Six Cybersecurity Trends That Will Define 2025 from HP Wolf Security

The HP Wolf Security Threat Research team noted many developments in the cyber threat landscape last year, with leaps in AI capabilities, steady progress in quantum computing, and a raft of threats targeting hardware and firmware, to name a few. In areas where technology is advancing quickly, new opportunities are being created for attackers and defenders. Now, more than ever, organizations need to understand new and growing threats, so that they can take steps to defend against them before they become a problem.
 
Organizations must also know their attack surface. Our recent report, Securing the Device Lifecycle: From Factory to Fingertips, and Future Redeployment, highlights how overlooking device hardware and firmware security can weaken cybersecurity posture for years to come.
 
Over the next year and beyond, organizations that fail to address threats and build resilience against them could find themselves falling victim to a security breach. Here are six cybersecurity trends organizations need to know in 2025:
 

1. As AI transforms the way we work, the need for strong AI application privacy and security protections will become critical

 
AI will unleash new levels of productivity and creativity for organizations across the globe. AI PCs are enabling users to harness the power of running AI applications locally on their devices, without the privacy concerns of sending data off-device.
 
Growing dependency on AI in end-user devices will drive demand for security assurances to protect AI applications themselves, including their functionality and outputs. In addition, AI applications will learn and build up unique “digital footprints” of users’ activities and how they interact with their devices. As employees work more closely with AI day-to-day, this will generate new types of sensitive data that will need to be kept away from bad actors. This will create new and unique security needs to prevent malware or bad actors with access to a user’s device from accessing, stealing or editing such personally sensitive data.
 

2. Cybercriminals will take advantage of AI to make attacks more efficient and effective

 
Employees and organizations aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit from AI. Increasingly, cybercriminals will take advantage of AI’s strengths to create, automate and assist. Whether that’s helping to write attack scripts, uncover vulnerabilities, analyze stolen data, or using copilots to help develop malware, AI will boost threat actors’ productivity and the effectiveness of their attacks. 
 
AI will lower the barrier to entry for cybercrime, enabling more novices to carry out attacks without coding know-how. We may see phishing click-through rates rise, with AI helping attackers craft convincing multilingual, targeted lures. More positively, cybersecurity teams will harness AI to improve threat detection and response, relieving pressure on teams. Partnering with trusted AI security vendors will ensure organizations reap the benefits of AI while being protected from new AI-assisted threats.
 

3. Rapid weakness detection by threat actors using AI will require new security capabilities at the endpoint

 
We are entering into a ‘hyper threat’ landscape defined by the acceleration of AI as a more widely adopted complement to existing malware development tools and techniques by threat actors. As cybercriminals learn and adopt a broader quiver of AI techniques beyond GenAI for phishing and cybercrime campaign development, they will begin to turbocharge how they detect and exploit weaknesses at the network edge.
 
Companies and governments should begin to demand that endpoint devices like printers come with continuous and active system monitoring for 100% of the life of the device. Endpoint devices with rapid malware detection speed and self-healing automated recovery, without requiring IT intervention, will become fundamental requirements for a secure endpoint posture in the future.
 

4. Organizations will demand more transparency and security assurances from technology providers when procuring devices

 
This year, organizations will demand more transparency and security assurances from technology providers. This will include auditing the strength of vendors’ security governance, with customers willing to pay a premium for products with strong security assurances.
 
Customers will also look for ways to validate the security of their purchased technology and leverage tools to verify and manage device hardware and firmware security. To ensure device security requirements are fully captured and met, organizations will need to reimagine device procurement processes. This means implementing a collaborative approach between procurement, IT and security teams when scoping device requirements, validating vendor responses, and auditing suppliers.
 

5. Companies will embrace a more personalized approach to work while ensuring security and productivity go hand-in-hand

 
The way we work will continue to evolve as employees demand personalized work experiences, from tailored workspaces and access to preferred technologies, to flexible working environments. Advances in AI will play a vital role in powering the future of work, unlocking new intelligent functionality that will help employees to thrive in the workplace.
 
The future of work must be secure and resilient. Cybersecurity teams will need to manage security risks without disrupting employee workflows. But this will also mean enabling employees to work securely from anywhere and placing capabilities into the hands of IT teams to monitor and protect devices from cyberattacks quickly and at scale. To do this, companies will need to increase focus on their endpoint security strategies to be resilient at every layer, from hardware up to the cloud.
 
In practice, this will mean adopting advanced endpoint security capabilities that enable organizations to securely manage device configuration across their fleets, and prevent, detect and recover from threats targeting device hardware, firmware and software.
 

6. The rapid growth of IoT devices will present new security challenges, enhancing focus on zero trust architecture

 
The proliferation of IoT devices across enterprise networks – including connected printers – creates a growing attack surface that must be managed. Many connected devices lack robust security features, making them easy targets for attackers who can remotely connect and spread malware across a target’s systems.
 
To respond to the growing threat of insecure IoT devices, organizations must ensure hardware-enforced security and robust security features are built into every device. This will help prevent devices from falling victim to conventional and zero-day attacks. This protection must extend to the hardware and firmware level, relying on self-healing features and in-memory breach detection.
 
Adopting a zero-trust architecture will help reduce risks, as will a layered approach to security that covers hardware and extends across software and services. This approach must include identity protection, document protection, and multi-factor authentication (MFA). Each request the device receives should receive least-privileged access, limiting damage in the case of a breach.
 

Building cyber resilience in a year of rapidly evolving threats

 
To stay resilient in a fast-changing technological landscape, organizations need to take a holistic approach to security that prioritizes strong AI protections, automated device recovery, advanced device configuration, and the following of zero trust principles.
 
This includes a focus on platform security, which ensures the organization is choosing trusted technology providers at the procurement stage and building resilience from the hardware and firmware up to protect endpoints, no matter where they are. 
 
Organizations’ approach should go beyond traditional cybersecurity measures, harnessing HP Wolf Security endpoint security technology to reduce the addressable attack surface and ensure strong security standards. By focusing on the ongoing management of owned devices and emerging technologies, organizations can plug current and future security gaps, defend against AI-powered attacks, and achieve continuous and complete visibility of device security posture.