Despite an increased focus on cybersecurity in the private sector and the best efforts of government organizations like CISA, cybercrime is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, it’s ramping up. The global cost of cybercrime is projected to grow to $13.82 trillion by 2028, generating profits comparable to the illicit drug trade and causing damages greater than natural disasters.1
In 2025 alone, hackers committed the largest cryptocurrency heist to date, stealing $1.5 billion in Ethereum. North Face, Cartier, Zoom Car, The Washington Post, and other major companies became cybercrime victims, exposing untold customer and employee data.2 Perhaps most alarmingly to SMBs, a Windows zero-day vulnerability exposed IT, finance, retail, and real estate businesses around the world.3
As we pointed out in Cybersecurity with Artificial Intelligence, AI has quickly become a powerful weapon for hackers and formidable shield for defenders. Likewise, many of the emerging cybersecurity threats and solutions we’ll cover in this article are powered by AI; gaining a greater understanding of these technologies can help you protect your business now and in the future.
Phishing scams attempt to deceive people into revealing sensitive information by impersonating trusted sources in emails, text messages, and websites. However, these scams are often readily identified by typos and other flaws that signal inauthenticity. Cybercriminals are now leveraging AI-integrated phishing kits to improve the quality of their scams while ramping up in scale, increasing 1,200% since 2022.4
Specialized malicious language models are a new development in automated phishing template generation. They not only reduce the technical knowledge needed to launch attacks, they can also process social media profiles and communications to target specific companies and employees.
BEC scams take the concept of phishing one step further where cybercriminals impersonate trusted sources in direct, repeated correspondences. Deepfake video has added another tool for cybercriminals to build confidence with their targets, leveraging this technology to impersonate trusted sources on video calls. An example of this danger occurred in 2024 when an employee at a multinational engineering firm transferred $25 million after a video conference with multiple AI-generated deepfakes impersonating colleagues.5
Even if an organization practices the highest standards of cybersecurity, third-party risk management is a burgeoning concern, where cybercriminals attack vendors in order to breach targets further up the chain. In late 2024, Blue Yonder, a major tech provider for retailers across the country, was successfully targeted by a ransomware group. This attack affected retailers ranging from supermarket chains to consumer goods companies and resulted in the loss of databases, email addresses, and 200,000 insurance documents.6
Malware is being engineered with the express purpose of circumventing AI-based security tools by leveraging large language models. AI-enabled malware uses large language models for prompt injection that embeds natural language instructions within code. Categorized as “AI Evasion”, this type of malware has been proven to rewrite malicious JavaScript code that evades detection in up to 88% of tests.7
While cloud storage misconfiguration is a known IT vulnerability, the ever-growing ubiquity of the cloud increases the prevalence of the threat. Recent analysis shows that 9% of publicly accessible data repositories contain sensitive, restricted, or confidential data.8 Key vulnerabilities include stored passwords or API keys within AWS Elastic Container Service task definitions, insufficient identity and access management (IAM) system restrictions, and multi-cloud misconfigurations.
Insider threats can originate from negligence, malice, or compromised credentials. Regardless of the origin, they represent one of the most significant cybersecurity challenges today. 83% of organizations experienced at least one insider incident in the past year, with North American companies experiencing the sharpest increase in costs, rising 39.5% from 2022 to 2024.9,10
Advanced behavioral analytics platforms offer a promising solution, continuously monitoring user behaviors and establishing baseline patterns for login sequences, file access, communications, and more. Test-Time Training (TTT) shows 98.75% success rates in identifying malicious insider threats.11
ZTA represents a fundamental shift in cybersecurity framework architecture. Zero trust frameworks enforce a “never trust, always verify” model where every access attempt is validated, regardless of the source. These implementations incorporate a range of validation processes, including continuous authentication, micro-segmentation strategies, identity-based access control, and real-time risk assessment. ZTA significantly reduces the attack surface through micro-segmentation controls, greatly limiting potential damage from breaches that do occur.
These incident response systems leverage agentic AI for autonomous threat detection and response. When agentic AI systems detect a threat, they execute immediate containment action, including system isolation, malicious IP blocking, and automated patch deployment. These platforms dramatically reduce response and dwell time while increasing analyst efficiency—enabling them to focus on higher-impact decisions and activities.
The majority of cloud security breaches are the result of human error,12 and for multi-cloud configurations, misconfigurations are a major vulnerability. CSPM is a security framework for continuous security and compliance monitoring, detection, and remediation across cloud and multi-cloud environments. CSPM solutions provide automated risk detection, compliance automation, automated remediation, risk visualization, and other key security measures for the cloud.
Security operation centers are responsible for preventing, monitoring, and responding to cybersecurity threats. Autonomous SOCs combine AI-driven analysis with human expertise, using AI detection engines to continuously analyze datasets for threat patterns. This enables organizations to optimize their human resources while meeting the increasing sophistication and volume of AI-powered cyber crimes.
As cybercriminals continue to evolve in sophistication and cybercrimes grow in scale, it’s essential for organizations to understand and adopt the right cybersecurity technologies for their specific needs. Managed cybersecurity services offer a clear path for businesses to stay ahead of emerging threats without expanding their IT teams. AT IPC Tech, our Cybersecurity Solutions range from assessments and recommendations to 24/7 monitoring and continuous, rapid response. If you’re concerned about your security posture and resources—now or in the future— contact IPC Tech today.
3 https://securityaffairs.com/181286/breaking-news/analyzing-evolution-of-the-pipemagic-malware.html
4 https://escalatepr.com/cybersecurity-pr-agency-ai-threats/
5 https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/634/
7 https://thehackernews.com/2024/12/ai-could-generate-10000-malware.html
8 https://cybersecurityasia.net/tenables-2025-cloud-security-risk-report/
9 https://socradar.io/c-suite-cyber-risk-2025-20-statistics-executives-board/
10 https://www.syteca.com/en/blog/insider-threat-statistics-facts-and-figures
11 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667295224000862