By Grayson Milbourne, Security Intelligence Director, OpenText Cybersecurity

Over the past decade, cyberattacks have grown in sophistication. While this year attackers will continue to experiment with new attack methods in order to undermine defenses, they will also refine tried-and-tested tactics. Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) and phishing have become the go-to tools for cybercriminals, and in 2025, they're investing in what works. With advanced technologies at their fingertips, cybercriminals are building on their successes, creating smarter, faster, and more sophisticated threats than ever before.

Here are three key trends shaping the cybersecurity landscape this year, where attackers have honed their methods and defenders must rise to the challenge.

1. Phishing Attacks Are Getting So Personal, It's Almost Creepy

If you thought phishing was bad before, generative AI is taking it to a whole new level. Cybercriminals have perfected the art of crafting phishing campaigns that are so highly targeted, that they are practically personalized love letters. With AI at their disposal, attackers now have the ability to mine vast amounts of personal data to create messages that exploit individual vulnerabilities with unnerving precision.

Today's attackers are using AI to design hyper-relevant messages based on social media posts, shopping habits and even personal communications. As a result, phishing emails are practically indistinguishable from legitimate correspondence, making them much harder for individuals and organizations to spot. In fact, recent reports found 817 million spearphishing attempts among 7.7 billion email-based threats.

The game has changed: phishing is no longer about casting a wide net; it's about making each message so convincing that even the most security-conscious people are duped. Cybercriminals have figured out what works, and they've mastered it. The rise of AI and data mining has made phishing so effective, it's more important than ever to implement advanced email security tools, continuous employee training and a culture of vigilance.

2. AI-Powered Ransomware Is More Dynamic and Devious Than Ever

Ransomware has always been a favorite tool of cybercriminals and it will remain a favorite this year. A recent survey found that of the 48% of businesses who have experienced a ransomware attack, 73% have experienced a ransomware attack in the last year.

Leveraging AI, ransomware attacks have become more dynamic, making it much harder for security systems to detect and stop them. These AI-powered ransomware attacks don't just encrypt data, but continuously adapt and bypass security measures, generating new attack vectors and encryption methods on the fly.

Gone are the days of static malware that follows a predictable pattern. Today's ransomware is agile, self-adapting and harder to contain. Cybercriminals have begun using AI to create custom encryption methods and dynamically generated code, which changes the attack characteristics with each strike. The result is a constantly evolving threat that outpaces traditional security protocols and makes detection significantly more difficult.

Moreover, the proliferation of RaaS has lowered the barrier to entry for cybercriminals. Now, even less technically savvy attackers can purchase AI-driven ransomware kits that allow them to launch devastating attacks. As a result, organizations face an increasing number of ransomware attempts that are smarter, more targeted and harder to stop.

3. On the Positive Side, Multinational Efforts to Disrupt Cybercriminal Operations Have Hit Full Throttle

As a result of ongoing ransomware activity, we're witnessing a groundbreaking shift in how the world confronts cybercrime. Governments across the globe have united to confront the growing threats in cyberspace with unprecedented coordination. As cyber threats have grown more complex and interconnected, so have the responses. Countries are collaborating more closely than ever, sharing intelligence, resources and strategies to dismantle cybercriminal operations.

With the recognition that cyberspace is now a critical domain of conflict, nations are continuing to invest heavily in both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities. Global alliances are also taking proactive steps to disrupt the infrastructure of cybercriminal groups before they can strike, making multinational cybercrime takedowns a reality. The most successful of these operations combine legal action, technical measures and intelligence-sharing, rendering cybercriminals' traditional operations less effective.

This year, the focus is on staying one step ahead, with law enforcement agencies and intelligence communities from around the world working in lockstep to shut down criminal operations before they can launch major attacks.

The Year of Refinement and Risk

Cybercriminals' tried and true methods are not going anywhere and the refinement in these attacks is at a scary level of precision. They are refining the tools and techniques that have worked for them in the past, making their attacks more effective, more personal and more difficult to detect, while also innovating to craft new methods that cyber defenses are not ready for. This year, cybersecurity teams and governments cannot just react to threats but have to stay one step ahead.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Grayson Milbourne is the Security Intelligence Director at OpenText Cybersecurity, a division of OpenText that offers OpenText^TM ArcSight^TM cyDNA, a signal-based analytics platform that reveals adversarial behavior in real-time. Grayson's over two decades of security intelligence expertise include malware analysis, data science, and security education. In his current role, Grayson is focused on efficacy development to ensure the company's security management products (which include the Webroot portfolio) are able to defend against the most cutting-edge threats.