The holiday season is in the rearview mirror. The calendar has turned to 2025. And everyone is ramping up for a successful new year. That can mean only one thing. It’s prediction season!
Experts at Menlo Security shared their predictions for the cybersecurity industry's evolution over the next 12 months. Most were in agreement that browser security is going to continue to grow in importance for enterprise security teams. But there were also some surprising predictions around insider threats, compliance, and the evolution of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA).
Read on to learn how Menlo Security is prepping for a critical 12 months for the cybersecurity industry.
PREDICTION: AI-driven Deepfakes Will Become More Sophisticated and Hidden.
Hyper-realistic, AI-driven cyber fraud will grow in 2025, making it increasingly difficult for individuals to discern between legitimate and malicious sites. These deepfakes will mimic trusted brands, government agencies and even personal acquaintances using automated and targeted phishing attacks to steal people’s credentials.
These attacks will hide in plain sight amongst legitimate traffic and user behaviors without leaving a signature, allowing them to largely bypass traditional security measures and exploit vulnerabilities in systems that are not yet known or patched. This will lead to widespread data breaches and system disruptions if enterprises don’t adopt AI-driven defenses to counter these threats.
PREDICTION: Cybercriminals Will Up the Ante on Browser-based Attacks to Target Critical Infrastructure.
Cybercriminals will develop sophisticated browser-based attacks to deploy ransomware that will target critical infrastructure sectors like healthcare, energy, and transportation. This shift will bypass traditional network defenses – making it easier for attackers to infiltrate systems, encrypt sensitive data, and disrupt these critical services. We saw a rise in browser-based attacks in 2024 with at least one significant browser exploit confirmed every month. To mitigate this risk, organizations must prioritize browser security, implement robust security measures, and stay updated on the latest threat intelligence.
PREDICTION: Insider Threats Will Proliferate as Widespread Remote and Hybrid Work Environments Exacerbate Risk.
The spread of widespread remote and hybrid work environments will exacerbate the risk of
insider threats that originate from well-intentioned users who have fallen victim to sophisticated credential theft attacks. To combat this emerging threat, new tools and technologies will emerge to assist users, removing the burden of identifying and mitigating potential risks on their own. These AI-powered tools will be integrated directly in the browser to automatically detect malicious activity and operate far beyond the capacity of manual human analysis.
PREDICTION: CISOs Will Face Intense Pressure to Demonstrate Due Care.
As regulatory scrutiny intensifies, CISOs will face pressure to demonstrate due care in securing the modern digital workspace. This compliance reporting requirement will increasingly focus on the browser – making browser security a critical component of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) strategy. Traditional security controls – such as remote access virtual private networks (VPNs) and legacy ZTNA solutions – will be complemented or replaced by browser-based solutions. This shift will enable organizations to protect sensitive data, mitigate risks, and comply with evolving regulatory standards.
PREDICTION: Software Supply Chain Attacks Eill Evolve to Target Business-focused Software as a Service (SaaS) Platforms.
Sometime in 2025, a software supply chain attack will target an enterprise SaaS platform. This means that a third-party library – possibly one associated with logic that runs within the browser context – will be the target of an attack.
This shift will serve as a wake-up call for organizations that operate on cloud-based services.
If just one is compromised, malicious logic could run within the local browser context with the permissions of the associated user, resulting in data breaches and financial losses. To mitigate this threat, organizations should adopt a layered security approach that encompasses the browser context.
PREDICTION: Automation Will Make Some Workflows in Security Operations Obsolete.
AI-driven automation tools will continue to streamline processes, reduce response times, and improve overall efficiency in 2025. At the same time, IT and security operations teams will finally get some relief from alert fatigue, reducing alerts by 50% or more while compressing response times from hours to minutes.
Though early in the adoption cycle, these tools will begin to eliminate the need for complex and costly Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR) rebuilds and will optimize Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) implementations. This shift will empower organizations to respond to threats more effectively, reduce operational overhead and allocate resources to higher-value strategic initiatives.
PREDICTION: ZTNA Will Evolve Into a More Flexible and Adaptable Security Model.
The evolution of ZTNA solutions will enable a "Secure by Design" approach and allow organizations to deploy Zero Trust Access (ZTA) capabilities even when they do not control and manage the underlying network infrastructure. By eliminating the need for traditional network infrastructure controls, these new ZTA solutions will simplify access management and reduce the attack surface, empowering organizations to secure their digital assets more effectively, regardless of user location or device type.
Looking Ahead to 2025
2025 will see increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats continue to evolve and target organizations through the browser. These attacks will incorporate more AI-powered deepfakes; target critical industries such as healthcare, energy and transportation; compromise users and SaaS platforms to gain access to applications; and require CISOs to demonstrate due care that they are protecting today’s most popular business tool – the browser.
But not all is lost. Innovations in automated cybersecurity tools powered by increasingly powerful AI models will be able to identify dangerous behavior directly in the browser and block malicious actors moonlighting as legitimate users. These tools will transform security operations to be more efficient and effective while enabling a new cybersecurity approach that focuses on application access instead of network access.
Learn more about Menlo Security and how we protect our customers from these emerging threats here.
