2025 ransomware predictions, trends, and how to prepare

Zscaler ThreatLabz research team has revealed critical insights and predictions on ransomware trends for 2025. The latest Ransomware Report uncovered a surge in sophisticated tactics and extortion attacks. As ransomware remains a key concern for CISOs and CIOs, the report sheds light on actionable strategies to mitigate risks.

Top Ransomware Predictions for 2025:

● AI-Powered Social Engineering: In 2025, GenAI will fuel voice phishing (vishing) attacks. With the proliferation of GenAI-based tooling, initial access broker groups will increasingly leverage AI-generated voices; which sound more and more realistic by adopting local accents and dialects to enhance credibility and success rates.

● The Trifecta of Social Engineering Attacks: Vishing, Ransomware and Data Exfiltration. Additionally, sophisticated ransomware groups, like the Dark Angels, will continue the trend of low-volume, high-impact attacks; preferring to focus on an individual company, stealing vast amounts of data without encrypting files, and evading media and law enforcement scrutiny.

● Targeted Industries Under Siege: Manufacturing, healthcare, education, energy will remain primary targets, with no slowdown in attacks expected.

● New SEC Regulations Drive Increased Transparency: 2025 will see an uptick in reported ransomware attacks and payouts due to new, tighter SEC requirements mandating that public companies report material incidents within four business days.

● Ransomware Payouts Are on the Rise: In 2025 ransom demands will most likely increase due to an evolving ecosystem of cybercrime groups, specializing in designated attack tactics, and collaboration by these groups that have entered a sophisticated profit sharing model using Ransomware-as-a-Service.

To combat damaging ransomware attacks, Zscaler ThreatLabz recommends the following strategies.

● Fighting AI with AI: As threat actors use AI to identify vulnerabilities, organizations must counter with AI-powered zero trust security systems that detect and mitigate new threats.

● Advantages of adopting a Zero Trust architecture: A Zero Trust cloud security platform stops ransomware at every stage of the attack cycle:

○ Minimizing the attack surface: Replacing exploitable VPN and firewall architectures with a zero trust architecture hides users, applications, and devices behind a cloud proxy, making them invisible and undiscoverable from the threats on the internet.

○ Preventing compromise: TLS/SSL inspection, browser isolation, advanced sandboxing, and policy-driven access controls prevent access to malicious websites and detect unknown threats. This removes the possibility of accessing the corporate network, reducing the risk of initial compromise.

○ Eliminating lateral movement: Leveraging user-to-app (and app-to-app) segmentation, deception, and identity threat detection and response (ITDR), allows users to securely connect directly to applications, not the network, eliminating lateral movement risk.

○ Stopping Data Loss: Inline data loss prevention measures, combined with full inspection, thwart attempts at data theft.

To learn more about ransomware threats and download the Zscaler 2024 Ransomware Report please visit here.