Here Comes 2025: The Major Cyber Threats To Happen

 

Ok, here we  go, as we fast approach now into 2025, here are the predictions as what the major Threat Variants and Attack Vectors will be:

1)     The Zero Day Exploit:

This is a term that non-Cyber people may not know about, so here is a technical definition of it:

“A zero-day exploit is a cyberattack vector that takes advantage of an unknown or unaddressed security flaw in computer software, hardware or firmware. "Zero day" refers to the fact that the software or device vendor has zero days to fix the flaw because malicious actors can already use it to access vulnerable systems.”

(SOURCE:  What is a Zero-Day Exploit? | IBM)

Put another way, when a vendor knows that their software offering has vulnerabilities in it, they create software patches for customers to download to fix the weaknesses.  But with a Zero Day Exploit, the vendor has no knowledge of a vulnerability.  But the Cyberattacker knows this already, because of all the scouting work that they do on their targets and victims.  So, once they are ready, they move in for the kill, which totally blindsides the vendor, and has a cascading effect on all its customers.  It is possible to recover from this kind of attack, but it could take an exceedingly long time, because there are no fixes for it, and thus they must be created after the fact.

2)     Supply Chain Attacks:

This is the kind of Threat Vector in which the Cyberattacker needs just one point of entry to deploy the malicious payload.  The best example of this was the Solar Winds breach.  Through just one weakness, the Cyberattacker was able to insert a nefarious piece of Malware into their software update platform called Orion.  Once this was activated, thousands of victims were impacted, including agencies in the Federal Government and even Fortune 50 companies.  Another recent one was the CrowdStrike fiasco.  Although they still claim that it was not a Cyberattack, just one thing went wrong in their software deployment package, which had a global effect, especially with the airlines, like Delta.

3)     Attacks On Remote Workers:

As we all know, this exploded during the COVID-19 pandemic.  But now it is the past, many companies have now mandated a hybrid work environment.  But the common denominator here is that employees will, for a part of the week, be working remotely, wherever it may be at.  Very often, the home network will be used, which leaves a huge invite for the Cyberattacker to get into.  Although companies may issue standard wireless devices for work use, there is no stopping the employees from connecting into the corporate network with their home one.  Although VPNs are a great tool to use to secure the network lines of communications, they have been proven to show their limits during the pandemic.  As a result, businesses are now opting for the Next Generation Firewall, which alleviates some of the weaknesses of the VPN.

4)     Targeting AI And ML:

I have written a lot about both in my previous blogs, but even using the models that have been derived from them have their vulnerabilities as well.  Probably the biggest issues that will be seen in 2025 are that of Data Poisoning and Data Exfiltration Attacks.  The former can be technically defi.  as follows:

“An Artificial Intelligence poisoning attack occurs when an AI model's training data is intentionally tampered with, affecting the outcomes of the model's decision-making processes. Despite the black-box nature of AI models, these attacks seek to deceive the AI system into making incorrect or harmful decisions.”

(SOURCE:  Data Poisoning Attacks: A New Attack Vector within AI | Cobalt)

Remember that an AI or ML model requires tons of data for it to initially learn and to keep optimizing their algorithms.  But the outputs are only as good as the data that is fed into it (thus, “Garbage In – Garbage Out”).  The Cyberattacker is fully aware of this and will intentionally try to hijack a model to insert malicious datasets to it.  The net effect could be benign, such as creating a false output for the end user, or it could even be worse, such as infecting devices, like in a Supply Chain Attack.

5)     5G:

While most of us are comfortable with having used 4G on our smartphones, many of the wireless carriers are now making the move to the next level up, which is the 5G.  I personally have 5G on my iPhone, and whenever the connection is solid, I can access the Web very quickly on Safari.  But since 5G is still in untested waters, there are still some major vulnerabilities that are associated with it.  Some of them are:

Ø  The huge growth in the interconnectivity of devices – especially where IoT (Internet of Things) is involved.  All of this only increases the attack surface for easy penetration.

Ø  Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks:  Through any opening in the 5G, a Cyberattacker can easily insert a huge swath of malicious data packets which can bring wireless to an almost screeching halt on a global basis.

Ø  Critical Infrastructure:  Many of them that exist here in the United States are completely outdated with technologies, going as far back as the 1960s and 1970s.  If these facilities try to adopt the 5G, the Cyberattacker does not have hut directly into a nuclear facility, as an example.  Rather, they can intercept the 5G network lines of communications and attack that way, in a much more covert manner.

My Thoughts on This:

There are other Threat Variants/Attack Vectors that I can include here, but I wanted to give you the ones that could really cause some damage if they do at all happen.  You very well could be asking yourself how you can mitigate all of this from happening to your business.  I could create a laundry list of what you can do, but a quick Google search will reveal all this also.

So, I am going to keep it simple for 2025:  Nip it in the bud.  Find the vulnerabilities, gaps, and weaknesses before the Cyberattacker does.  This can all be very easily achieved using Penetration Testing, Vulneability Scanning, and Threat Hunting.