The 5 biggest cybersecurity stories of 2025
- AI-driven attacks: faster, smarter and more scalable
AI didn’t just help defenders move forward this year. Attackers embraced it just as eagerly.
Large language models were used to write malware, personalize phishing campaigns and exploit vulnerabilities at greater speed. Some malware even adapted automatically to the victim’s environment. Predictable behavior is disappearing, making defense more challenging.
Attacks such as S1ngularity, which abused thousands of GitHub accounts, showed how easy large-scale reconnaissance and credential harvesting have become. Tools like WormGPT4 and KawaiiGPT further lowered the barrier for cybercriminals to get started.
AI is no longer an experiment in the threat landscape. It has become a permanent accelerator, used for both good and bad.
What can you do to prevent this?
Rely on detection that goes beyond traditional signatures. Think behavioral analysis, anomaly detection and continuous monitoring. Combine that with strong identity security, such as MFA and conditional access. And just as important: train employees to recognize (AI-driven) phishing. These messages look more human than ever.
- Zero-day attacks remain a goldmine
Zero-days remained a favored entry point throughout 2025, especially systems at the network edge.
Firewalls, VPNs and internet-facing services were once again popular targets. Vulnerabilities in Cisco, Citrix, Ivanti and SonicWall were actively exploited, often before patches were available.
Even seemingly harmless tools like 7-Zip and WinRAR appeared in targeted phishing campaigns.
What can you do to prevent this?
Reduce your attack surface. Maintain strict patch management, including appliances and edge devices. Use monitoring that can detect abuse even when no patch exists yet. Zero-trust principles help limit lateral movement once an attacker gets inside.
- Salesforce as a goldmine for data theft
Salesforce itself was not hacked. Yet data leaked at scale.
Attackers focused on what surrounds it: compromised accounts, OAuth tokens and third parties directly connected to Salesforce, with great success.
Major names in technology, insurance, retail and even cybersecurity appeared in breaches linked to the ShinyHunters group. Supply-chain attacks on SaaS tools like Salesloft and Drift gave attackers access to dozens of Salesforce environments at once.
What can you do to prevent this?
Map all SaaS integrations and OAuth access. Limit permissions to what is strictly necessary and review them regularly. Enable MFA everywhere possible, including for administrators and external tools. And treat SaaS vendors as full-fledged suppliers in your risk analysis. Trust without verification remains a risk.
- Massive IT outages: not an attack, still impactful
Not every incident was a hack, but the impact often felt just as severe.
Cloud outages took services offline worldwide this year. AWS, Google Cloud, Cloudflare and Heroku—no major provider was spared. Causes ranged from DNS issues to failed emergency patches.
One mistake. Global consequences.
What can you do to prevent this?
Prepare for scenarios where cloud services become temporarily unavailable. Think backups outside your primary platform, clear failover procedures and well-defined availability agreements. Test your business continuity plans in practice, not just on paper.
- Insider threats: trust as an attack vector
Perhaps the most confronting story of 2025.
Employees, consultants or former staff with legitimate access caused massive damage. Sometimes intentionally. Sometimes through negligence. Sometimes because access was never revoked.
From a support employee at Coinbase to bank staff selling credentials for a few hundred dollars. Even a developer who built a “kill switch” into his former employer’s systems.
The damage ran into hundreds of millions.
What can you do to prevent this?
Treat identities as critical assets. Define clear processes for onboarding, role changes and offboarding. Limit access in time and scope. Actively log and monitor privileged accounts. And build a culture where security doesn’t signal distrust, but responsibility.
What should you take away from this?
Cybersecurity in 2025 wasn’t about one technology or one attack type. It was about cohesion.
People, tools and processes together determine resilience. Organizations that structure this wisely today prevent incidents tomorrow that extend far beyond IT alone.
And that’s exactly where you make the difference as an organization.