As 2025 begins, the cyber threat landscape is becoming more ubiquitous and dangerous than ever before. Global conflicts, artificial intelligence, and the increasing interconnectedness of our digital and physical infrastructure have created the perfect storm for unprecedented incidents.
As someone who has spent years handling cyber threats, first as a crisis manager and later as founder and CEO of a cyber crisis management and readiness platform, I can say with certainty that we're entering a new era of cyber attacks and mega cyber events.
The ongoing political and military conflicts across the globe - The Middle East, Russia-Ukraine, and the Koreas, to name a few, have fundamentally transformed how we think about cyber warfare.
Commercial entities now regularly find themselves in the crossfire as tactical and strategic targets. Traditional boundaries between military and civilian targets have blurred, with nations increasingly viewing the business sector as a legitimate battlefield for their cyber operations.
The sophistication of modern attacks is a broad concern. We're witnessing the emergence of multi- layered extortion schemes - moving beyond single extortion ransomware to double, triple, and even quadruple extortion schemes.
Another problem is the automation of the entire attack chain, making it easier to launch and manage a large number of attacks simultaneously. AI is an attack tool but also a new, mostly unexplored attack surface, through integration of organizational AI tools.
Another growing attack surface is buildings, entire cities, factories and infrastructure that are built or being retrofitted as IoT, or so called Smart Devices, we’re seeing entirely new cyber-crisis scenarios emerge, threatening not only the home or corporate network but also systems with cyber-physical interfaces that could have kinetic, real-world consequences.
Imagine attackers targeting smart city infrastructure, shutting down elevators, turning airconditioners or heaters at full blast, manipulating fire control systems, or compromising access controls in multiple water and energy facilities.
Perhaps most alarming is the growing risk of supply chain attacks. The catastrophic incidents we witnessed in 2024, including the Change Health breach and Crowdstrike's (non-cyber outage), together costing over $1 billion in damages, were just the beginning.
Organizations overly dependent on a handful of technologies and service providers are fostering monolithic vulnerabilities, where a single compromised organization can trigger a collapse of entire supply chains.We already know that cyber attacks are no longer a matter of if, but when. As we look ahead, it's clear that the cyber threats of 2025 require a new mindset. Detection and response capabilities are improving through advanced technologies and AI, but this isn't enough.
The threats we face are evolving rapidly, and our response must evolve with them. The key to surviving in this new reality lies in a fundamental shift in how we approach cybersecurity. We need to be moving from reactive response to proactive preparation and the development of robust incident response capabilities. We must be prepared for incidents within our own environments, but also for crises endured by our 3rd party supply-chains and customers.
This entails constant evaluation and reexamination of security practices and procedures, regular testing of incident response plans, maintaining up-to-date threat intelligence, and ensuring that all stakeholders understand their roles during a crisis.
Just as nations maintain military readiness during peacetime, organizations must maintain cyber readiness at all times. The cost of preparation may seem high, but the price of being unprepared is invariably higher. Organizations who fail to adapt to this new normal risk becoming the next headline in what promises to be a year of unprecedented cyber challenges.
Dr. Nimrod Kozlovski is the Founder and CEO, Cytactic, Cyber Crisis Readiness & Management Platform.