Cybersecurity has been and will remain a critical concern for organisations as we enter 2025. Risks that were prevalent over a decade ago — like phishing and ransomware — continue to present challenges for cyber professionals. New technologies are giving bad actors new and better ways to access networks and the data they contain.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to remain a key element in the strategies of both cyber security professionals and the people they are trying to protect against, and therefore dominates a great deal of the conversation around cybersecurity. As noted in GCHQ’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) annual review, “while AI presents huge opportunities, it is also transforming the cyber threat. Cyber criminals are adapting their business models to embrace this rapidly developing technology – using AI to increase the volume and impact of cyber attacks against citizens and businesses, at a huge cost.”
Breaches are becoming more common, the tools available to cybercriminals more effective. This year, conventional wisdom about striving for ever-more-effective security measures in support of an impenetrable membrane around the business may be phased out, as businesses begin to accept it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” a breach occurs.
Cyber resilience
The UK government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey for 2024 found that half of all businesses and approximately one third of charities (32%) in the country experienced some form of cyber security breach or attack in the last 12 months.
According to Luke Dash, CEO of ISMS.online, resilience will take “centre stage” in the year ahead, as organisations start prioritising continuity over defence, in what he describes as “a shift from merely defending against threats to ensuring continuity and swift recovery.”
In tandem with this shift in approach, Dash notes that resilience is also becoming more of a priority from the regulatory side. With “changes to frameworks like ISO 27001 expanding to address resilience, and regulations like NIS 2 introducing stricter incident reporting, organisations will be required to proactively prepare for and respond to cyber disruptions,” he explains, adding that this trend will result in “a stronger focus on disaster recovery and operational continuity, with companies investing heavily in systems that allow them to quickly bounce back from cyber incidents, especially in critical infrastructure sectors.”
Regulatory shifts reflect refocusing on continuity
Regulations will also spur global action to secure critical infrastructure in 2025, as critical infrastructure like utility grids, data centres, and emergency services are expecting to face mounting cyber threats.
As noted in the NCSC’s report, “Over the next five years, expected increased demand for commercial cyber tools and services, coupled with a permissive operating environment in less-regulated regimes, will almost certainly result in an expansion of the global commercial cyber intrusion sector. The real-world effect of this will be an expanding range and number of victims to manage, with attacks coming from less-predictable types of threat actor.”
This rising tide of cyber threats — both from private groups and state-sponsored organisations — will, Dash believes, prompt governments and operators to adopt stronger defences and risk management frameworks. “Regulations like NIS 2 will push EU operators to implement comprehensive security measures, enforce prompt incident reporting, and face steeper penalties for non-compliance,” he says. “Governments globally will invest in safeguarding essential services, making sectors like energy, healthcare, and finance more resilient to attacks. Heightened collaboration among nations will also emerge, with increased intelligence sharing and coordinated responses to counteract sophisticated threats targeting critical infrastructure.”
- Cybersecurity
