Information technology (IT) has changed dramatically over the past few years, with advances in virtually every aspect of the industry. Cybersecurity, specifically, has evolved from its previous form.
Our list of cybersecurity predictions for the coming year can help you understand what you might face in 2025.
1. The Evolution of Ransomware
First on our cybersecurity 2025 forecast is the increasing frequency of ransomware attacks. These attacks are becoming more sophisticated and more common, demonstrated by an 81% year-over-year increase from 2023 to 2024.
Ransomware locks users out of individual computers — or even entire networks — until the ransom is paid. Even then, there’s no guarantee you’ll recover everything hit by the attack.
Encryption-only ransomware is becoming significantly less common. Attackers primarily use double extortion tactics to manipulate targets into paying the ransom. Double extortion is an advanced tactic where attackers combine data encryption with data theft to increase pressure on victims to pay the ransom.
2. Internet of Things Expansion
Another of the most important 2025 cybersecurity threats is the rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT refers to a network of internet-connected devices other than smartphones, tablets and computers, such as:
- Smartwatches.
- Wearable fitness trackers.
- Smart home appliances.
- Voice assistants like Amazon Echo and Google Home.
- Car infotainment systems.
- Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags.
Projections show that by 2030, the number of IoT devices in use will exceed 32 billion worldwide.
The more devices connected to your network, the larger your attack surface becomes. Cybercriminals can take advantage of all the new endpoints your expansion has opened to enter your system unnoticed.
3. Artificial Intelligence Empowering Cybercriminals
The widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) was a significant turning point in 2023 and 2024. While it helped companies boost their efficiency, it also gave malicious actors new opportunities.
Some examples include:
- Optimized attacks: Generative AI and machine learning (ML) technologies can help even inexperienced attackers create more sophisticated malware, eliminate the typical indicators from a phishing email or scale their attacks to affect more targets.
- Data poisoning: A hacker can inject false, biased or corrupted data into an AI’s training datasets, causing the AI to produce inaccurate results and reduce performance.
- Automated malware: While AI programs like ChatGPT and Google Gemini have some protections in place to discourage malicious coding, determined hackers can bypass them and use the program to automatically produce malicious code.
- Model stealing: Attackers can replicate an AI model by querying it and observing outputs — effectively stealing the model without direct access to the original code or training data.
- Bias exploitation: AI models may inadvertently acquire biases from training data, and attackers can exploit them to manipulate outcomes in their favor.
- AI in deepfakes: Artificial intelligence can create realistic fake videos or audio recordings that can be used to impersonate individuals or spread misinformation.
- Autonomous decision-making risks: Attackers could target or manipulate AI systems that make autonomous decisions, especially regarding critical infrastructure or defense.
4. Public Cloud Growth
While most businesses have fully resumed in-person operations, many still give remote-capable employees the option to work remotely.
This rapid expansion of the remote workforce has led to organizations relying on resources and services from public cloud data centers, such as collaborative software platforms and infrastructure components.
While cloud service providers typically put many security measures in place to protect data from attackers, some risks are difficult to address:
- Misconfigured cloud settings: Failing to properly configure your cloud settings to comply with industry regulations can accidentally create exploitable vulnerabilities.
- Insider threats: Whether a remote worker intentionally leaks data or accidentally leaves their account open for attackers, cybercriminals can access the public cloud more easily than private clouds or on-premises networks.
- Sniffing or snooping: Migrating data to the cloud via unsecured network connections can give attackers an opening to hijack it in transit.
- Insecure APIs: Public cloud services are often accessed via application programming interfaces (APIs). If these APIs are not properly secured, attackers can exploit them and gain unauthorized access.
- Denial of service (DoS) attacks: Attackers can target cloud services, overwhelming resources and making services unavailable.
5. Extended Reality Vulnerabilities
While extended reality (XR) technologies, such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), are becoming more popular in personal and professional applications, they still lack many of the cybersecurity protections of the other tools in your IT stack.
Some of the potential risks this gap creates include:
- Social engineering: Many XR programs come from third-party developers, which increases the risk of unreliable content manipulating your users to perform specific actions. Vetting your software vendors is key.
- Ransomware: Hackers could plant malicious code or links into a VR or AR program to lure unsuspecting users into activating a computer virus.
- Lack of privacy: VR headsets and AR technologies collect user biometric data, such as retina scans, eye movements and typical behavior patterns. Hackers can use this data to recreate user actions and gain unauthorized access to your system.
- Man-in-the-middle attack: XR applications often rely on real-time data transmission between devices and servers. Attackers could intercept this data, altering its content or injecting malicious data.
Developing Solutions for the Future of Cybersecurity
As technology advances, the IT market gains opportunities to enhance security protections against external and internal threats. Here are promising developments in the future of cybersecurity.
Immersive Cybersecurity Training
A nonmalicious human element is a key factor in 68% of all data breaches, according to Verizon’s most recent Data Breach Investigations Report. An engaging security awareness training program is one of the most effective ways to mitigate human risk.
VR opens new, immersive security training opportunities for employees in various industries. By gamifying learning in an engaging virtual world, organizations can motivate employees to continue improving.
Virtualized Security Operations Centers
Although security operations centers (SOCs) are a must for any cybersecurity provider, physical centers are increasingly expensive to build and maintain. XR technologies could present a cost-effective solution.
VR and AR can enable companies to create fully virtual, interactive SOCs using infinite office platforms, which could allow security professionals to work remotely while providing the same level of service.
Virtualization could also enable SOC employees to automate time-consuming and tedious tasks, streamlining workflows and giving them the ability to focus on more complex projects.
AI-Enhanced Tools
AI-powered cybersecurity tools can help your organization enhance its security posture with capabilities like:
- Predictive analytics: AI technologies enable your organization to adopt a more proactive stance by predicting potential cybersecurity risks and their outcomes.
- Advanced threat detection: AI algorithms can also identify abnormal behavior faster than a human cybersecurity professional, enabling you to stay on top of insider threats and compromised accounts.
- ML capabilities: ML enables a software program to learn from previous cycles, creating a security system that can continuously update its knowledge of threats and adapt appropriate responses.
Why Trust Us?
Knowledge is power — especially in the cybersecurity and IT industries. At Morefield, our expert team is passionate about providing our readers with the information they need to make decisions about their security requirements.
Our decades of experience in the technology field have given us valuable insight into the most common risks small to medium-sized businesses across various industries face daily.
We strive to thoroughly understand how cybersecurity risks affect businesses so that we can lead the industry in creating the most effective solutions. Providing high-quality resources like this blog post is a key component of that mission.
Prepare for 2025 With Cybersecurity Services From Morefield
When it comes to preparing for the future of cybersecurity, proactivity is critical. Many companies find that their best chance of avoiding serious consequences is by obtaining outside help.
Working with a managed cybersecurity company can make the process easier. At Morefield, we offer various scalable security solutions, including but not limited to:
- Vulnerability assessments.
- vCISO services.
- Next-generation firewalls.
- Security awareness training.
- Mobile device management.
Whatever your organization needs, we can help you find the best solution to meet those requirements.
Connect with us online for more information about our cybersecurity solutions and services. An expert will answer any questions you may have.
