)

7 Cybersecurity Predictions for 2025

2025 looks promising for cybersecurity, with increased organizations prioritizing cybersecurity and visibility of security operations. However, threats loom with increased technical sophistication and a rising frequency of attacks. Let us look at what experts predict for cybersecurity for 2025:

1. Rise in threats due to the weaponization of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Experts predict that there will be an increase in the weaponization of AI in 2025, with cybercriminals leveraging AI to carry out more effective tailored attacks utilizing target-specific information. There will also be increased use of AI-based malicious tools for multiple malicious purposes, from crafting tailored phishing campaigns to creating malicious attack tools to establish undetectable persistence in a network. There will be a rise in the use of deepfakes to engage in identity theft, fraud, and security bypassing.

Gen AI could increase speed of attack by up to 100X and significantly reduce the mean time to exfiltrate (MTTE) (paloaltonetworks)

2. A shift from siloed solutions to security platforms

More organizations will shift from siloed solutions with limited visibility and control to security platforms in 2025. These platforms will have AI and data working at their cores. They will be focused on efficiency, providing organizations with a balance to ensure a resilient security posture against evolving threats and accommodating business growth.

Consolidation of security platforms will be the new norm in the coming years (Gartner)

3. AI will be a key part of security operations

AI will be a significant part of SOC’s core operations, like managing tasks like vulnerability scanning and threat detection, with security experts having increased focus on planning, decision making, and strategizing. Large organizations, in 2025, will train AI models to scale up their defenses. AI-based cybersecurity will enable them to automatically detect and respond to threats. It will also have a significant impact on energy consumption since AI and data centers are energy demanding. Experts have predicted that energy consumption will surge to 35 GW by 2030 in the US alone.

91% of respondents working in security team agreed to using public generative AI (Splunk)

4. Quantum Computing will threaten encrypted security mechanisms

Advancements in quantum computing could pose a significant threat to data security, with threat actors leveraging it to access encrypted sensitive information like state secrets. State-sponsored actors will gain early access to encrypted data that could be decrypted once quantum technology matures. Although the NIST has updated its cybersecurity standards, making a special inclusion of standards for post-quantum cryptography, organizations must be prepared for an early shift to newer and safer mechanisms to secure their sensitive data.

By 2029 Quantum computing will evolve to a point that failure to use quantum safe cryptographic algorithms will expose apps and data to the risk of compromise

5. Ransomware and other threats will persist

Ransomware and other extortion-based cyber threats will continue to menace industries in 2025.  Cybercriminals will be more persistent and undetectable, using “hard to figure out” methods that exploit gaps in human awareness and unexplored security weaknesses. There will be a rise in ransomware groups targeting critical infrastructure, looking to espionage operations causing nationwide chaos, and stealing sensitive information to achieve monetary or political objectives.

Ransomware will be advanced and more persistent in 2025 with GenAI enhancements (paloaltonetworks)

6. It will be easier for entry-level hackers to carry out an attack

Democratization and easy access to threat tools and cyber weaponry will make it easier for entry-level hackers to carry out an attack. Less skilled attackers will leverage malicious AI-based chatbots like Fraud GPT to create full-fledged phishing campaigns. This will increase the frequency of attacks and arm non-native attackers to target a wider geography.

There was a 4% increase in identity fraud cases in 2024 due to easily accessible AI assistants to create fake websites and phishing campaigns. (Cifas, Fraudscape 2024)

7. Compliance will become more complex with more severe consequences of non-compliance

In response to the rising frequency and complexity of cyber threats, regulatory bodies will increase cybersecurity and information security requirements to ensure the security and privacy of citizens.

2025 will make way for stricter consequences of non-compliance, like failure to conduct security assessments, absence of incident response measures, or failure to report data breaches.

Only 39% of business leaders prioritized ensuring that compliance program strategy keeps pace with regulatory requirements in 2024

To wrap up

2025 will be a year to prepare for organizations.  On the offensive side, cybercriminals will leverage weaponized AI and quantum computing methods to carry out highly sophisticated attacks to steal sensitive information, disrupt operations, and cause nationwide chaos. On the defensive side, organizations will have to proactively enhance their resilience and preparedness against threats and leverage AI to fend off cyber threats and work more efficiently.

To summarize, here are the cybersecurity predictions for 2025: