Five cybersecurity lessons for businesses in 2025

2024 was a troublesome year, with more frequent, sophisticated, disruptive, and damaging attacks. It left catastrophic tremors around the world, with disrupted operations, financial loss, and reputation damage, with millions of data exposed.??

The year has seen a record rise in data exposed, with over 422 million records in the third quarter alone. Most importantly, 2024 has been a year full of experiences and lessons that could be realized for a resilient and compliant business.?

Let us explore some of the top cybersecurity lessons for 2025.?

Lesson 1: Cybersecurity must be prioritized at a fundamental level?

The foremost lesson for businesses is that most were doing cybersecurity wrong at the fundamental level. Organizations did not prioritize cybersecurity enough, and their capabilities were limited in responding to cyber threats. And it was visible in increased breaches, supply chain attacks, increased exploitation of network appliances, and third-party breaches. Even highly intelligent and experienced organizations were not excluded from this.?

Cyberattacks grew by 75% per organization (Checkpoint) in 2024?

Lesson 2: Threat actors have leveled up their game and so should businesses??

The increased weaponization of AI and the use of ORB networks (Operational Relay Box Networks are like an amalgamation of IoT, smart devices, routers, and virtual private servers), especially by state-sponsored attackers to espionage, mask their presence and evade defenses was a wakeup call for organizations. They must upgrade their detection and response mechanisms to secure their information assets. Organizations must collectively prioritize cybersecurity. It means speeding up reconfiguration initiatives and collaborating with the government in fighting cybercrime. They must disclose useful threat intel and incident-related learnings with agencies.?

There was an increased advancement in evasive techniques, especially Living Off The Land (LOTL) by cybercrime groups (ENISA Threat Landscape Report 2024)?

Lesson 3: AI is a threat that businesses must be prepared

Due to AI weaponization, threats have become more frequent and challenging to detect and respond to. Many threat actors have leveraged LLM and AI infrastructure of their targets to carry out their malicious objectives. Organizations must use AI to automate their defenses, keep their cybersecurity posture in check, and respond to threats automatically.??

74% of professionals have reported that AI-powered threats had a significant impact on their organization

Lesson 4: organizations must normalize encryption?

Cybercriminals have intercepted to steal, alter, or erase in-transit information. State-sponsored threat actors like Salt Typhoon have intercepted communications in 2024. ?For the technologically sophisticated threat actors equipped with more powerful cyber weaponry, organizations must step up their encryption measures to secure the information in transit.?

By 2031, every 2 seconds, there will be a new attack on a consumer or business by 2031 (Cybersecurity Ventures)

Lesson 5:? The threat of ransomware will be stronger and more frequent?

Ransomware will continue to threaten organizations in 2025, with Lock Bit and PHV widely shared among low-skilled attackers to carry out their attacks. Organizations must step up their incident response strategies, ensuring better backup and round-the-clock security of their information assets.

Around 83% of organizations were targeted by ransomware in the span of twelve months?

In a nutshell, the following are some of the measures that must be considered by businesses in 2025:

They must:?

• Prioritize visibility of their cybersecurity posture and threat detection, investing in AI-enabled cybersecurity that automatically detects and responds to threats.

• Collaborate with the government and share threat intel and other insights with peers in their war against cyber threats.

• Focus on improving cybersecurity at a fundamental level. It must reflect on their budgets, their defensive outlook, and their culture.

• Keep a check on vulnerabilities across their infrastructure and address undiscovered or hidden weaknesses before they escalate into a severe threat.

• Assess awareness across different levels of their organization regularly, identifying the gaps and addressing the gaps with training.

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