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As technology advances, so do the techniques that cybercriminals use to exploit it. In 2025, cybersecurity will be more critical than ever as companies, governments, and individuals face new challenges in protecting their data and systems from the latest cybersecurity threats.
From artificial intelligence (AI) to cloud security, organizations are investing heavily in ways to prevent increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks.
As cybersecurity trends in 2024 will soon be replaced or complemented by new cyber trends, we asked industry experts to outline what the future holds.
Here are the top 13 cybersecurity trends in 2025 you should watch out for.
Key Takeaways
- AI-driven cyber threats are evolving, making attacks more sophisticated and harder to detect.
- Identity and access management (IAM) is now essential across all teams.
- Zero Trust architecture is increasingly adopted to counter rising threats with a “never trust, always verify” approach.
- Cyber fraud fusion centers are becoming crucial for vulnerable industries like finance and e-commerce.
- Cloud security is advancing with single-pane-of-glass management.
- Generative AI will play a larger role in cybersecurity operations.
- Show Full Guide
Top 13 Cybersecurity Trends in 2025
1. Risks From Non-Human Identities in IAM
Managing “non-human identities” (e.g., automated programs) is essential to prevent security threats.
Currently, CISOs and executives are focusing on making their systems more resilient and closing major security gaps, says Dwayne McDaniel, developer advocate, GitGuardian. A key issue now is managing “non-human identities,” such as system accounts and automated programs because they can be targets for security threats.
As such, identity and access management (IAM), once seen as just an IT task, is now becoming essential across teams and needs attention from top leadership. McDaniel says:
“This shift signifies a broader understanding of IAM’s role, evolving from merely a customer safety measure to an operational imperative.”
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2. Rise of Cyber Fraud Fusion Centers
Cyber fraud fusion centers are increasing, particularly in transaction-heavy industries like banking and e-commerce.
Another of the cybersecurity industry trends for 2025 is the increase in cyber fraud fusion centers, specialized security operations centers that bring together experts, methods, and tools from security and fraud prevention, says Alisdair Faulkner, Co-founder and CEO of Darwinium.
These centers are an important next step in modern cyber defense, especially for industries that perform a lot of online transactions, such as e-commerce, banking, fintech, gaming, and more.
“While it’s not a brand-new concept, it’s one that has recently gained strong momentum,” he says.
“We believe that 2025 will be the year that cyber fraud fusion centers go mainstream, and we’re happy to see them become the norm.”
3. Increase in AI-Powered Threats
As AI becomes central to operations, AI-driven phishing and prompt injection attacks will pose new risks, says Manoj Srivastava, chief technology and product officer at Blackpoint Cyber.
“Attackers will exploit automated processes to mislead systems or users, resulting in greater reliance on AI tools to conduct due diligence,” he says.
“In addition, identity theft in the digital space will hit an all-time high, with businesses struggling to distinguish between legitimate and AI-generated identities, necessitating advanced identity verification techniques.”
4. Single-Pane-of-Glass Cloud Security Management
Having a single dashboard to track unusual activity across cloud systems, applications, and workloads helps cloud security teams spot and respond to attacks more quickly and effectively, says Dror Kashti, co-founder and CEO of Sweet Security. This setup gives them a strong tool for cutting down the time it takes for organizations to resolve issues.
He told Techopedia:
“The need is urgent enough that vendors will make it easy for their customers to choose where that management dashboard resides.”
5. Focus on Manufacturing & Supply Chain Security
As we approach 2025, the integrity of supply chains has become a critical cybersecurity market trend, says Steve Tcherchian, CISO at XYPRO.com. Recent high-profile breaches have exposed vulnerabilities within third-party vendors, highlighting the need for organizations to focus on their entire supply networks.
“The interconnectedness of modern business ecosystems with legacy systems means that a single compromised supplier can jeopardize the security of an entire organization which can have massive effects downstream to consumers and the economy,” he says.
To address these risks, companies in manufacturing and supply chains need to follow cybersecurity best practices, set strict rules for managing third-party risks, conduct regular security checks, and ensure all partners follow strong cybersecurity standards, according to Tcherchian.
6. Continued Use of AI by Cybercriminals
AI-driven cyber threats are becoming more sophisticated and frequent, and cybercriminals will continue to leverage AI to generate new and more complex attack methods in 2025, says Kaustubh Medhe, vice president of research and cyber threat intelligence at Cyble.
“AI-generated malware will evolve rapidly, challenging traditional detection methods and necessitating equally sophisticated defenses,” Medhe told Techopedia.
He adds that cybercriminals could also use deepfake technology to impersonate business executives, leading to increased business fraud and substantial financial losses.
“Advances in deepfake AI could also undermine multi-factor authentication systems that rely on biometric data, compromising a crucial layer of security,” he says.
7. Rise of Autonomous Cloud Attacks
Cloud attacks are already fast, and one of the current cybersecurity trends is that attackers are increasingly leveraging automation and AI, says Crystal Morin, cybersecurity strategist at Sysdig. In 2025, attackers will likely continue to rely on pre-built open-source tools to make their attacks more successful.
“With tools that autonomously do the things that were once tedious and hands-on, cloud attacks will continue to scale up in 2025 to collect more data or credentials and make more money in a matter of minutes with minimal human effort,” she says.
8. Decline of Smash-and-Grab Operations
Attacks of opportunity and low-hanging fruit will still undeniably be targets, but adversaries are starting to, and will continue to, acknowledge that their reward is bigger and better when they play the long game, says John Hammond, principal security researcher at Huntress.
Outlining another cybersecurity future trend, Hammond told Techopedia:
“We will see more capable threat actors go after larger corporations or leverage smaller compromises as stepping stones to reach more prominent organizations that can do more damage to an entire supply chain.”
And cybercriminals will target and take advantage of often-forgotten sectors that don’t focus on security, i.e., gasoline, construction, agriculture, according to Hammond.
9. Increased Regulation of Cloud Security
Regulators worldwide will acknowledge the widespread adoption of cloud services and the growing threats by hackers, says Chen Burshan, CEO of Skyhawk Security.
“Some high-profile cloud hacks have demonstrated that too many organizations (both private and public) have very weak cloud security posture,” he says. “They suffer from poor cloud hygiene and insufficient security mechanisms, especially real-time detection of sophisticated cloud attacks.”
As a result, regulators will set stricter rules and push organizations to quickly strengthen their security and better protect users’ and clients’ data, he adds.
10. Increased Role of Generative AI
Another cyber trend that we’ll see in 2025 is that generative AI will play a larger role in cybersecurity operations, says Rizwan Patel, head of information security and emerging technology at Altimetrik.
“The focus will be on integrating GenAI into security operations centers to augment human tasks rather than fully automate them,” he says. “This aligns with how organizations are currently implementing AI, starting with specific, high-value use cases in security operations.”
11. Growth of Zero Trust Architecture
In an era where cyber threats are not a matter of “if” but “when,” and organizations operate under an “assume breach” mindset, the adoption of zero trust will continue to grow, Brandon Leiker, principal solutions architect, security at 11:11 Systems, told Techopedia.
“Zero trust eliminates the implicit trust that was granted to users and devices in the legacy ‘castle-and-moat’ model and instead is based on the principle of ‘never trust, always verify,” he explains. “Under this model devices and users are continuously authenticated and authorized.”
12. Vulnerabilities in Non-Machine-Readable Documents
Today, fraud detection systems use machine-readable data, but many documents, especially those with handwriting, can’t be read by machines, says Andrew Joiner, CEO of Hyperscience. This gives hackers a chance to exploit these types of documents to avoid being detected. Joiner says:
“Unless businesses and government entities move toward converting these types of documents into machine-readable formats in 2025, unethical practices like forging signatures on financial documents or appraisal reports will only continue to accelerate.”
13. SIM Swapping as New Ransomware
SIM swapping is set to become the new ransomware in 2025, Mike Riemer, field CISO at Ivanti, told Techopedia. Mobile devices, already important for remote work, are also helping to keep users safe online because of the increased use of multi-factor authentication (MFA).
“However, SIM swapping poses a direct threat to MFA,” he says. “In this technique, a threat actor reroutes a phone number to a different SIM, stealing the user’s two-factor authentication token.”
This not only compromises the user’s digital IDs and personal information but also poses a significant danger to organizations by enabling unauthorized access to corporate networks, Riemer adds.
“SIM swapping is the mobile equivalent of phishing and is expected to surge in 2025,” he says.
The Bottom Line
Exploring the recent trends in cybersecurity and experts’ predictions for 2025, we’ve found out that cybersecurity will be all about staying ahead of increasingly complex threats with smarter, faster technology.
As cybercriminals get more sophisticated, businesses and individuals must keep up with the new trends in cybersecurity expected in the new year to protect their data and systems.
