As each year passes, the complexities of cybersecurity and the more sophisticated threats grow. While several threat trends and cybersecurity priorities persist each year, some new factors impacting the digital ecosystem should be considered in the next year.
I chose to select a couple of tech trends that certainly will be impacting cybersecurity in 2025: artificial intelligence and quantum computing. I also address one persistent omnipresent cyberthreat: phishing. And to provide practical recommendations, I have included a short cybersecurity readiness checklist and recommendations for businesses for the coming year.
The application of artificial intelligence is a significant driver of cybersecurity. It was the cybersecurity theme for 2024 and will expand into 2025. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) become essential tools or innovative chess pieces in a cybersecurity strategy game when it comes to adapting to new highly sophisticated digital surroundings. When it comes to surviving and thriving, it will be dependent on the accuracy, speed, and quality of the algorithms and accompanying technology. To succeed in a complex game, we must be diligent, creative, and consistently stay ahead of the competition.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have the potential to become new paradigms for automation in the field of cybersecurity. The ability to draw statistical conclusions and use predictive analytics to reduce hazards with fewer resources is made possible by them.
Speech recognition, learning and planning, and problem solving are some of the fundamental tasks that computers equipped with artificial intelligence and machine learning are supposed to perform.
In the area of cybersecurity, artificial intelligence and machine learning can offer a more expedient method of recognizing new assaults, drawing statistical inferences, and transmitting this information to endpoint security systems. This is of utmost significance because there is a significant lack of well-trained cybersecurity professionals, and the attack surface is increasingly expanding.
AI and ML can be useful for cyber defense. The tools can be used to improve cyber defense capabilities and quickly detect threat abnormalities. On the other hand, threat actors can also utilize these tools. And criminal hackers and adversarial states are already employing AI and MI as instruments to identify and take advantage of flaws in threat detection frameworks. With the use of automated reconnaissance techniques, attackers can gather detailed information on a target's personnel, systems, and defenses at a speed and scale never before possible.
They employ a number of techniques to accomplish this. Their favorite methods are frequently automated human-like phishing attempts and malware that may change itself to trick or even compromise cyber-defense programs and systems.
The most vulnerable targets are small businesses, organizations, and particularly healthcare facilities that cannot afford to make large expenditures in defensive developing cybersecurity technology like artificial intelligence. Hacker extortion via ransomware and cryptocurrency demands could become a more persistent and dynamic danger.
The age of quantum computing is currently upon humanity. Quantum computing promises to solve problems by allowing previously unheard-of processing speeds and predictive analytics. Real-time analytics and cybersecurity are just two of the fields that quantum technology is predicted to revolutionize. In order to accomplish this, it uses the unique properties of subatomic particles to process data inputs.
The research firm Gartner succinctly describes quantum computing as: "[T]the use of atomic quantum states to effect computation. Data is held in qubits (quantum bits), which could hold all possible states simultaneously. Data held in qubits is affected by data held in other qubits, even when physically separated. This effect is known as entanglement." In a simplified description, quantum computers use quantum bits or qubits instead of using binary traditional bits of ones and zeros for digital communications.
Robert Liscouski, Chairman of the Board of Quantum Computing Inc. (www.quantumcomputinginc.com), believes that we will see practical applications of quantum computing this year and beyond. He is confident that the state of the technology is at a point today where end users -- business users, medical researchers, and cybersecurity professionals -- will change the conversation from "What can quantum computing do" to "Look what I can achieve with quantum computing."
However, as is the case with many technological tools, there are two sides. Given their speed and accuracy advantages over classical computers, quantum computers have the potential to pose geopolitical cyberthreats if misused. Cybersecurity can potentially be compromised by the same computational capacity that enables the solution of complex issues. Current cybersecurity measures typically use pseudo-random numbers to encrypt sensitive data, such as passwords and personal information. However, any business that uses regular encryption tools faces a major risk. This is because quantum computers can defeat the encryption methods that traditional computers employ.
Quantum computing is arriving sooner than we planned and we must prepare for the exponential advantages and threats of quantum technology due to its potentially disruptive nature. Governments, academia, and many technology leaders in industry, are all now investing with heightened intensity in research & development and are contributing to the quest to develop functional quantum computing. The year 2025 will still be a time of quantum discoveries. However, there is no denying that a new quantum era is on the horizon.
Addressing Persistent Annual Cyber Threats
Every year, phishing heads the list of cyberthreats. Why? Because it is easy to do, and hackers are able to profit from it.
Social media is frequently used by criminal hacking groups and scammers to plan their malware and phishing attacks. They may customize their attacks by gathering a lot of information from social media posts, including birthdates and personal histories. Advances in technology have rendered phishing more accessible to cybercriminals. They have easy access to digital images and social engineering data, and a vast array of phishing tools at their disposal, some of which are automated by machine learning. Hackers often combine spearphishing, a technique they use to target executives at companies or organizations, with ransomware.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms have made social engineering operations much more complex by making it easier to find weaknesses and automate large-scale ransomware and phishing campaigns. When hackers are successful in stealing identities, they frequently sell or distribute them to other criminals on the dark web.
The second half of 2024 saw a 202% increase in total phishing messages, according to cybersecurity experts, who also noted a sharp rise in phishing attacks. In the same period, there was a significant 703% increase in credential phishing attacks, according to SlashNext's 2024 Phishing Intelligence Report. "Key findings from the study reveal that users encounter an average of one advanced phishing attack per mailbox every week. Mobile users face up to 600 threats annually, underscoring a shift away from email-only phishing to multichannel approaches." Phishing Attacks Double in 2024 - Infosecurity Magazine
Ransomware attacks often accompany phishing attacks. Automated and enabled by AI, criminal hackers will continue to extort victims at a startling rate in 2025. Soft targets for ransomware extortion are common among hackers, particularly in the manufacturing, finance, and healthcare sectors. Given that many networks still have open vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit and that many of the affected firms are still paying ransomware, we should anticipate further attacks of this nature.
So, what should be the priorities for 2025?! Below is a short checklist that highlights both needs and challenges and some practical business recommendations:
· Stronger (quantum-resistant) encryption to protect data in motion and at rest.
· Identity-based cybersecurity with biometrics to help mitigate deepfakes and spoofing enabled by AI.
· Better automated threat detection capabilities via AI, accompanied by upgraded public/private sector sharing of threat intelligence
· Improved vulnerability scanning that includes behavioral analytics, and se of context-aware behavioral analytics to manage security alerts (and discover insider threats).
· Policies & tools to mitigate risk to supply chains (especially via 3 party vendors).
· Optimizing migration to Cloud platforms with secure web gateways and network & web application firewalls.
· Updating legacy systems and assimilation of emerging technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence, and quantum-resistant algorithms into security platforms need to be prioritized.
· Better visibility and monitoring of connected devices on the Internet of Things.
· More attention to be applied to Zero Trust risk management strategies, from vulnerability assessments and securing code from production throughout the life cycle.
· New strategies and use of technologies to bridge vulnerabilities and monitor sensors between OT and IT Operating systems (especially critical infrastructures with industrial control systems).
*Please see my new book, "Inside Cyber: How AI, 5G, and Quantum Computing Will Transform Privacy and Our Security." The book teaches readers how to navigate the arriving intersection of tech, cybersecurity, and commerce. Amazon.com: Inside Cyber: How AI, 5G, IoT, and Quantum Computing Will Transform Privacy and Our Security: 9781394254941: Brooks, Chuck: Books
Cybersecurity Recommendations for Business in 2025
1) The practice of cybersecurity is fundamentally about risk management. Employee education, gap analysis, vulnerability assessment, threat mitigation, and having up-to-date resilience plans to react to incidents are all part of this watchful approach.
2) Cyber-hygiene is also a business imperative. Elements of basic cyber hygiene include multifactor authentication (MFA) to limit the possibility of unauthorized access. Strong passwords that are not easily guessed and/or a password manager. Identity and access management ("IAM") ensures that only the right people and job roles in your organization can access the tools they need to do their jobs.
3) The foundation of cybersecurity is effective communication. The CISO, CTO, CIO, and top management must coordinate their efforts, work together, and evaluate their information security policies, procedures, and network security on a regular basis. By exchanging intelligence about dangers and innovative security advances, communication makes preparedness possible.
4) Expertise is needed in cybersecurity. A corporate board should ideally have a mix of subject matter specialists from inside and outside the company. Executive management can always benefit from hearing opinions and suggestions from outside specialists.