Cybersecurity in 2025: The Perfect Storm (Part 1)

Chris Clements, VP of Solutions Consulting

Every year, cybersecurity vendors publish threat intelligence reports that promise to uncover the latest attack trends and guide defenders. These reports are often backed by billions of telemetry events, real-world incident data, and insights from global SOC and threat hunting teams. Yet individually, each report captures only a slice of the global threat landscape. 

So, what happens when you step back and analyze the full picture? 

That’s exactly what we set out to do. We reviewed 15 of the most widely respected threat intelligence reports from across the cybersecurity ecosystem, spanning endpoint protection, cloud security, MDR/XDR, identity platforms, and offensive research. Our goal: to surface the major trends that consistently emerged across vendors, eliminate marketing noise, and highlight what matters most for defenders heading into 2025 and beyond. 

While each vendor brings a unique lens to the table, recurring themes stand out. Breaches continue despite layered defenses. Attackers are moving faster than ever. Ransomware isn’t going away, instead it’s evolving. Phishing remains a top initial access vector, but the techniques are getting sharper. And as organizations race to adopt cloud-native tools and AI-driven capabilities, attackers are exploiting that same terrain. Organizations of all sizes are under unprecedented attack as threat actors move at ludicrous speed, exploit persistent weaknesses, and leverage new technologies to devastating effect. Our analysis of fifteen leading security reports paints a sobering picture of today’s threat landscape. 

The Converging Storm: By the Numbers 

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported a staggering 859,532 complaints in 2024, representing $16.6 billion in losses, and a 33% increase from 2023. The average victim lost $19,372. Meanwhile, Mandiant reports that median dwell time (how long attackers remain undetected) increased to 11 days in 2024, with 43% of breaches identified by external entities rather than internal teams. 

This isn’t just a story of more attacks, it’s about faster, more sophisticated attacks exploiting an expanding attack surface. 

Attackers Moving at Unprecedented Speed 

CrowdStrike’s data is particularly alarming: the average “breakout time” (from initial access to lateral movement) has dropped to just 48 minutes. The fastest observed? A mere 51 seconds. Palo Alto Networks found that in 20% of cases, data was stolen in under an hour. 

As one security researcher put it: “Blink and you’re breached.” 

The Initial Access Trifecta 

According to Mandiant, the top initial infection vectors in 2024 were: 

1. Vulnerability Exploitation (33%) – For the fifth consecutive year, exploits lead the way. Fortinet documented over 97 billion exploitation attempts in 2024, with edge devices like VPNs seeing an 8x increase in targeting. 

2. Stolen Credentials (16%) – Mandiant observed a 60% year-over-year increase in this vector. Verizon reports that 54% of ransomware victims had credentials available in infostealer dumps, while Fortinet noted a 42% increase in credentials for sale on dark markets. 

3. Email Phishing (14%) – While still significant, traditional phishing is evolving into more sophisticated forms. QR-code phishing (“qishing”) increased 40-60% in Q1 2025 according to Sublime, bypassing URL scanning. SVG attachment attacks saw a staggering 47,000% increase, delivering obfuscated scripts that evade traditional defenses. 

The Ransomware Reality 

Ransomware remains the playground bully, appearing in 44% of breaches analyzed in Verizon’s DBIR (up 37% from last year). For small businesses, the situation is dire as Sophos found ransomware in 70% of incident response cases for small businesses and over 90% for mid-sized organizations. 

The economic impact is severe. Deloitte estimates the average cost of a ransomware breach at $4.91 million. In Q1 2025 alone, leak sites listed 2,063 victims. 

Ransomware groups are also evolving. After law enforcement disruptions like the LockBit takedown, the landscape is fracturing. Deloitte identified over 30 new groups in 2024, with RansomHub (236 victims), Akira (213 victims), and CLOP (348 victims) leading the pack in Q1 2025. 

The Cybercrime Marketplace 

The barrier to entry for cybercrime continues to drop. A robust Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) ecosystem now enables less-skilled actors to launch sophisticated attacks. Crowdstrike observed a 50% year-over-year increase in Initial Access Broker (IAB) advertisements, while Fortinet reported a 42% increase in compromised credentials for sale. 

This professionalization means that businesses face a higher volume of competent attacks from a broader spectrum of threat actors, not just nation-states or Advanced Persistent Threats. 

Defense Evasion: Staying Under the Radar 

Attackers are increasingly adept at evading detection: 

• Malware-Free Attacks: CrowdStrike reports that 79% of observed detections were malware-free, relying instead on “hands-on-keyboard” techniques, living-off-the-land binaries, and script-based attacks. 

• EDR Evasion: Sophos and Huntress documented increased use of EDR killers via bring-your-own-vulnerable-driver (BYOVD) techniques. Coveware found defense evasion techniques in 60% of ransomware cases. 

• Living Off the Land: Rather than deploying custom malware, attackers increasingly misuse legitimate tools (PowerShell, WMI, RDP) to blend in with normal system operations. 

SMBs in the Crosshairs 

Small and mid-sized businesses are disproportionately affected. Verizon’s DBIR found that 88% of ransomware breaches impact SMBs (compared to 39% for large organizations). Coveware reports that organizations with 11-100 employees represent the largest share of ransomware victims (35.6%). 

Why? Attackers perceive SMBs as having weaker defenses and fewer resources, while still providing valuable data and potential supply chain access to larger organizations. 

What’s Next? 

In Part 2, we’ll explore the impact of AI on the threat landscape, examine cloud and API security challenges, and provide concrete recommendations for organizations looking to strengthen their security posture in this increasingly hostile environment. 

[This analysis draws from fifteen leading security reports including CrowdStrike’s 2025 Global Threat Report, Mandiant’s M-Trends 2025, Verizon’s 2025 DBIR, and the FBI IC3 2024 Annual Report.] 

Sources: 

CrowdStrike 2025 Global Threat Report  
Mandiant M-Trends 2025 (Google Cloud)  
Trend Micro 2025 Cyber Risk Report  
Coveware Q1 2025 Ransomware Report  
Sublime Email Threat Research Report Q1 2025  
Verizon 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report  
FBI IC3 2024 Report  
Huntress 2025 Cyber Threat Report  
Deloitte Annual Cyber Threat Trends Report 2025  
OpenText Cybersecurity Threat Report 2025  
Sophos Annual Threat Report 2025  
Fortinet Global Threat Landscape Report 2025  
GuidePoint GRIT 2025 Q1 Ransomware Report  
Wallarm Q1 2025 API ThreatStats Report  
Google Cloud 2024 Zero-Day Trends