20, No, I meant 21, 22 Cyber Security Challenges for 2025

As we all stumble into the 2025 security arena, the landscape continues to evolve and devolve rapidly, presenting new and old challenges, incidents and opportunities. The evolution in technology and software, the old and new (not as many as it sounds) sophistication of threats has increased, making it crucial for big and small organisations to stay vigilant and proactive in their security posture. Here are my cyber security nightmares or challenges for 2025:

Top 20 nightmares or could be seen as Cyber Security Challenges for 2025, please know these are in no particular order due to the fact that you, your organisation will have different view of what’s key to your organisation, regulations that apply or risk posture. I had to add a 22 after writing this and reviewing a million times. I created a small easy and easy to read article.

The 20 or so threats.

1. “AI-Powered Cyberattacks”: Cybercriminals leveraging AI to scope and create attacks, a lot of articles say sophisticated attacks. But if you look right down to it is the same things we are seeing the regular malicious actors doing.

2. “Ransomware”: Increasingly targeting critical infrastructure and organisations. Is it really increasing, as it get automated and people pay it does give them the ideas to do more or keep doing it. Get the basics and patch please.

3. “Phishing Attacks”: Enhanced by AI-generated content making them more convincing. To be honest not seeing it make a huge difference here. (Would

4. “Supply Chain Attacks”: Exploiting vulnerabilities in third-party vendors, AGING technology and processes.

5. “Zero-Trust Security”: Implementing and maintaining robust zero-trust frameworks for large organisations. It’s a lot more work if you try to do the whole thing and get it right. It has it pro’s, cons and a lot of work.  (Plus, you really don’t need Zscaler, Entra Edge or Netskope to do it right.)

6. “Remote Work Security”: Protecting remote workers and their devices. It is a little bit harder than the norm.

7. “Cloud Security”: Ensuring secure cloud storage and access it secure. It’s a lot harder now than before with reduced IT teams.

8. “Insider Threats”: Detecting and mitigating threats from within the organisations. Always a fun one as I tend to find people who are planning to quit and getting their photos or music before they turn in their F$%K You letter.

9. “IoT Security”: Securing the growing number of Internet of Things devices. Securing devices that the industry have built with the plan that there is no need for security.

10. “Mobile Security”: Protecting mobile devices and applications. This is getting easier and harder at the same time. My true headache,

11. “Data Privacy”: Ensuring compliance with global data privacy regulations. This is a nightmare in general as countries, States start to draft their own laws and regulations. Each with their own nuances and pain. This is a whole tin of worms that can have books written about.

12. “Quantum Computing”: Preparing for the impact of quantum computing on encryption. We have no real idea how this will impact us as I feel it is worse than just encryption (Which in itself huge)

13. “Social Engineering”: Combating advanced social engineering tactics. The bane of all companies.

14. “Credential Stuffing”: Preventing attacks using stolen credentials. Long live the old school attacks.

15. “API Security”: Securing application programming interfaces. This is becoming bigger and bigger.

16. “Password Security”: Moving towards passwordless authentication methods. YAH.. I hope. But if this if works would be great. Lots of thought should go into this.

17. “Malware”: Evolving malware threats and variants. Just remember Crowstrike, Cybereason, Sentinal One and Microsoft Defender are not infallible.

18. “DDoS Attacks”: Defending against distributed denial-of-service attacks. Becoming more problematic. This is where I am worried if AI is used to control and change the methods of attack. Will make it harder to mitigate.

19. “Machine Learning Bias”: Addressing biases in AI and machine learning models.

20. “Cybersecurity Workforce Gap”: Bridging the gap in skilled cybersecurity professionals. This is widening everyday. It will get worse with AI talking the level work.

21. “Budget reduction”: This makes the above harder to protect against sadly. Leadership and management talk about doing more with less. Well, be prepared to pay more when a breach happens and pay breach pricing (by the way I wrote an article about don’t buy products until you do some work.)

22. “Business Continuity” We all saw Crowdstrike mess up Windows, Linux and MS Office. We as leaders should take this as a warning to how fragile our ecosystems are and how we should be creating High Availability environments

High level Possible Mitigation Controls.

1. “AI-Powered Cyberattacks”: Implement AI-driven threat detection and response systems. Which honestly will be part of a larger problem as it will help widen the workforce Gap.

2. “Ransomware”: Regularly back up data and use ransomware-specific protection tools. Try to have a level of defense in depth and look for novel tooling, not CrowdStrike or tools like them. They are one part of the solution.

3. “Phishing Attacks”: Conduct regular employee training and use email filtering solutions. Review often the new contenders in the industry.

4. “Supply Chain Attacks”: Perform thorough vendor risk assessments and implement secure coding practices, look at network security. Build closer relationships with the supply chain organization.

5. “Zero-Trust Security”: Adopt an organisation’centic zero-trust security model and continuously monitor access controls, don’t be driven by the vendors excitement. Slow and solid project.

6. “Remote Work Security”: Use security awareness, VPNs, multi-factor authentication, and endpoint protection. I recommend video cameras on to be ensured the correct people are on the call.

7. “Cloud Security”: Implement strong access controls, encryption, and regular audits

8. “Insider Threats”: Monitor user behavior, account attestation and implement strict access controls.

9. “IoT Security”: Secure IoT devices with strong passwords and regular firmware updates. At the vendors please please fix our vulnerabilities.

10. “Mobile Security”: Use mobile device management (MDM) solutions and enforce security policies.

11. “Data Privacy”: Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations and conduct regular audits. Make sure legal are your best friends.

12. “Quantum Computing”: Invest in quantum-resistant encryption methods which is going to be interesting and costly. This is where I wan to do some research for the future.

13. “Social Engineering”: Educate employees on recognising and reporting social engineering attempts.

14. “Credential Stuffing”: Implement multi-factor authentication, FIDO2 and monitor for unusual login attempts.

15. “API Security”: Use API gateways and regularly test for vulnerabilities. Build secure development processes for inbuilt API’s. Constantly monitor and manage them.

16. “Password Security”: Transition to passwordless authentication methods like biometrics. Remember there is no perfect solution for this.

17. “Malware”: Use advanced malware detection and removal tools. Build a defense in depth program. It costs a little more but brings so much more to the security posture.

18. “DDoS Attacks”: Implement DDoS mitigation services and network redundancy.

19. “Machine Learning Bias”: Regularly review and update AI models to address biases.

20. “Cybersecurity Workforce Gap”: Invest in training and development programs for cybersecurity professionals. Look for people with the aptitude to do security and honestly you don’t need a degree to be in security. It’s a mindset and skill to get far.

21. “Budget reduction”: Financial pressures are affecting all companies, making budgeting harder. To maintain security, you need a solid budget. Discuss with peers how they handle budgeting and any changes in their budgets to help you negotiate effectively.

22. “Business Continuity” This has a lot of MOVING parts. Good luck.

Let’s be transparent about this we will always have threats and the possible impact to your organisation varies. The worse impact is an incident and the ramifications later down the line. Especially since senior leadership does not take kindly to being told: “I told you so!”. We all try to do the most with our limited budget’s, resources or support in our organisations. Remember to take the time to do application rationalisation which does not mean getting rid of applications (BCG would get you to do.), it truly means in my eyes making sure you get the most out of your applications, ensure it is configured and used to its fullest before you ask for something else.

I trust you found my nightmare fuel intriguing. Wishing you an excellent holiday season and a prosperous New Year, free from any of the undesirable events discussed above.

#CISOLIFE #Security101 #CyberThreats2025 #Cybersecurity