Stepping into the first months of 2025 has made it abundantly clear that preparation is the key to mitigating the impact of a cyber attack. The previous year highlighted how threat actors have become increasingly bold, leveraging new technologies and methods to exfiltrate, disrupt, and take financial advantage of organizations from all industry verticals. In fact, the average financial cost associated with data breaches in 2024 was the highest on record at $4.88M.
Attacks from the likes of Velvet Ant and Salt Typhoon have shown how vulnerable organizations are to a cyber attack. As data breaches, phishing campaigns, ransomware attacks and more continue to dominate headlines, we asked experts across Sygnia to share their key observations defining the cyber threat landscape, the tactical challenges and how organizations can address emerging threats.
AI is Redefining the Cyber Threat Landscape and Demanding Organizational Readiness
The rise and accessibility of AI solutions enables threat actors to develop new attack methods and refine existing approaches. Over the next two years, the National Cyber Security Centre expects AI solutions to increase the volume and impact of cyber attacks.
“Ransomware threat actors can now craft compelling operational campaigns at the push of a button to dupe the more cyber-savvy individuals,” said Karin Lagziel, Director of Cybersecurity Services at Sygnia. “From phishing, smishing and quishing tactics through to deepfake videos and audio, threat actors are deploying far more evasive techniques to attack and cripple organizations.”
Additionally, rapid adoption of complex AI models without proper understanding of the security implications has expanded attack surface and vulnerabilities. Furthermore, with more than 60 elections in 2024 alone, the misuse of AI was rife and is expected to continue to be used by nation-state threat actors as a way to disrupt political narratives. Looking ahead, organizations will need to increase their visibility and ability to detect AI threats, secure their AI models, and train their workforce to navigate this evolving threat landscape.
Navigating the Fine Line on Intrusive Security Tools
For many organizations, intrusive security tools have become a cornerstone to their cyber preparedness and protection strategy, but they can also present complications with the potential to compromise and inhibit critical IT infrastructure. Recent service disruptions, such as the CrowdStrike incident that impacted organizations across the globe, accent the risks associated with tools that require deep levels of access to your IT infrastructure. This is particularly noteworthy for operational technology (OT) environments where uptime is crucial.
“In 2025, organizations will begin to re-evaluate and address this challenge through several strategies,” said Ilia Rabinovich, VP Cyber Security Consulting at Sygnia. “Helpful implementations that strengthen cybersecurity posture with intrusive tools include robust testing, deployment and disaster recovery processes, tailoring security controls to different assets, applying defense-in-depth, and fostering closer collaboration.”
Looking ahead, organizations would benefit from identifying their security requirements and how new and existing tools can be leveraged effectively without compromising operational stability or security intrusiveness.
Emerging Threats Will Require Greater Industry Collaboration
The emergence of increasingly complex tools and attack methods highlights the importance of industry cooperation in 2025 and beyond. Recent rule and regulation changes across the
cybersecurity ecosystem point toward a commonality – the necessity to build strong partnerships to clearly define global security standards, share key research on emerging threat actors and discuss new strategies to combat the dynamic threat landscape.
“As threat actors leverage new tools and methods to target enterprises to exfiltrate critical data or disrupt services, the cybersecurity community must come together and pool resources to mitigate against the threat of complex cyber-attacks,” said Amir Becker, Senior Vice President of Global Cyber Services at Sygnia. “Organizations must work together to develop standardized frameworks, share compliance tools, and streamline reporting mechanisms to address global regulatory challenges. “
Navigating the year ahead
2025 will test organizations and their cyber security preparedness. As new technologies continue to emerge and shake up both defense and attack strategies, preparing your organization for the next cyber attack will be critical to reducing response time and mitigating the impact of your organization’s reputation and assets. Looking ahead, security strategies will need to adapt, ensuring that both IT teams and decision makers have a comprehensive response strategy, implement the right tools and collaborate among industry peeps to bolster their cyber security posture.
About the Author
Adam Finkelstein serves as the Senior Vice President of Global Client Leadership at . With more than two decades of expertise in directing business development and overseeing extensive security initiatives on a global scale, Finkelstein advises clients worldwide, including numerous Fortune 500 and Global 2,000 companies. In his role, he oversees all aspects of Sygnia’s client development, working hand-in-hand to proactively enhance their cyber resilience and thwart attacks within their networks.
Adam can be reached online at LinkedIn and our company website https://www.sygnia.co/
