Cyber threats in 2025: What businesses need to know

Trends, actors and geopolitical factors shaping the cyber threat environment
A break down of cyber threats by sector
There are multiple proactive steps organisations can take to stay ahead

2024 saw a dramatic escalation in global cyber threat activity. A 31% surge in disclosed vulnerabilities and a 20% increase in active exploitations signalled a broader and more accessible attack surface for malicious actors.¹ Meanwhile, despite stronger international law enforcement coordination, ransomware incidents reached record highs – proof that cybercriminals are refining their tools faster than many defences can adapt. So too, misinformation and disinformation campaigns gained momentum across social media and messaging platforms, complicating threat intelligence and eroding public trust during critical events, such as elections. Australia experienced a record number of data breaches, underscoring how a rapidly evolving regulatory environment and increasingly sophisticated attack methods are converging.²

These trends have significant implications for 2025: as digital transformation advances and AI becomes mainstream, organisations must anticipate threat actors capabilities and adopt proactive mitigation strategies. In this article, we explore these threats in detail and draw on insights from PwC Threat Intelligence and real-world case studies. We break down the major developments and offer sector-specific guidance to help businesses sharpen their cybersecurity strategies for the year ahead.

Key trends

Our comprehensive report, ‘Cyber Threats 2024: A Year in Retrospect’ explores the trends, actors and geopolitical factors that shaped last year's cyber threat environment. In short, they are:

Geopolitics driving threat activity
Political conflict continues to spill into cyberspace. Hacktivist and sabotage groups, often aligned with national interests, are having a resurgence. Espionage threat actors are utilisiing proxy networks and enhanced obfuscation techniques and are harder to detect.
Evolving tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs)
Attackers are no longer constrained by complex tools. Widely available AI-driven technologies, combined with an expanding library of vulnerabilities, have made it easier to mount targeted campaigns. Open-source and commercial off the shelf (COTS) malware has also lowered the barrier for threat actors, with Malware-as-a-Service becoming more prevalent. Vulnerabilities are exploited and weaponised in hours – making timely patching and layered defenses non-negotiable.
Misinformation and disinformation as weapons
Beyond traditional attacks, information operations remain a powerful tool. 2024 witnessed significant misinformation campaigns affecting social media, messaging platforms and media outlets. As new technologies reshape interactions, misinformation operations will likely continue, exploiting narratives and eroding trust.

Cyber Threats 2024: A Year in Retrospect

Navigating through today’s turbulent cyber threat landscape is crucial for any organisation - awareness of dangers that lie ahead enables pre-emptive mitigation, and helps prioritise opportunities to alter course.

Sector-specific threat insights

Cyber threats aren’t one-size-fits-all. Motivations and tactics vary by industry, and so should your defense posture. Based on PwC Threat Intelligence case studies from 2024 and in-house analytics, they are:

Asset and wealth management: Cybercrime and espionage threats target significant funds and transactions, including cryptocurrency, with a focus on high-value fraud and ransomware.

Construction: Financial and espionage threats focus on sensitive infrastructure data, with ransomware and sabotage being prominent risks.

Education: Digitised operations and openness increase vulnerability to espionage and cybercrime, targeting academic data and school systems.

Energy: Espionage and sabotage attacks align with geopolitical tensions, focusing on intellectual property and operational disruption.

Financial services: Cybercrime, including ransomware and Business Email Compromise (BEC) grows in sophistication, driven by AI and fintech innovations.

Hospitality and leisure: Espionage and cybercrime tactics target data extortion, service disruption, and brand reputations.

Professional services: Espionage and cybercrime employ supply chain attacks, targeting vast confidential data traversing digital platforms.

Resources and mining: Geopolitical tensions motivate espionage for intelligence collection, impacting connected manufacturing operations.

Retail: Cybercrime targets online consumer data and intellectual property in the competitive e-commerce space.

Technology: Financially and espionage motivated actors exploit GenAI advancements and cloud adoption, targeting sensitive data and supply chains.

Telecommunications: Ransomware and espionage threats target critical infrastructure for data-rich intelligence and extortion.

Transport and logistics: Geopolitical tensions drive financially motivated disruption and espionage, impacting global supply chains.

What can organisations do in 2025?

Get ahead of your adversary. Invest in cybersecurity strategies that go beyond compliance and into defence in depth. Cyber criminals move quickly – your defenses should too.

Embed threat intelligence. Contextualised, and relevant intelligence is critical. Understanding not just who is attacking, but why and how, enables smarter prioritisation.

Enhance crisis preparations. Conduct board and executive level crisis simulations that test your organisation’s response to cyber attacks. It’s better to identify a weakness in your defences when you have time to fix it.

Close the governance gaps. Data privacy, AI governance, and cybersecurity are converging disciplines. An integrated governance, risk and compliance approach with cyber at its centre will be essential to remain compliant and secure.

Looking Ahead

2024 was a year of escalation. 2025 must be a year of strategic realignment. By learning from last year’s disruptions and acting decisively, organisations can reduce risk, build resilience and stay one step ahead in a threat landscape that shows no signs of slowing down.

Read the full report Cyber Threats 2024: A Year in Retrospect.

If you would like to find out about insights from PwC Threat Intelligence contact Jason Smart or Robert di Pietro. We can help you with Cyber Risk and Resilience, Digital Identity, Data Governance and Privacy, and Cyber Threat Services – the foundations of a resilient and secure enterprise. Get in touch.

Contact the authors

Jason Smart

Director, Threat Intelligence APAC, PwC Australia

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Robert Di Pietro

Partner, Advisory, Cybersecurity & Digital Trust Leader, Melbourne, PwC Australia

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References

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/issues/cybersecurity/cyber-threat-intelligence/cyber-year-in-retrospect.html
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/notifiable-data-breaches/notifiable-data-breaches-publications/notifiable-data-breaches-report-july-to-december-2024

Cyber threats in 2025: What businesses need to know

Key trends

Sector-specific threat insights

What can organisations do in 2025?

Looking Ahead

Contact the authors

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Key trends

Sector-specific threat insights

What can organisations do in 2025?

Looking Ahead

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