Arctic Wolf® Labs, a global pioneer in security operations, has published the findings of its 2025 predictions report revealing the cybersecurity trends set to dominate the threat landscape over the next year.
The report predicts social engineering and ransomware attacks to be some of the most common attack types in 2025, allowing threat actors to effectively bypass defences and gain entry to victim organisations. Weaknesses in identity and access management (IAM) systems, alongside a continued rise in ‘voice phishing’ techniques, will also continue to be exploited to gain unauthorised access to target networks.
Human reasoning capabilities
Critical infrastructure could be subject to destructive – rather than disruptive – attacks in 2025 as actors look to take advantage of changes in Western administrations and leadership.
Threat actors will also continue to leverage new and existing tools, with AI soon predicted to replicate human reasoning capabilities and allow actors to uncover novel initial access techniques as a result.
Basic cybersecurity measures
“Threat actors are becoming increasingly opportunistic in their chosen attack type, and 2025 will be no exception,” said Dan Schiappa, Chief Product Officer at Arctic Wolf.
“Any new technology, or slight change in IT environment, can, and will, be taken advantage of as we head into the new year and its critical organisations protect themselves. Implementing basic cybersecurity measures, such as multifactor authentication (MFA), network segmentation and an incident response plan, should be a number one priority. Protecting against these expected threats – whether that’s through phishing-resistant MFA or credential controls – can also help prevent actors from gaining entry, whether a hacktivist, nation state agency or lone individual.”