Cybersecurity Predictions for 2025

Mimecast’s team of cybersecurity experts monitors petabytes of global threat intelligence and human behavior data for over 42,000 email security customers and has done so for over 21 years. As each year draws to a close, many of us in the cybersecurity industry reflect on what we have seen over the past 12 months and attempt to gain a solid understanding of what we will see in the coming 12 months.

This forethought about the coming year arms us with the insight we need to work hard to stay ahead of the coming trends in cybersecurity. Put more plainly, it helps us stay ahead of the bad guys. And each year, we share these predictions about the coming year in the hopes that we might help arm others with that knowledge as well.

What We See Happening in 2025

While we don’t have a crystal ball, we do have a lot of amazing folks who know a lot about cybersecurity and where the industry is likely to be heading in the future. To that end, each year, we poll our internal experts for their outlook. Here is what we expect in 2025:

• The continual decrease in the time between a vulnerability becoming known and it being widely exploited by cybercriminals will highlight the importance of predictive analytics in prioritizing threats.
• When creating new solutions, or just reacting to how their existing solutions address new threats, cybersecurity companies will need to balance time-to-market against volatility, uncertainty, complexity, hyperconnectivity, and the sometimes ambiguity of threats.
• Meaningful artificial intelligence (AI) will be embedded in technology, moving beyond the hype cycle to it being a big part of solutions that actually work.
• Human risk management will be topic of the year.
• Cybersecurity companies will rely more on external strategic partners to plug the ongoing skills gap.
• Regulators will tread a fine line between keeping the world safe and not stifling innovation. 

The Time from Discovery to Exploitation Will Continue to Decrease

Zero days threats – threats that are unknown before they breach a system’s defenses – are increasing and it is software supply chains that are most at risk. In fact, Mandiant investigations post-breach have found that the leading cause of breaches is exploitation of software and misconfigurations, and that a high proportion of these are zero days attacks. 95% of UK businesses have been hit by supply chain cyber breaches and over one-third don't regularly assess their third-party vendors. Patch fixing or spot reconfiguration are rendered redundant in such instances. In 2025, organizations are going to quickly realize that as the time from discovery of a threat to it being widely exploited by cybercriminals continues to decrease,  predictive analytics will be particularly important in securing their threat surface.

Balancing Time-to-Market Will Be Imperative

As attacks increase and the time from a vulnerability being discovered to it being widely exploited continues to decrease in 2025, Cybersecurity companies are going to need to balance the rush to get their solutions to market against volatility, uncertainty, complexity, hyperconnectivity, and the sometimes ambiguity of threats. The word ‘complex’ is key – and should not be confused with complicated. Deploying controls without testing, or assuming controls will continue to work in an ever-changing threat landscape is a fool’s errand, but in the rush to get product to market, cybersecurity providers need to remain ever mindful of this complexity.

Meaningful AI Will Be Embedded in Technology

Google Cloud has predicted that 2025 will be the first year where we’ll genuinely see the second phase of AI in action with security. What this means in practice is that AI will reduce the load on defenders performing repetitive tasks by integrating AI into processes and procedures, allowing investigations to run more efficiently. 

Human Risk Management Will Be the Hot Topic

In 2025, the term human risk management will penetrate the mainstream as organizations become attuned to this reality. For years, the industry sat on the fence, not wanting to point fingers at the biggest vulnerability organizations face – human risk – but in the coming year, this is what the industry is likely to be talking about the most. Mimecast made three acquisitions in 2024 – Elevate Security, Aware, and Code42 – all of which were principally focused on identifying and combating human risk, those cybersecurity breaches that stem from people within organizations failing to maintain good cyber hygiene. Elevate Security, now a Mimecast business, found that 8% of employees are responsible for 80% of security incidents, a stat that demonstrates the importance of avoiding one-size-fits-all security awareness training. It also means that CISOs will have to balance productivity and innovation on the one hand with human risk on the other – and the emergence of credible AI will support in this goal.

Cybersecurity Companies Will Rely More on External Strategic Partners to Plug the Skills Gap 

With a rapidly evolving threat landscape, and the speed in which new specializations are needed, organizations will increasingly work with strategic partners to leverage the skills that exist within start-ups and corporations like Microsoft. G42, for example, an artificial intelligence company in the UAE, has recently struck a deal with Microsoft – a strategic partnership worth $1.5 billion. The investment will strengthen the two companies’ collaboration on bringing the latest Microsoft AI technologies and skilling initiatives to the UAE and other countries around the world. Such strategic partners, while not necessarily reaching this kind of scale, will be a prominent feature of cybersecurity in 2025. 

Regulators Will Tread a Fine Line Between Safety and Not Stifling Innovation 

Apple held back on rolling out its AI to the EU because of regulatory concerns. Facebook has had similar concerns. With compliance not being the sole domain of the public or private sector, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) in the UK and Cyber Security and Infrastructure Agency (CSIA) in the U.S. will continue to simultaneously address the safety of users with the needs of the cybersecurity industry to create the most innovative products possible. It is most likely, however, that in 2025, regulation will continue to not keep pace with the speed of change in the cybersecurity industry. There will be much more from us on this subject in the near future.

The Bottom Line

2025 will see the cybersecurity industry work hard to keep up with the constantly changing threat landscape fueled by smart, innovative, bold cybercriminals and the sometimes very deep pockets that support them. The experts at Mimecast are already gearing up to undertake the steps necessary to keep customers safe in the coming year.

Rapid threat exploitation, balancing time-to-market, new meaningful AI, human risk management, strategic external partnerships, and security regulation are all going to provide us with what seems will be an exciting year head.

In the coming weeks, we’ll conduct deeper explorations of each of these predictions for 2025. In the meantime, know that Mimecast is leveling up defenses for our customers with our human risk management platform. Read here to learn how it could support your cybersecurity plans for the new year.