AI-generated scam will be cybersecurity challenge in 2025

In recent years, cybersecurity has become an increasingly relevant topic for organizations, especially in the face of the significant increase in cyber attacks. This year, the challenge will be even more complex, with the use of Artificial Intelligence on several fronts by criminals as well as the increasing complexity of digital systems and the sophistication of techniques employed by cybercriminals.

Defensive strategies will need to evolve to address new challenges, such as the significant increase in the exfiltration of valid credentials and the exploitation of incorrect configurations in cloud environments. Within this perspective, we list the main threats that should take the sleep of CISOs in 2025:

Valid credentials will be the primary target

The IBM Threat Intelligence Index of 2024 pointed to a 71% increase in attacks targeting the exfiltration of valid credentials.In the service sector, at least 46% of the incidents occurred with valid accounts, while in the industry this number was 31%.

For the first time in 2024, exploiting valid accounts has become the most common entry point to the system, accounting for 30% of all incidents.This shows that it is easier for cybercriminals to steal credentials than to exploit vulnerabilities or rely solely on phishing attacks.

Incorrect cloud configuration is companies Achilles heel

With so many companies using the cloud environment, it is natural that the complexity of managing the environment only increases, as well as the challenges ¡ ̄ and the difficulty in having specialized labor. Some of the most frequent reasons for data breaches in the cloud have to do with incorrect configurations of cloud environments: missing access controls, storage buckets that are not protected or inefficient implementation of security policies.

The benefits of cloud computing need to be balanced by close monitoring and secure configurations to prevent exposure of sensitive data. This requires an organization-wide cloud security strategy: continuous auditing, proper identity and access management, and automation of tools and processes to detect incorrect configurations before they become security incidents.

Criminals will use multiple attack techniques

Gone are the days when attacks hit a single product or vulnerability.This year, one of the most alarming trends in cybersecurity will be the increasing use of multi-vector attacks and multi-stage approaches.

Cybercriminals use a combination of tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), hitting multiple areas at once to breach defenses.There will also be an increase in sophistication and evasion of web-based attacks, file-based attacks, DNS-based attacks and ransomware attacks, which will make it harder for traditional and isolated security tools to effectively defend against modern threats.

AI-generated rasomware will increase threats exponentially

In 2024, the ransomware landscape underwent a profound transformation, characterized by increasingly sophisticated and aggressive cyber extortion strategies. Criminals have evolved beyond traditional encryption-based attacks, pioneering double and triple extortion techniques that exponentially increase pressure on targeted organizations. These advanced approaches involve not only encrypting data, but strategically exfiltrating sensitive information and threatening its public disclosure, forcing victims to consider ransom payments to avoid potential legal and reputational harm.

The emergence of Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) platforms has democratized cybercrime, allowing less technically skilled criminals to launch complex attacks with minimal knowledge. Critically, these attacks increasingly target high-value sectors such as healthcare, critical infrastructure, and financial services, demonstrating a strategic approach to maximizing potential ransom returns.

Cybercriminals are now leveraging AI to automate campaign creation, identify system vulnerabilities more efficiently, and optimize ransomware delivery.The integration of high-throughput blockchain technologies and the exploitation of decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms provide additional mechanisms for rapid fund movement and transaction obfuscation, presenting significant challenges for tracking and intervention by authorities.

AI-generated phishing attacks will be a problem

Using generative AI in creating phishing attacks by cybercriminals is making phishing emails virtually indistinguishable from legitimate messages.Last year, according to Palo Alto Networks, there has been a 30% increase in successful phishing attempts when emails are written or rewritten by generative AI systems.Human will become even less reliable as a last line of defense and companies will rely on advanced, AI-powered security protections to defend against these sophisticated attacks.

Quantum computing will create a security challenge

Last October, Chinese researchers said they used a quantum computer to crack the RSA encryption method, used widely today.The scientists used a 50-bit key IO that is small when compared to more modern encryption keys, usually 1024 to 2048 bits.

In theory, a quantum computer might take just seconds to solve a problem that conventional computers would take millions of years because quantum machines can process calculations in parallel, and not just in sequence, as they currently do. Although quantum-based attacks are still a few years away, organizations should start preparing now.