Title: Five Emerging Threats in Cyber Warfare for 2025
In the dynamic cybersecurity landscape of 2025, CISOs are faced with a plethora of challenges that require innovative solutions. Here's a rewritten version of the article, incorporating insights from the enrichment data while maintaining an informal and straightforward tone.
James Blake, the Vice President of Cyber Resiliency at Cohesity, shares his insights on the future of cybersecurity.
As we transition into 2025, the cybersecurity landscape is expected to evolve significantly. The previous year saw ransomware revenue surpass $1 billion, and nation-states started preparing for potential kinetic attacks. So, what can we expect in this new cyber era?
1. AI in the Crosshairs
The cybersecurity industry is filled with vendors touting AI as the silver bullet against relentless cyberattacks. While AI undeniably has a role in enhancing defense capabilities, it shouldn't instill a false sense of hope or despair.
Large Language Models (LLMs) have, in fact, given adversaries the power to craft highly convincing phishing emails that can outsmart traditional security measures. This necessitates a reliance on technical preventative controls and efficient response and recovery capabilities.
In 2023, phishing became the second-most common initial access vector, with vulnerability exploitation being the primary method ransomware uses to infiltrate organizations. AI has enabled adversaries to reverse-engineer vendor patches into exploits in a matter of days, rendering a five-day patch window virtually unattainable for most organizations.
In such a context, organizations should focus on building defense-in-depth measures and resilient responses rather than relying solely on AI. It's essential to understand AI's limitations to avoid making unrealistic promises only to suffer significant downtime when AI-driven protection fails.
2. Evolving Past Traditional Detection and Prevention
During 2024, Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platforms began including endpoint and network security control evasions in their modus operandi, making traditional detection tools unreliable.
In response, CISOs need to focus on contingency plans to rapidly rebuild security tooling in the event of an attack, ensuring uninterrupted communication with stakeholders and the restoration of essential resources. Organizations must also rethink their approach to threat hunting and digital forensics under these conditions.
3. Geopolitical Concerns and the Threat Landscape
With nations like Russia and Iran at the helm of wiper malware attacks, Western organizations are at a heightened risk in the global geopolitical landscape. In 2024, the China-aligned Volt Typhoon group was also observed positioning itself within critical national infrastructure.
As geopolitical conflicts persist, organizations must adapt their cyber resilience measures to effectively investigate and eradicate threats from highly skilled and motivated groups.
4. The Unholy Alliance: Nation-States & Ransomware Gangs
Collaboration between nation-state actors and ransomware operators is another emerging trend. In 2024, Iranian state-aligned actor Pioneer Kitten was seen delivering initial access to several ransomware groups. This partnership will likely continue to grow in 2025, driven by a desire to cause disruptive effects on adversary economies and serve as a cover for espionage operations.
5. The Importance of Adhering to Best Practices
Organizations that fail to adhere to cyber incident response best practices risk extended downtime due to reinfection and reattack. Misconceptions often lead to treating destructive cyberattacks as business continuity and disaster recovery scenarios, resulting in ineffective recovery strategies.
CISOs must collaborate with CIOs to ensure a shared responsibility model and integrate platforms to optimize the speed of investigation, mitigation, and recovery. This approach ensures rapid recovery without introducing unnecessary risks.
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- In the discussion about cybersecurity trends, James Blake, the Vice President of Cyber Resiliency at Cohesity, emphasizes the importance of understanding AI's limitations in protecting against cyberattacks.
- During the exploration of geopolitical concerns in cybersecurity, James Blake highlights the need for organizations to adapt their resilience measures to effectively investigate and counter threats from skilled and motivated groups.
