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Fortra 2025 Predictions: Building Resilience - Key Strategies for 2025

vmblog-predictions-2025 

Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2025.  Read them in this 17th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

By Theo Zafirakos, Cyber Risk and Information Security Expert, Fortra

As we approach 2025, organizations are increasingly challenged to maintain seamless operations amidst growing cyber threats, natural disasters, and vulnerabilities introduced by third parties. These challenges have highlighted the critical importance of operational resilience and the need for organizations to consistently test their incident response plans. As organizations become more reliant on external vendors, ensuring these partners are resilient and compliant has also emerged as a priority. These are the key areas of focus for any organization wishing to keep pace with these risks in 2025. 

The Importance of Operational Resilience 

Operational resilience will become a non-negotiable requirement for organizations across all industries in 2025. Organizations that do not regularly test their resilience plans leave themselves exposed to a wide range of potential disruptions. Whether it's a cyberattack, a natural disaster, or a third-party failure, the aftermath can be severe for unprepared organizations. It is not uncommon for recovery times to exceed acceptable timeframes, leading to costly downtime, data loss, and in some cases, breaches of service-level agreements (SLAs). The resulting financial and reputational damage can be catastrophic. 

In 2025, organizations will increasingly prioritize regular operational resilience and incident response testing to mitigate these risks. These exercises can take many forms, including disaster recovery simulations, Red Team/Blue Team exercises, and tabletop drills that walk teams through hypothetical crises. These simulations assist in the identification of gaps and vulnerabilities, enabling companies to adjust their response plans accordingly and ensure the proper stakeholders are engaged. Furthermore, frequent testing serves to demonstrate compliance with relevant regulatory requirements. 

Managing Third-Party Risks 

As organizations become more reliant on third-party providers-whether for cloud infrastructure, communication platforms, or other essential services-the risks associated with these partnerships have become more pronounced. Several major incidents in 2024 demonstrated the potential consequences of a key vendor experiencing an outage. The disruption to operations for many clients of these service providers was significant and widespread. In 2025, organizations will need to adopt a more proactive approach to managing third-party risk. Instead of just evaluating their vendors' resilience and security practices, organizations will focus on continuous monitoring. Service providers must demonstrate their ability to handle disruptions and meet regulatory requirements. Vendors that fail to meet the new standards will likely be replaced by competitors offering more reliable and transparent practices. 

In the current business climate, organizations will look to consolidate their vendor relationships, preferring to partner with fewer suppliers that can demonstrate robust security and resilience requirements. As a result, the dynamics of the vendor-client relationship will fundamentally change, with resilience becoming a key criterion in vendor selection. 

Service Providers Must Evolve 

The growing demands from businesses will push service providers to enhance their own security controls and operational maturity. By 2025, the requirements will be much higher for vendors providing critical services. It is anticipated that new and existing regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) in Europe, and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the U.S. will continue to require stricter standards for data protection, privacy, and operational resilience. 

In this environment, non-compliance will result in significant financial and legal consequences. Service providers will need to ensure their systems are resilient enough to maintain continuity even in the face of unforeseen disruptions. This will be particularly true for cloud-based infrastructure and communication services, which will be expected to provide robust, scalable solutions that can weather both technical and physical crises. 

Service providers that fail to meet these evolving expectations risk losing business to competitors that are better prepared. On the other hand, those that invest in bolstering their security measures and demonstrate compliance with global regulations will emerge as trusted partners, gaining a competitive edge in the marketplace. 

Preparing for 2025 and Beyond 

As these trends continue to unfold, businesses must stay ahead of the curve by investing in stronger resilience strategies, testing their preparedness, and holding their partners accountable. The future belongs to organizations that can adapt, anticipate, and overcome disruptions-and those that fail to do so risk falling behind the competition. 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Theo Zafirakos, CISSP, Cyber Risk and Information Security Expert, Fortra

Theo-Zafirakos
 
Theo provides CISO Professional Services to our clients and regularly speaks on the topic of cyber security awareness training. He has over 25 years of experience in technology and security and holds the CISSP certification.

Theo joined Fortra through the acquisition of Terranova Security. Over the last 7 years with Terranova Security, Theo supported hundreds of clients to implement effective security awareness programs, tailored to their unique realities and objectives.

Prior to joining Terranova Security, Theo was responsible for cyber security at a leading North American transportation and logistics company. In his role as CISO, he was responsible for all aspects of information security strategy and governance.

Theo was one of the founding members of the Canadian Cyber Threat Exchange and currently sits on the Board of Directors for the National Cybersecurity Alliance. He regularly speaks on the topic of security awareness culture and phishing simulation training at industry events.

Published Wednesday, October 16, 2024 7:34 AM by David Marshall
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