Cybercriminals are getting bigger, bolder and better when it comes to the breadth and depth of their attacks.
Your cybersecurity solution must keep pace, or else your customers will suffer in the coming year.
That’s the big takeaway from FortiGuard Labs’ Threat Predictions for 2005, an annual report leveraging Fortinet’s 24/7 threat analysis capabilities which highlights various challenges that will keep solution providers awake at night.
The report finds that cyber threats are expected to intensify in 2025, thanks to automated hacking tools sold on dark web marketplaces to the malicious use of AI.
FortiGuard Labs paints a sobering picture of a technology landscape rife with new dangers, including the convergence of physical and cyber threats. The report notes that attackers are becoming increasingly aggressive and destructive.
“While threat actors continue to rely on many classic tactics that have existed for decades, our threat predictions for the coming year focus on cybercriminals embracing bigger, bolder, and, from their perspectives, better attacks,” writes Derek Manky, Fortinet’s global vice president of threat intelligence, in a recent blog post.
Manky highlights trends such as cybercrime-as-a-service (CaaS) groups specializing in sophisticated playbooks that blend digital and physical threats - as well as continued emergence of Ransomware-as-a-Service and Reconnaissance-as-a-Service groups. These groups indicate specializations and the creation of a more robust supply chain for malicious software, tools, and services.
To counter rapidly evolving attacker methods, security professionals should embrace proactive threat hunting, adopt a layered defense-in-depth strategy, integrate zero-trust principles, leverage threat intelligence, and conduct routine red team exercises to identify and address vulnerabilities.
"Cybercriminals will continue to rely on tried-and-true tactics that have enabled them to achieve their goals year after year,” FortiGuard Labs’ report concludes. “As the cybercrime industry evolves, distinct attack trends will emerge in 2025 and beyond, keeping security teams on their toes."
The report highlights emerging threats for the next year, including:
- Greater attack chain expertise among cybercriminals
- A sharp rise in cloud-based attacks
- Increased availability of automated hacking tools, including ransomware-as-a-service and DDoS-as-a-service
- The combination of traditional cybercrime with real-world threats targeting critical infrastructure and aiding transnational crime such as drug trafficking
The report also emphasizes the importance of public-private cooperation and global partnerships to build a robust defense framework against evolving threats. Among other things, Advanced Persistent Thread (APT) groups have begun collaborating, so those defending against their threats have had to increase collaboration as well.
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