Full Report
Every November, we start sharing forward-looking insights on threats and other cybersecurity topics to help organizations and defenders prepare for the year ahead. The Cybersecurity Forecast 2025 report, available today, plays a big role in helping us accomplish this mission. This year’s report draws on insights directly from Google Cloud's security leaders, as well as dozens of analysts, researchers, responders, reverse engineers, and other experts on the frontlines of the latest and largest attacks. aside_block ), ('btn_text', 'Download now'), ('href', 'https://cloud.google.com/security/resources/cybersecurity-forecast?utm_source=cgc-blog&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=FY24-Q4-global-MAND1370-website-dl-dgcsm-security-forecast-2025&utm_content=cgc-blog&utm_term=-'), ('image', )])]> Key Threat Findings Built on trends we are already seeing today, the Cybersecurity Forecast 2025 report provides a realistic outlook of what organizations can expect to face in the coming year. The report covers a lot of topics across all of cybersecurity, with a focus on various threats such as: Attacker Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI): Threat actors will increasingly use AI for sophisticated phishing, vishing, and social engineering attacks. They will also leverage deepfakes for identity theft, fraud, and bypassing security measures. AI for Information Operations (IO): IO actors will use AI to scale content creation, produce more persuasive content, and enhance inauthentic personas. The Big Four: Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea will remain active, engaging in espionage operations, cyber crime, and information operations aligned with their geopolitical interests. Ransomware and Multifaceted Extortion: Ransomware and multifaceted extortion will continue to be the most disruptive form of cyber crime, impacting various sectors and countries. Infostealer Malware: Infostealer malware will continue to be a major threat, enabling data breaches and account compromises. Democratization of Cyber Capabilities: Increased access to tools and services will lower barriers to entry for less-skilled actors. Compromised Identities: Compromised identities in hybrid environments will pose significant risks. Web3 and Crypto Heists: Web3 and cryptocurrency organizations will increasingly be targeted by attackers seeking to steal digital assets. Faster Exploitation and More Vendors Targeted: The time to exploit vulnerabilities will continue to decrease, and the range of targeted vendors will expand. Be Prepared for 2025 Read the Cybersecurity Forecast 2025 report for a more in-depth look at these and other threats, as well as other security topics such as post-quantum cryptography, and insights unique to the JAPAC and EMEA regions. For an even deeper look at the threat landscape next year, register for our Cybersecurity Forecast 2025 webinar, which will be hosted once again by threat expert Andrew Kopcienski. For even more insights, hear directly from our security leaders: Charles Carmakal, Sandra Joyce, Sunil Potti, and Phil Venables.
Analysis Summary
# Industry News: Google Cloud Forecasts 2025 Cybersecurity Landscape
## Summary
Google Cloud has released its Cybersecurity Forecast 2025, highlighting that adversaries will increasingly weaponize Artificial Intelligence (AI) to supercharge social engineering and disinformation campaigns. The report emphasizes that established threats like ransomware and infostealer malware will persist, while geopolitical actors will remain highly active in espionage and cybercrime.
## Key Details
- Date: November 13, 2024
- Companies Involved: Google Cloud (Publisher), Mandiant (Contextual Author)
- Category: Market Analysis and Predictions
## The Story
The Cybersecurity Forecast 2025 by Google Cloud outlines critical threat projections for the coming year. The central theme is the rapid integration of AI by threat actors across the kill chain. This includes using AI to generate highly sophisticated and personalized phishing, vishing, and social engineering content, as well as scaling high-impact information operations (IO) through persuasive synthetic content and enhanced fake personas. Simultaneously, the report confirms that traditional pressures—specifically ransomware/multifaceted extortion and the proliferation of infostealer malware—will continue to pose significant operational risks. Furthermore, major nation-state actors (Russia, China, Iran, North Korea) are expected to maintain aggressive espionage and geographically aligned cybercrime activities.
## Business Impact
### For the Companies Involved
- Google Cloud enhances its thought leadership position in cloud security and threat intelligence, driving discussions around necessary platform defenses and service adoption (e.g., AI-native security offerings).
### For Competitors
- Other security vendors and cloud providers must quickly validate and integrate similar AI-driven threat forecasting capabilities into their own platforms to remain competitive against Google Cloud's published intelligence.
### For Customers
- Organizations must immediately reprioritize training and defensive tooling to recognize and mitigate AI-generated social engineering attacks, recognizing that traditional signature-based detection may be insufficient for novel, generative threats.
### For the Market
- The forecast signals a definitive shift in threat modeling, placing AI defense as a core budgeting priority across virtually all industries, driving demand for advanced identity protection and security awareness platforms.
## Technical Implications
The increasing use of AI in phishing and vishing necessitates advanced capabilities in areas such as deepfake detection, semantic analysis of communication, and behavioral biometrics to differentiate human from machine-generated social engineering. The continued dominance of infostealers points to ongoing challenges in endpoint hygiene and credential vaulting solutions.
## Strategic Analysis
- Market Positioning: Google Cloud positions itself at the forefront of understanding emerging risks, aligning its product roadmap with the need to defend against AI-enabled threats.
- Competitive Advantage: Leveraging internal threat data related to AI usage provides a potential advantage in developing defenses faster than competitors reliant on legacy threat intelligence models.
- Challenges: The rapid pace of AI adoption by attackers means security defenses must evolve exponentially faster, presenting a sustained innovation challenge for defenders.
## Industry Reactions
- Analyst opinions generally affirm the report's focus, noting that the "democratization of sophisticated tooling via accessible AI models" is the primary risk vector for less mature organizations. Experts stress that AI won't just improve existing attacks; it will fundamentally lower the barrier to entry for complex digital exploitation.
## Future Outlook
- We can expect increased collaboration between cloud providers and government agencies to counter AI-driven state-sponsored disinformation. Security budgets will increasingly allocate funds specifically toward "AI readiness" training and platforms capable of handling synthetic attacks.
## For Security Professionals
Security teams must proactively audit their current security awareness training to include specific modules on recognizing AI-generated persuasion techniques (e.g., better context, flawless grammar in malicious emails/voice calls). Focus investment should also be placed on robust multi-factor authentication (MFA) and privileged access management (PAM) to neutralize the success of credential harvesting via infostealers.