Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2025. Read them in this 17th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Anthony Cusimano, Solutions Director, Object First
As we look ahead to 2025, we cannot overlook the essential need for a more robust and holistic approach to cybersecurity as emerging technologies expand the scope and reach of threat actors’ capabilities. The Zero Trust framework may be one of the only ways to ensure a complete lockdown of systems and networks. The question remains: How can Zero Trust be integrated into cybersecurity plans and initiatives moving forward? This will become increasingly important as we advance our connected society and the number of IoT devices.
Companies will take a more holistic approach to Zero Trust in 2025
If companies don’t commit to a holistic Zero Trust methodology, they risk being seen as a security threat in a market of increasingly secure technologies and increasingly cyber-aware customers. In the year ahead, prospects and customers will deepen their understanding of Zero Trust, and vendors will have to become more proficient when discussing Zero Trust, meaning everyone from top to bottom should understand it and how to implement it properly. Furthermore, commercial product developers will have to adopt Zero Trust by mentally shifting how they think about building apps and code, continually answering how each piece of their product could be breached and how to utilize Zero Trust approach with more consumer-oriented products. In 2025, Zero Trust will also start to become a best practice in verticals beyond the traditional networks, apps, and infrastructure that have already embraced it, such as online gaming, personal apps, and storage especially as we lean into an era of increasingly connected IoT devices.
Zero Trust principles will be used to help combat AI-based attacks
Most cyber-mature companies operate assuming that a data breach is inevitable, and they continually run regular tests to ensure they are as prepared as they can be when an attacker strikes. However, as attackers continue to become increasingly sophisticated, it is harder for companies to ensure their cyber resilience programs can withstand advanced attack methods. Especially as AI infiltration, such as those utilizing deepfakes, continues to be a plight for cybersecurity workers, the original set of Zero Trust principles will begin to evolve into a solution to combat AI.
Compliance with Zero Trust protocols will increasingly be used as a filter for bad actors
In a Zero Trust dependent future, cybercriminals will need new techniques to infiltrate systems and networks. Just like how phishing emails purposely contain spelling errors to weed out trained recipients, cybercriminals will exploit an untrained employee who does not follow proper cybersecurity practices such as MFA and biometric verification. When these Zero Trust techniques are implemented, it can almost guarantee the system will be completely locked down. However, an employee who skips these steps to increase productivity and efficiency could compromise the entire network.
In 2025, cybersecurity regulation and legislation will be critical
In 2024, we saw the largest number of cyberattacks and the largest monetary amount of ransom payments collected in history. As we enter 2025, legislators will need to prioritize enterprise cybersecurity regulation. These regulations are imperative for combating the upward trend of ransomware attacks due to the sophisticated stealthiness of cyber criminals and the rising challenge of proactively dismantling bad actors before they attack again. NIS2 is a great example of the kind of legislation needed. However, NIS2 compliance will be an ongoing initiative due to the massive number of qualifications required to be fully compliant. The good news is that Zero Trust is built into the framework of NIS2 so companies already implementing Zero Trust are one step closer to complete compliance.
While the current threat landscape may seem daunting and ever-expanding, cybersecurity workers are not left defenseless. By shifting mindsets and adopting core Zero Trust principles, data, networks, and systems will be deemed impenetrable. While this evolution will require robust policies, regulations, and training, it will ultimately safeguard organizations against emerging technologies and sophisticated bad actors, reduce overall ransomware payments, and build an increasingly secure market of products.
##
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthony Cusimano has worked in many roles in tech for over a decade. He started as a developer, shifted to sales, and masterfully moved into marketing. He is a passionate gamer who stays up to date on all things technology to ensure he can achieve as many frames per second as possible on his gaming PC. He enjoys speaking at events and has previously shared the stage with astronauts and MARVEL superheroes. Anthony enjoys the nerdier things in life, watching classic movies, building Gundams, and flying questionably legal FPV drones in abandoned mall parking lots. When he isn’t geeking out on the latest fad, he and his wife Sarah enjoy visiting lesser-known Florida destinations and spoiling their two dogs, Luna and Smudge.
