
TL; DR: Cybercrime is never at a standstill. It is constantly evolving and moving just as the tech landscape does. And cybercriminals are leveraging both old and new techniques to gain access to sensitive data and launch attacks. Understanding the state of cybersecurity threats can help businesses prepare and protect themselves from attacks. Below, we’ll discuss the top threats facing companies in 2025.
Deep inside the cyber traces of the internet, cybercrime is drawn out and crafted by hackers and bad actors every day as they seek to launch attacks on their next victim.
As the last four years have shown us, cybercrime is no longer a matter of if but when. And how bad actors will carry out their attacks has become the pressing question for businesses seeking to challenge them.
Pinpointing which attack vectors are the most threatening has become a major challenge for businesses because there is so much variation in the cyber landscape. Not only do different types of bad actors — from organized crime syndicates to hobbyists — exist, but their tactics have also evolved.
Emerging technologies, including deepfakes and AI, have turned cybersecurity on its head, escalating the threat landscape. That’s not all. No business, whether small business or enterprise, is safe from the target list. In fact, the average loss per attack for a small business was $25,000 in 2024.
Cybersecurity has become essential for companies and must be brought to the forefront for every business. It can no longer be an afterthought, especially as companies lost $9.5 trillion globally to cybercrime in 2024.
As we enter 2025, businesses must place cybersecurity awareness and proactive measures at the top of their to-do lists to prevent loss within their organizations. While attack vectors continue on their track of rapid evolution, the only way to stay ahead of them is by adapting just as quickly.
How Generative AI is Shaking Up the Landscape
Generative AI’s reach has expanded across almost every industry, with its use growing exponentially due to the rise of OpenAI and other AI models. This growth is not without reason.
Gen AI has helped companies generate content and increase production at rates they never thought possible, especially in the coding industry.
If you need a number to illustrate its power in a nutshell, here’s one: Companies generated 93 billion lines of code in 2024 alone, with AI systems producing more than 25% of new code.
This AI-led code boom has enabled companies to produce more in less time. But companies can’t overlook the glaring issue that has occurred as a result. This new level of code output is not being secured at scale, giving attackers openings and vulnerabilities to infiltrate.
Generative AI may be a force to be reckoned with when it comes to productivity, but it also poses a significant problem for cybersecurity teams. In fact, Cycode, a leader in Application Security Posture Management (ASPM), listed GenAI as the #1 blind spot for teams.

Unfortunately, as businesses work with these innovative technologies, they are simultaneously turning themselves into sitting ducks for cyberattacks. AI-generated code not only increases the volume of code companies need to secure, it is itself insecure.
To avoid any cybercrime damage, teams will need to prioritize security as much as they do production.
Of course, companies aren’t the only ones on the fast track toward AI adoption. Bad actors have added the technology to their arsenal as well, waging it on the ever-changing cybersecurity battlefield.
Hackers are increasingly relying on social engineering tactics to trick users into giving up their credentials. And AI happens to be a major part of their engineering formula.
Generative AI has made it easier for hackers to churn out convincing content for text messaging fraud and email phishing attacks.
AI has also allowed inexperienced hackers to join the race. Hackers can now use code crafted by AI tools to create AI-generated malware. AI-powered malware is another threat to watch, as it can operate autonomously and adapt to evade detection.
Hackers Have a Wider Attack Surface
Our digital landscape may be evolving faster than we can handle. And companies may not be aware they are increasing their attack surface with every new API, integration, and network they add to their infrastructure.
Attack surface is the collective sum of entry points that cybercriminals can use to infiltrate a system and carry out a cyberattack or data breach.

Teams may be opening themselves to attacks by using certain applications, including AI tools. About 59% of respondents say today’s attack surface is completely unmanageable due to generative AI and the coding boom.
APIs are another entry point vulnerable to hackers and their breaches. In 2024, 57% of organizations reported experiencing at least one API-related breach, and 73% experienced multiple incidents.
IoT devices and networks are also prime targets for cyberattacks, especially where legacy systems are involved. Industries, such as healthcare and manufacturing, are heavy consumers of IoT networks but often have legacy systems and outdated security approaches.
Because they have weaker defenses, IoT systems can make easy targets for exploitation by bad actors. By attacking IoT systems, hackers can compromise networks and gain access to sensitive data. DDoS attacks are the primary way hackers choose to attack IoT devices.
As attack surfaces expand, teams will have to create more comprehensive strategies to combat the various threats that may come their way. They will also have to monitor and secure every vulnerability and pathway, ranging from their applications to their networks.
Getting started right away can make the job easier on cybersecurity teams, however. This way, they implement security measures to combat emerging threats as they come, instead of playing catch-up for the long term.
Phishing and Ransomware at the Top
It may come as no surprise that phishing and ransomware attacks remain the two most used attack vectors among cybercriminals. Phishing has long been the most common form of cyberattack while ransomware has gained major steam in the last decade.
Here are a few stats that describe their effect on the digital landscape:
- 59% of organizations were hit by ransomware between January and February 2024.
- 57% of organizations experience phishing attacks weekly or daily.
- A 300% increase in ransomware attacks since 2020 has led to high-stakes payouts from industries worldwide.
Although the types of attacks haven’t changed much, the hacking methods used to carry out these attacks have. Ransomware attacks have not only become more costly, they involve higher stakes.
Threat actor groups are choosing to bypass database encryption, which involves demanding a payout to relinquish decryption keys to the victim, and are instead blatantly extracting sensitive data and threatening to release it unless the ransom is paid.
Known as “pure extortion,” this method allows hackers to do less work but place the same or even greater amount of pressure (in the form of reputational damage and legal challenges) on victims.
Phishing, on the other hand, has evolved due to generative AI. Hackers are now able to create messages and content that increasingly resemble the tone or writing styles of a user’s colleagues and loved ones with AI models.
This means it will become more difficult for users to discern the difference between an authentic message and an AI-generated scam, making everyone a target.
New Faces: Quantum Computing
It’s never too early to prepare for a cyberthreat. Although quantum computing hasn’t become mainstream yet, the cybersecurity community is already doing prep work so it may be something to look out for.
According to Private Internet Access, attackers may be betting on quantum capabilities to help their future efforts. Many bad actors are stealing encrypted data now and hoping quantum computing will help them decrypt it later — the “store now, decrypt later” tactic.
So this is just one way quantum computing threats are already affecting the landscape today.
As tech continues to advance at incredible speeds, companies will have to think and rethink their security approach going forward. Continuous adaptation and evolution will be critical for every business in the fight against cybercrime.