The year 2025 marks a turning point for cybersecurity. The sophistication of threats, combined with the complexity of corporate infrastructures, has created a scenario where risk is no longer occasional but constant. We are no longer talking about isolated incidents but persistent and adaptive campaigns that exploit every possible vulnerability, from highly targeted social engineering (spear phishing) to supply chain attacks, advanced persistent threats (APT), and ransomware capable of spreading almost invisibly.
The traditional response, based on reactive defenses and actions after a breach, is outdated. Companies need to shift to an approach sustained by continuous compromise intelligence, capable of identifying malicious activities in real-time based on concrete evidence.
Within this context, there are five central challenges that determine the success or failure of a security operation in 2025, which are:
1 – The overload of irrelevant alerts: The volume of security data generated by tools such as SIEMs, EDRs, and firewalls is massive. According to a Gartner report, a research and consulting firm, 75% of these alerts are false positives or irrelevant. The problem is not just analyst fatigue but the real risk of critical incidents being lost in the noise.
A company that integrates a continuous compromise system can find that about 80% of its SIEM alerts do not represent a real threat. By filtering and prioritizing relevant events, it is possible to reduce the average response time by up to half. This shows that the battle is not for more data but for more qualified data.
2 – The lack of real visibility: Digital transformation has dissolved the concept of a perimeter. Today, the attack surface includes mobile devices, cloud environments, remote endpoints, and hybrid networks. Traditional tools, designed to monitor fixed boundaries, fail to detect lateral movements, beaconing, or discreet connections to command-and-control servers.
A study by the Ponemon Institute, an independent research organization, found that 56% of data breaches are caused by failures in visibility and rapid response capabilities. The solution lies in continuously monitoring all network communications, regardless of origin or destination, allowing anomalous behaviors to be identified before they become critical incidents.
3 – The shortage of skilled professionals: The global shortage of cybersecurity experts exceeds 3.5 million, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, a specialized cybersecurity research firm. This bottleneck means many companies operate with understaffed and overburdened teams, increasing the risk of errors and delays.
By automating detection and prioritizing real threats, this pressure can be relieved. Organizations that have adopted continuous compromise intelligence report response time reductions of up to 60%, freeing human resources to act more strategically.
4 – Tools that don’t communicate with each other: In the effort to protect themselves, companies accumulate various solutions: SIEM, EDR, DLP, antivirus, firewalls, and NDR, but without integration, these tools create data silos that make event correlation difficult and delay decisions.
The key lies in platforms capable of natively integrating with existing ecosystems, such as Splunk, QRadar, Elastic, Palo Alto, Fortinet, Checkpoint, and SOARs. This way, security stops being a disconnected mosaic and starts operating as a unified organism, with continuous information flow and shared context.
5 – The reactive response to incidents: Perhaps the most critical challenge is the reactive stance. I notice that in many companies, the average time to detect a critical threat still exceeds 200 days. This delay is practically an invitation for attackers to exploit the compromised infrastructure to the fullest.
With continuous compromise intelligence, this window can drop to less than five minutes. The difference is not just technical—it’s strategic. Nearly immediate detection not only reduces damage but also allows containing the attack before it generates legal, financial, and reputational repercussions.
What effective cybersecurity demands in 2025
Overcoming these challenges requires more than technology—it demands a shift in mindset. It is necessary to adopt a defense model that eliminates noise, prioritizing truly relevant events and discarding false positives; ensures total visibility, regardless of where assets and users are located; optimizes human resources by automating processes and freeing specialists for strategic tasks; unifies the security ecosystem, integrating tools for coordinated response; and maintains constant vigilance, reducing the exposure window from months to minutes.
In 2025, the ability to detect, understand, and act swiftly in the face of a threat is no longer a competitive differentiator—it is a survival prerequisite. Companies that understand this now will not only be protected against the current scenario but also prepared for what lies ahead.
Wilson Piedade is the Chief Operating Business Officer at Oakmont Group, focused on developing new business models and partnerships aimed at competitive differentiation and better results.
