Looming Digital Menaces to Stay Vigilant Against in 2025
In 2025, every organization will encounter a major cyber attack, asserted Nimrod Kozlovski, founder and CEO of Cytactic, during a special Cyber Crisis Management Forum titled "From Disarray to Dominion," held recently at the renowned Yale Club in New York City.
The forum, which invited an exclusive group of prominent cybersecurity leaders, aimed to identify the looming cyber threats of 2025 and explore how cybersecurity challenges will evolve. The attendees also delved into the strategies needed to tackle these challenges head-on.
Cytactic concentrates on enhancing crisis readiness, steering crisis response, and accelerating recovery. "Since we know it's coming, every organization must comprehend the potential threats and prepare to manage them effectively. We've all witnessed the consequences when companies are taken by surprise," Kozlovski stressed.
Tim Brown, a distinguished guest at the event and CISO of SolarWinds, added his insights. Drawing from his expertise in managing the stellar SolarWinds cyber attack, SUNBURST, Brown underscored the necessity of proactive preparation through simulations, strategic planning, and advanced tools to switch from chaos to control during crises. The SUNBURST incident left enduring impacts on both the software development and cybersecurity sectors, functioning as a wake-up call for all enterprises. Brown underscored that every facet of the software development pipeline, from source code to content distribution, must be meticulously secured.
A live crisis simulation performed during the event showcased real-time crisis management, spurring deep discussions on imminent threats and successful strategies to address them.
Top 5 Cyber Threats of 2025
The forum's central message for 2025 was unambiguous: cyber events are inevitable, and resilience coupled with strategic preparation is indispensable. Accordingly, the forum highlighted the top five threats that organizations must tackle to navigate an ever-changing digital landscape:
Global Confrontations, Business Casualties
Cyber incidents will correlate increasingly with geopolitical conflicts, with commercial entities becoming collateral damage in the crosshairs as both tactical and strategic targets. "Similar to what we observe in Russia-Ukraine, Taiwan-China, and the Middle East, global crises authenticate state-sponsored attacks on the commercial sector," Kozlovski said. "In 2025, we’ll see a surge in these attacks, involved in disruption, surveillance, data theft, identity theft, and IP theft."
AI-Powered Attacks
AI will serve as a dual-edged sword, empowering threat actors to leverage deep fakes, social engineering, and automated attack tools. "Deep fake attacks will become more prevalent, with entire attacks coordinated utilizing AI," explained Yuval Ben-Itzhak, General Partner at Evolution Equity Partners. "As AI innovation accelerates, so will the frequency and complexity of these cases in 2025."
Advanced Attacker Skillsets
Attackers are evolving. State-sponsored ransomware groups, such as those connected to Russia, are refining their strategies, deploying complex extortion schemes, and escalating the intensity of attacks. "The bad guys are getting smarter," said William Malik, Principal at Malik Consulting. "The pace, frequency, and creativity of attacks will only escalate, posing significant challenges for CISOs."
Monolithic Vulnerabilities
Over-reliance on the same technological supply chains creates vulnerabilities where a solitary compromised entity could spark widespread disruption. "Organizations must prepare not only for internal incidents but also for vulnerabilities in their supply chains," Kozlovski urged. He cited instances like Change Health’s breach and CrowdStrike’s outage, which caused over $1 billion in damages in 2024.
Smart Infrastructures, Smart Targets
Cyberattacks on physical infrastructure, such as smart buildings and manufacturing facilities, will surge. "When cyberattacks extend to physical systems like elevators, fire controls, access systems, and others, it will mark a new phase of risk," warned Markus Geier, President of Comcode North America Inc.
Recognizing the top five threats marks just the beginning. The forum emphasized that effective crisis management depends on both resilience and preparation. Tim Brown shared insights from managing SUNBURST, stating, "Preparedness ensures teams practice managing minor incidents, building muscle memory for major crises. Effective preparedness minimizes recovery time and impact." Brown underlined the critical role of automation and tools in reducing human improvisation during high-stress scenarios, leading him to join Cytactic’s Advisory Board. "The platform’s predefined plans and automated tasks are game-changers, enabling teams to focus on managing crises instead of improvising," he added.
Kozlovski concluded with a call for creativity and adaptability in crisis management. "Crises are uncertain and chaotic. Resilience demands preparation, training, and visualizing worst-case scenarios to handle them effectively," he said.
Considering these undeniable and imminent risks, the forum's message was unmistakable. Organizations must prioritize preparedness, embrace robust solutions, and build resilience to guarantee sustainability even through the inevitable crises of 2025.
- Nimrod Kozlovski, during the Cyber Crisis Management Forum held at the Yale Club in 2025, highlighted that every organization should be prepared for the #cyberthreats that will arise in the year, given his prediction of a major cyber attack happening to every organization.
- The panel at the Yale Club discussion stressed the importance of proactive cybersecurity measures in light of the upcoming #cyberattacks, with Tim Brown, CISO of SolarWinds, emphasizing the use of simulations, strategic planning, and advanced tools to switch from chaos to control.
- In 2025, with AI innovation accelerating, Yuval Ben-Itzhak, General Partner at Evolution Equity Partners, warned that AI-powered attacks will become more prevalent, featuring deeper fakes, social engineering, and automated attack tools.
- In order to strengthen their resilience and preparedness for the #cyberthreats of 2025, organizations must actively address the top cybersecurity challenges, such as state-sponsored attacks, AI-powered threats, advanced attacker skill sets, monolithic vulnerabilities, and cyberattacks on smart infrastructure.
