FROM HACKERS TO MALWARE & RANSOMWARE: THE 2025 CYBERSECURITY TRENDS REPORT

As digital permeates deeper across business and society, cyberattacks grow more frequent, automated and damaging requiring security leaders to anticipate emerging threats and guide strategic plans. Loads of new high velocity trends will shape cybersecurity between now and 2025.

Exponential Ransomware Growth
Ransomware is spreading faster than any malware type today typically through social engineering and application attacks. Damage costs already exceeded over $20 billion in 2021. As smart devices expand the attack surface and ransomware-as-a-service makes deployment easier, impacts will keep climbing exponentially unless collective action emerges across public and private sectors.

Broad Adoption of Passwordless Authentication
80% of breaches involve compromised credentials making passwords a key vulnerability. But passwordless methods using biometrics or security keys are demonstrated to be easier and more effective. As standards solidify and tools improve, passwordless adoption will exceed 50% across enterprises by 2025 reducing account takeovers.

Mainstreaming of Cyber Insurance
Only 35% of small businesses carry cyber insurance today despite increasing ransomware susceptibility. High profile attacks are prompting insurers to mandate baseline security controls for coverage eligibility accelerating adoption. Come the next two years, over 60% of companies will transfer risk through standardized cyber insurance policies.

Pervasive Misinformation Risks
Advances in AI generated fake media will enable highly believable misinformation campaigns across text, audio and video formats. As fraudulent content evades detection with greater sophistication, new controls and global norms must emerge before manipulated realities overwhelm trusted online information ecosystem pillars.

Proactive Mandated Disclosures
Reactive breach notification policies articulate cyber failures but don’t prevent them. Shifting policy tides will drive requirements to affirmatively display security standards met across sectors like healthcare and education allowing markets to reward stronger protections selected voluntarily by customers and business partners.

Zero Trust Architectures Scale
Forrester predicts 50% of companies adopted zero trust models in 2023 prioritizing least privileged access and identity validation from all inside and external users. The remainder of businesses will follow shortly after as hybrid multi-cloud environments connecting global workforces necessitate zero trust scaling comprehensively by 2025.

Cloud Adoption Instigates New Threats
Hosting data across shared infrastructure introduces new attack vectors like misconfigurations and supply chain compromises. Defending expanded cloud borders prompts revisions to cyber strategies as 90% of companies navigate hybrid multi-cloud environments demanding integrated tools, specialized talent and vigilance.

Coordinated Global Actions Begin
Currently over 140 countries lack foundational cybersecurity laws. Realizing cyber threats exploit the weakest link across interconnected systems, business leaders will advocate for elevated policy attention internationally to homogenize norms and deterrence responses globally to tamp down ballooning threats.