Predicting cybersecurity trends in 2025: AI, regulations, global collaboration

Cybersecurity involves anticipating threats and designing adaptive strategies in a constantly changing environment. In 2024, organizations faced complex challenges due to technological advances and sophisticated threats, requiring them to constantly review their approach. For 2025, it is crucial to identify key factors that will enable organizations to strengthen their defenses and consolidate their resilience in the face of a dynamic and risk-filled digital landscape. 

We've highlighted some of the top cybersecurity trends for 2025 below, but you can find all of WatchGuard Threat Labs' 2025 security predictions here. Don't forget our YouTube Playlist too!

Threat automation and complexity

In 2025, as multimodal AI gains the ability to integrate text, image, and code, threat actors will leverage these systems to automate the entire attack pipeline. This technology will democratize cyber threats, enabling less-skilled cybercriminals to launch advanced attacks with minimal human intervention, causing a disruptive change in cybersecurity.

Generative AI has created high expectations but has not fully delivered the transformative change promised. This could lead organizations to underestimate the risks and lower their guard, letting in attacks that combine advanced technology and deception. AI is, of course, also a crucial defense tool, enabling real-time anomaly detection and enhancing threat response. In environments that integrate IT and OT, these capabilities are essential in elevating security. These advances highlight the need for strategies that combine advanced technology with proactive approaches.

Supply chain risks

In 2025, software supply chains will become a critical target for malicious actors. One tactic attackers may deploy is building false reputations over time to introduce malicious code into previously trusted libraries and dependencies. This strategy, known as prolonged infiltration, poses a particularly high risk to industries such as financial technology and healthcare, where software security is essential to ensure continuity and trust.

Today's threats flag the urgent need for advanced cybersecurity tools that monitor anomalous patterns and track the supply chain to detect infiltrations before they cause damage. As cybercriminals hone their tactics, these tools are critical in enabling us to mitigate risks. However, they must be integrated into a comprehensive strategy that includes visibility, control, and security measures from software design to implementation, reinforcing every vulnerable point in the supply chain.

Regulatory changes and the role of CISOs

Anticipated regulatory changes will heighten pressure on CISOs, who will have to deal with stricter regulations than ever before. This adds to the considerable burden of responsibility they already carry, requiring them to strike a balance between complying with regulations and managing constantly evolving threats.

In response, technology providers are adopting an integrated platform approach designed to simplify compliance and reduce operational complexity. These tools facilitate monitoring and reporting and improve visibility and control over risks.

MSPs are also consolidating their position as strategic allies for organizations, enabling them to outsource critical functions such as compliance monitoring and risk management. Combining advanced technology and specialized services alleviates some of the CISOs’ operational burden, enabling them to focus on broader organizational strategies that strengthen resilience in an increasingly complex regulatory and cybersecurity landscape.

International collaboration: a united front against cybercrime

Given the rising tide of threats, 2025 promises to be a turning point for international cooperation against cybercrime. Intelligence agencies and governments will intensify joint efforts to dismantle complex criminal operations, prioritizing the neutralization of critical infrastructures such as botnets and blocking their sources of revenue.

This approach will not only bolster the response to massive attacks but also drive unprecedented global collaboration. Sharing intelligence, resources, and best practices across countries will be crucial to ensuring the industry keeps one step ahead of cybercriminals, who operate without borders in an increasingly interconnected digital world.

With 2025 just around the corner, there is an urgent need to rethink cybersecurity. Beyond addressing threats, this coming year requires us to review and transform our security priorities, with resilience and collaboration at the core of this process.

The way forward lies in better defending ourselves and building a digital ecosystem that combines advanced technology, regulation, and global cooperation, enabling organizations to thrive in a continuously more challenging environment.