Today Lawrence Pingree, VP with stealth networking leader Dispersive (formerly Research Directory, Gartner Inc.) and Willy Leichter, CMO with AI cybersecurity innovator AppSOC, share what to expect in 2025.
Lawrence Pingree, VP, Dispersive:
Increased Sophistication: Hackers will likely continue to refine their techniques, leveraging advanced tools and strategies to exploit vulnerabilities and bypass security measures. This includes utilizing AI and machine learning to automate attacks and make them more effective.
Targeting VPNs: VPNs will remain a prime target, as they provide access to sensitive data and systems. Expect to see more attacks aimed at exploiting VPN vulnerabilities and compromising user credentials. It’s more important than ever to educate users about phishing threats: phishing remains the primary cause of data breaches (80-95%).
Lateral Movement: Once inside a network, hackers will focus on lateral movement, seeking to gain access to additional systems and data. This could involve techniques such as privilege escalation and credential theft. Meaning that Zero Trust network access and technologies like dispersive become required to address the latest threats.
Data Exfiltration: The ultimate goal of many attacks will be to exfiltrate sensitive data, such as customer information, financial records, and intellectual property. Hackers may employ various methods to steal data, including malware, phishing, and social engineering.
Disruption of Operations: In addition to data theft, hackers may also aim to disrupt business operations, causing downtime and financial losses. This could involve launching denial-of-service attacks or deploying ransomware to cripple critical systems.
Evolving Tactics: Hackers will constantly adapt their tactics to stay ahead of security defenses. This means that organizations must remain vigilant and proactive in their security efforts.
Here are some additional events & insights from 2024 that demonstrate what needs to happen in 2025:
- The Check Point Quantum Gateway vulnerability (CVE-2024-24919) highlights the importance of patching vulnerabilities but also upgrading to VPN technologies that eliminate the attack surfaces exposed promptly.
- The rise of AI and machine learning in cyberattacks poses a significant challenge for security professionals, expected to continue in 2025, but be increasingly multi-dimensional powered by AI.
- Organizations need to adopt a multi-layered approach to security, combining technology with strong policies and employee education, focus on Preemptive cyber defense technologies, instead of being so reliant on detection and response.
So, what to do? Lawrence notes that 2025’s threat landscape will likely be even more challenging than in previous years. Prioritizing cybersecurity and investing in robust defenses is the only way to protect their data and systems. He recommends the following:
1. Prioritize VPN security: 56% of organizations experience VPN-related cyberattacks and 91% share concerns about VPN security. Implementing robust next-generation VPN security measures is imperative.
2. Adopt zero-trust strategies: 78% of organizations plan to implement zero-trust strategies, and this is an excellent opportunity for practitioners to adopt a more secure approach by verifying the identity of all users and devices before granting access to sensitive resources. No one wants to be the weakest member of the herd and therefore the easiest target.
3. Monitor for ransomware attacks: ransomware is one of the top threats exploiting VPN vulnerabilities (42%), it is crucial to stay vigilant in monitoring networks for signs of ransomware activity, such as unusual network traffic or suspicious user behavior.
4. Do regular security audits and penetration testing: The threat landscape is growing, as the 30% increase in malware attacks between 2023 and 2024 indicates. Security audits and penetration testing can help identify vulnerabilities before they are exploited by attackers.
5. Invest in incident response planning: With over 7 billion records exposed in data breaches, a robust incident response plan is essential for minimizing breach impacts.
6. Implement security measures to prevent DDoS attacks: DDoS attacks are another top threat exploiting VPN vulnerabilities (30%), and implementing security measures such as rate limiting and IP blocking can mitigate these types of attacks.
7. Monitor data breaches closely: The average cost of a data breach in 2024 is $4.88 million, highlighting the importance of monitoring for signs of data breaches and taking swift action when they occur.
8. Keep up to date with security patches and updates: With an increase in malware attacks between 2023 and 2024 (30%), it is essential to stay current with the latest security patches and updates for all systems, including the latest generation of preemptive defense VPNs that Dispersive provides, to reduce the attack surface and prevent exploitation of known vulnerabilities.
9. Develop a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy: By addressing these statistics and implementing robust security measures, organizations can reduce their risk exposure and protect against diverse types of cyber threats.
10. Educate users about phishing threats: Phishing remains the primary cause of data breaches (80-95%). It’s essential that your users know how to recognize and avoid phishing attacks, including those that may be launched through VPNs.
Willy Leichter, CMO, AppSOC said:
- AI offense will have an edge over AI defense: We know that AI will be used increasingly on both sides of the cyber war. However, attackers will continue to be less constrained because they worry less about AI accuracy, ethics, or unintended consequences. Techniques such as highly personalized phishing and scouring networks for legacy weaknesses will benefit from AI. While AI has huge potential defensively, there are more constraints – both legal and practical, that will slow adoption.
- AI systems will become targets: AI technology greatly expands the attack surface area with rapidly emerging threats to models, datasets, and MLOps systems. Also, when AI applications are rushed from the lab to production, the full security impact won’t be understood until the inevitable breaches occur.
- Security teams will have to take charge over AI security: This sounds obvious, but in many organizations, initial AI projects have been driven by data scientist and business specialists, who often bypass conventional application security processes. Security teams will fight a losing battle if they try to block or slow down AI initiatives, but they will have to bring rogue AI projects under the security and compliance umbrella.
- Supply chain exposure will expand: We’ve already seen supply chains become a major vector for attack, as complex software stacks rely heavily on third-party and open-source code. The explosion of AI adoption makes this target larger with new complex vectors of attack on datasets and models. Understanding the lineage of models and maintaining integrity of changing datasets is a complex problem, and currently there is no viable way for an AI model to “unlearn” poisonous data.
AppSOC Recognized as a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Gartner Market Guide for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management
Posted in Commentary with tags AppSOC on February 25, 2025 by itnerdAppSOC has announced its inclusion as a Representative Vendor in the Gartner Market Guide for AI TRiSM (Trust, Risk, and Security Management).* In our view, AppSOC was recognized for including operational governance and runtime controls using tools such as posture management, AI discovery, Red Teaming, model testing, and AI supply chain security. We believe this recognition underscores AppSOC’s commitment to providing comprehensive solutions for managing AI’s complex risks and operational integrity.
AppSOC’s AI security capabilities include:
* Gartner, Market Guide for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management, Avivah Litan, Max Goss, 18 February 2025
AppSOC is an innovative Silicon Valley security provider, leading the way in AI governance and application security. AppSOC enables AI initiatives with enhanced visibility, robust guardrails and runtime defense, while protecting the entire AI stack from code to cloud to data. Founded by industry veterans, AppSOC brings unparalleled expertise in AI, cloud application security, data protection, and risk management. For more information, please visit www.appsoc.com.
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