If it feels like you’re seeing news of cyber threats everywhere, that’s no coincidence. Both the number and the intensity of threats are increasing. The days when you could be covered by just having firewalls and antivirus software are now long gone. Today’s cyber threat landscape is becoming more complex by the day, with 66% of organizations expecting AI and machine learning technologies to make the most significant impact on cybersecurity over the next 12 months.
With new vulnerabilities rising, what can businesses do to remain proactive? If cybersecurity is your top focus this year, much like 53% of organizations surveyed in our 2025 Technology & IT Modernization Report, keep reading to learn how you can best protect your business.
What is the Cyber Threat Landscape?
The cyber threat landscape refers to all the potential or acknowledged threats that can impact organizations, user groups, or specific industries. This landscape changes all the time, with new and emerging threats (or combinations of threats) rising in popularity as criminals become more sophisticated and technology advances.
The current cyber threat landscape is influenced by advancing technologies, geopolitical tensions, and growing IT complexity. Sophisticated attack methods, like AI-powered phishing and Ransomware as a Service, are emerging as quickly as attack surfaces are expanding. Threat actors, often state-sponsored, are also increasingly conducting cyberwarfare aimed at espionage and sabotage, targeting governments, critical infrastructure, and supply chain.
“Nearly 60% of organizations state that geopolitical tensions have affected their cybersecurity strategy.”
Together, these cyber risks present a uniquely challenging and volatile environment for cybersecurity in 2025.
What Are 7 Types of Cyber Threats in 2025?
While some of the prime threats in 2025 are consistent from past years, emerging technologies such as AI have also made them more common or easier for cybercriminals to implement. Here are the cybersecurity threats that have remained and emerged as major trends
1. Phishing
Phishing remains one of the most prevalent and dangerous cyber attack methods, and today it’s rapidly advancing thanks to AI. Phishing is a type of social engineering used to get people to reveal sensitive information using methods like impersonation and emotional manipulation to elicit a targeted response.
With phishing, a bad actor will generally send a fraudulent email, text, or social media message under the guise of a legitimate source. The goal is getting the recipient to click on a malicious link or provide personal or sensitive information. For example, in recent years, there has been an increase in scammers targeting student loan holders, mimicking official government communications on student loan forgiveness. Such attacks urge victims to provide Federal Student Aid account credentials, which are linked to Social Security numbers, bank details, contact information, and other personal information.
The act of phishing can be highly targeted. In a practice called spear phishing, personalized information is included in the message to add legitimacy.
In fact, a Q1 2025 report by Gen found phishing reports surged by 466% compared to the previous quarter, largely fueled by AI-generated messages that are highly convincing and difficult to detect.
2. Ransomware
Ransomware is also on the rise, with the end of 2024 seeing a 50% increase in ransomware attacks. A business that is attacked with ransomware may find they are locked out of sensitive data or data that is vital to their daily operations. A cybercriminal will encrypt the data and demand the victim pay a ransom in order to receive a decryption key or other method to access their data again.
“The average cost of a ransomware attack is almost $5 million, and many companies aren’t looking at this as critically as they should. It’s not a matter of if, but when.”
– Maria Johnson, Channel Marketing Manager at HPE Zerto
Organizations without reliable backup and disaster recovery solutions are especially vulnerable to this type of attack, as well as the operational disruptions, financial loss, and reputational damage that follow.
New technologies have led to the growth of ransomware attacks, specifically Ransomware as a Service (RaaS). This service enables cybercriminals to purchase tools to implement ransomware campaigns with minimal technical expertise, retaining a profit without much manual intervention.
3. Malware
Malware such as computer viruses, spyware, and trojans may feel like a “vintage” threat, but this malicious software is still relevant today. It is often used in combination with other common attack techniques, including ransomware and phishing.
Employing firewalls and keeping software up to date helps protect against malware. However, businesses also need to ensure their defenses are keeping up with increasingly sophisticated attacks.
4. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks
A Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attack is designed to flood the targeted victim with more requests than it is able to shoulder, leading to a shutdown and lack of accessibility to the system. Sometimes a group of attackers can leverage a DDoS attack, and other times, one individual can carry it out using bots. Large amounts of traffic might be sent to IP addresses, websites, or DNS servers in an attempt to limit access or shut down operations.
It’s helpful to invest in DDoS protection tools that detect and block traffic floods before they disrupt operations. Services with real-time monitoring, rate limiting, and mitigation capabilities help keep systems online, even during an attack.
5. Human Error
Most cyber incidents start with a person, not a security flaw. Clicking a phishing link, reusing passwords across accounts, or accidentally misconfiguring cloud settings can all open the door to serious threats like ransomware or data breaches. Even the most advanced security tools can’t prevent someone from being tricked into handing over credentials or downloading a malicious file.
Employee awareness training is just as critical as digital defenses, helping people recognize phishing attempts, create stronger passwords, and understand why practices like multi-factor authentication matter. When employees know how to spot and avoid threats, they become a powerful first line of defense.
6. Zero-Day Exploits
Cybercriminals are ready to pounce on recently discovered vulnerabilities, and this is where zero-day attacks come into play. These exploits prey on vulnerabilities that are found before a developer is able to patch the software and can cause further problems for companies that don’t have a solid plan for patching or vulnerability management.
7. Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs)
Advanced persistent threats (APTs) are stealthy cyberattacks where a criminal gains access to the network and operates over a prolonged period to steal sensitive data or disrupt operations. These are often highly targeted and may be done to target critical infrastructure or highly sensitive information. Cybercrime groups and nation-states can leverage advanced techniques such as cloud-native exploits and firmware backdoors to gain access and remain undetected.
To defend against APTs, organizations need layered security like endpoint detection, network segmentation, and behavior monitoring, along with employee training to spot social engineering and limit unnecessary access. Early detection is critical to minimizing impact.
Impact of Cyber Threats
Organizations that fail to evaluate the current threat landscape can suffer financial, reputational, operational, and legal consequences.
Economic Consequences
Financial consequences can stem from cyber threats in a number of ways. When a data breach reveals sensitive information, companies may face:
- Profit losses from significant periods of downtime
- Regulatory fines and lawsuits for not upholding data protection and compliance responsibilities
- Increased expenses or lost revenue as customers decide to take their business elsewhere
- Loss of trade secrets, allowing the competition to gain the upper hand and encroach on previously unoccupied territory
- Higher premiums for cyber insurance coverage
Companies that choose to pay when their data is encrypted with ransomware may lose money and still not recover their data. Trying to regain lost ground after a cyber attack can also be a costly endeavor.
IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach 2024 report found that the average cost for companies is $4.9 million, which includes lost business, downtime, lost customers, and costs associated with post-breach responses. Cyber threats can result in economic impacts at any stage in the business cycle.
Reputational Damage
When an organization experiences a cyber attack, the reputational impacts may continue long after the initial financial damage. Some customers or vendors may never feel they can trust a company again after their information is compromised, and may permanently switch to a competitor. Those who never previously did business with the organization may also be more hesitant to consider engaging with the brand.
A high-profile case of reputational damage comes from Target, which experienced an estimated loss of over 65,000 customers after a major 2013 data breach. Additionally, year-on-year sales dropped in the quarter after the incident by 46%.
Operational Disruption
Operations can also grind to a halt when a business experiences a ransomware attack or a data breach. IBM found that the industrial sector was most sensitive to operational disruptions, taking 199 days to identify a breach and 73 days to contain it.
Supply chain attacks can create particularly far-reaching operational consequences. When attackers target a company’s suppliers, the disruption can cause material shortages, price hikes, and financial losses.
Legal Risks
Certain industries and data types are governed by regulations that dictate protective measures that should be in place and/or remediating measures a company should take after experiencing a cyber attack. If a business is not compliant, consequences can include fines and other sanctions. These legal actions can also lead to a decrease in trust or expenses that a business cannot recover from.
How to Protect Against the Cybersecurity Threat Landscape
While knowing about the cyber threat landscape can take you far, gaining visibility on your own attack surface and implementing appropriate security measures are steps you can take to protect your organization against incoming cyber threats. Here are a few best practices and proactive measures you can use.
Use Defensive Measures
Any defensive measures you include will provide additional fortification around your business, and there’s really no such thing as being too protected. Here are some tools and tactics you might want to incorporate:
- Multi-factor authentication and strong passwords
- A plan to keep software up-to-date and patched
- Data encryption, protecting data at rest and in transit
- Training programs for employees to learn about phishing and common cyber attacks
- Firewalls, antivirus software, XDR and DDoS protection
- Disaster recovery and business continuity planning
- Zero-trust architecture that requires authentication each time someone accesses a device or application
Strengthen Your Detection and Response Strategy
Robust detection and response capabilities are important in helping organizations gain visibility and control across their IT infrastructure. AI security tools and machine learning algorithms can enhance your ability to identify anomalous behaviors and sophisticated attacks that may go unnoticed by human observation.
A strong security posture can be greatly aided by services like Managed Detection and Response (MDR), which combines human expertise with automation to proactively prevent, identify, and respond to threats. MDR helps you uncover hidden threats that don’t follow known patterns while ensuring root cause analysis to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Prioritize Employee Training and Awareness
Employees frequently serve as the first line of defense for a business, so they need to be trained properly to spot and respond accordingly to potential cyber threats. All employees, well beyond the cybersecurity team, should know how to identify common threats such as malware, phishing, and other forms of social engineering. This can be part of the onboarding process, as well as part of a regular training schedule.
When cybersecurity is a collective responsibility, your entire organization will be safer, and your employees will feel more empowered.
Reduce the Complexity of the Cybersecurity Threat Landscape with an IT Security Partner
A reactive approach to cybersecurity is no longer enough. A reactive approach to cybersecurity is no longer enough. As the cyber threat landscape changes, the best way to protect yourself is by engaging in proactive data protection and security measures. TierPoint offers a range of services including disaster recovery, cybersecurity, advisory, security consulting, and compliance solutions that help businesses stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.
Ready for tailored insights about the top threats to your cybersecurity and the best defenses against them? Explore our IT security services.
FAQs
Vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and security audits are a few of the different methods organizations can use to assess their vulnerability to cyber threats. These can help businesses prioritize and remediate risks before they can be used by attackers.
Phishing is the most-used attack vector in the cybersecurity landscape – attackers will send messages that are often impersonations of identifiable companies or individuals, and victims are tricked into providing personal information or clicking on harmful links.
Cyber threat intelligence (CTI) includes any information or data that organizations can use to become better informed about the scope and nature of cyber threats, as well as the motivations and entities behind the threats.