Editor’s Note
This article has been updated to reflect how security and IT teams are adapting to rising alert volumes, expanding cloud and API surfaces, and the growing strain inside the SOC. The emphasis is on simplicity — how AI, automation, and unified visibility empower teams to cut through chaos and act with clarity, context, and control.
The Evolving Cybersecurity Landscape
As we near the end of an eventful 2025, it’s helpful to consider how recent developments are shaping modern security operations. The attack surface is growing, regulations are tightening, and cybercriminals are leveraging AI at scale. Meanwhile, many SOCs face shrinking budgets and mounting alert fatigue.
Security operations teams are evolving from reaction posture to one of resilience — focusing on clarity, automation, and contextual insight over more dashboards or alerts. In this environment, tools that unify SIEM, API security, and log management can help teams streamline detection and response.
A New Focus: Clarity, Context, and Control
Today’s cybersecurity challenge isn’t a lack of data — it’s too much of it. SOCs often manage dozens of tools generating thousands of alerts daily. The next generation of security success depends on three fundamentals:
- Clarity: Reducing noise to focus on high-confidence alerts
- Context: Connecting users, assets, and APIs across the hybrid environment
- Control: Empowering teams to investigate and act quickly
This deluge of information has pushed security operations to a breaking point — and that’s where artificial intelligence enters the picture.
As organizations strive for greater clarity, context, and control, AI is rapidly reshaping both sides of the cybersecurity battlefield — strengthening defenses while simultaneously empowering new forms of attack.
AI-Charged Cybersecurity & Cyberthreats
For better or worse, the development of artificial intelligence (AI) continues to accelerate.
Industry experts recognize that AI requires governance, introduces learning curves, and will be used by both attackers and defenders. Yet, for many teams, AI is becoming essential to simplify workflows and strengthen detection.
AI Governance
Regardless of any positive or negative perceptions, every organization will need an official stance on AI — defining its acceptable use, ethical standards, and data protection rules.
Sharad Varshney, CEO of OvalEdge, put AI use in a familiar framework. ”The same issue that faces generative AI-based innovations is the same for everything else: all roads in anything IT-related start and end with data — the most critical component of every system,” he said.
Similarly, Kunal Agarwal, founder and CEO of dope.security, compared AI to past SaaS governance challenges: “Organizations will look to understand what apps employees are using, evaluate whether they should be paid for by the company, accept the risk, or block the app.”
Manny Rivelo, CEO of Forcepoint, warned that organizations must govern both external and internal AI: “AI security policies will need to extend beyond commercial tools to also cover internally developed GPTs and LLMs.”
Without policies, teams risk data leaks, bias, and compliance violations.
AI as a Simplifier
While governance is critical, the biggest opportunity lies in AI that clarifies, not complicates. The best systems today use AI to correlate events, de-duplicate alerts, summarize incidents, and provide SOC analysts with context — not just more dashboards.
Aiden Technologies CEO Josh Aaron predicts that AI will “enhance the effectiveness of software patch management among security professionals [by] leveraging AI for risk assessment and prioritization in patch management [and] a move towards systems that not only detect vulnerabilities but also autonomously determine the best ways to remediate them [by] employing machine learning algorithms.”
Mike Anderson, CIO and CDO at Netskope, added: “In the coming year, I think we will see generative AI be used to analyze a company’s existing policies, regulatory requirements, and threat landscape to generate tailored security policies. I also think we will also see generative AI used to continuously monitor a company’s network and systems for policy violations and automatically respond to issues.”
In short, AI is shifting from novelty to necessity.
Platforms like Graylog are already applying these same principles — using AI to reduce alert noise, correlate events across cloud and API data, and give analysts clear, contextual insight without adding more complexity.
AI-Powered Threats
The flip side: cybercriminals are also using AI.
Melissa Bishoping, Director of Endpoint Security Research at Tanium, emphasized personal verification to counter deepfake scams: “If someone contacts you to perform a personal or professional transaction, it is always better to seek additional verification when you are unable to physically verify the individual over the phone,” she said.
She added: “Often, just hanging up and calling a known, trusted contact number for the ‘caller’ who reached out to you can expose the scam. In business, establishing workflows that rely on more robust forms of authentication that cannot be spoofed by an AI — FIDO2 security tokens, multiple-person approvals and verifications — are a good place to start.”
Andy Patel of WithSecure cautioned that AI will amplify disinformation: “AI will be used to create disinformation and influence operations in high-profile elections. This will include synthetic written, spoken, and potentially even image or video content.”
Next-Level Cybercrime
Cybercriminals are evolving faster than ever, leveraging AI, stolen data, and software supply-chain exploits. The challenge for defenders is compounded by resource limitations and alert overload.
Improved Attacker Skills
AI allows threat actors to scale exponentially, crafting highly targeted phishing campaigns and automating deception.
Alessandro Di Pinto, Director of Security Research at Nozomi Networks, explained: “AI has reached a sophisticated level in generating text in multiple languages. It can craft convincing messages without grammar errors, increasing success rates.”
Ricardo Villadiego, CEO of Lumu, warned about deepfake-based fraud: “The use of deepfake techniques will elevate phishing fraud, making it increasingly difficult for users to distinguish between legitimate services and scams.”
These attacks are harder to detect and easier to personalize, especially when models are trained on dark web PII.
Cybercrime “Shifts Left”
As DevOps automates more of the software lifecycle, attackers target earlier stages — development environments, source code, and open-source libraries.
Mario Duarte, VP of Security at Snowflake, noted: “Attackers are now looking for ways in through developer environments, because that’s where human mistakes can still be discovered and exploited.”
Lineaje CEO Javed Hasan added: “The best time to compromise AI is when it’s being built.”
And Cayosoft CPO Dmitry Sotnikov highlighted the importance of secure identity systems: “If you can do one thing, implement a modern recovery system for your Active Directory to instantly switch to a safe, isolated standby replica in the event of an attack.”
Operational Overload
While attackers keep innovating, SOC teams are drowning in low-priority alerts and manual triage.
By simplifying workflows with AI and unified visibility, analysts can surface meaningful patterns faster — allowing them to reclaim the time they need to focus on real threats.
Platforms like Graylog make this possible through correlated detections, automated enrichment, and workflow analytics that cut through alert fatigue.
Increased Attack Surfaces
The security perimeter as we once knew it has been gone for years. Cloud services, APIs, edge computing, and OT systems now form an ever-expanding web of attack vectors. Managing them requires contextual visibility and shared ownership.
API & Cloud Risks
APIs connect everything — but they’re often invisible to the SOC.
In 2024, Graylog CEO Andy Grolnick cautioned: “2024 will be the year that API security preparedness and threats gain momentum. APIs are a challenge because they are simple to navigate, hard to track, and ownership isn’t always clear.”
Neeraj Singh, researcher at WithSecure, added: “Cloud services, with their new interfaces, APIs, and communication channels, offer additional targets for attackers, thereby expanding the potential attack surface.”
Mike Scott, CISO at Immuta, also highlighted third-party risk, noting, “Third-party risk will evolve as a big data-security-related challenge in the coming year as organizations of all sizes continue their transition to the cloud.”
Chen Burshan, CEO of Skyhawk Security, talked about increased cloud risk: “Cloud security posture management and cloud native application protection will not prevent a breach, and it will not detect a threat in real time. This will increase the maturity of current security practices and accelerate the adoption of solutions like cloud investigation and response automation and cloud-native threat detection and response.”
Edge & OT Exposure
Even as attackers pursue API and cloud attacks, more organizations continue to push computing out to edge resources beyond any network controls. While many envision attacks on smart cars and surveillance cameras, servers exposed to the demilitarized zone (DMZ), such as MoveIT servers, also provide tantalizing edge targets.
Stephen Robinson, senior threat intelligence analyst at WithSecure, noted back in 2024, “the recent MoveIT compromise by the ransomware group Cl0p will begin to inspire more mass exploitation campaigns targeting edge data transfer servers in a similar vein. MoveIT was typically used for reliable transfer of large volumes of important files between organizations.
“Cl0p exploited MoveIT servers to gain access to and exfiltrate these important, valuable files,” Robinson said. “For a ransomware group, access to large volumes of valuable data is the end goal; they had no need to go further into the network than the exposed, vulnerable MoveIT servers. I expect to see more copycat attacks where the value is the exploited server itself, not the access it provides to the rest of the network.”
Operational technology (OT) used to be unconnected and safely ignored by cybersecurity teams. However, the rise of connected industrial motors, sensors, and industrial control systems (ICS) now provides a tempting target with less mature security.
Edgard Capdevielle, CEO of Nozomi Networks, stated, “We’re at risk of the next Colonial Pipeline. Cyber attacks against critical infrastructure are too easy — we’re still vulnerable and unprotected. If this isn’t more widely spoken about or prioritized, there will be another attack on critical operational technology systems within the country, targeting an industry such as oil, energy, hospitals, or airports.”
Simplifying the Expanding Surface
As attack surfaces expand across cloud, edge, and on-prem environments, many security teams are shifting from fragmented toolsets to unified visibility — one platform to ingest, correlate, and analyze data across the entire ecosystem.
Graylog supports this approach by providing the visibility needed to detect abnormal API activity and credential abuse, unify telemetry from AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud at scale, and extend monitoring to operational technology and edge systems — all within a single, streamlined view.
Increased Action From Governments
As technology advances at a rapid pace and cybercrime targets an ever-expanding landscape of opportunities, governments will attempt to regulate, influence, and exert control over the cyber sphere.
Increasing Regulation
Decades of use and abuse of computer systems led to early regulation, such as Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adopted in 2016, and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), passed in 2018. 2025 sees the first enforcement of two new laws in the European Union: the Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and Network and Information Systems Directive (NIS2).
While the EU leads in regulation, the US will also exert regulatory influence.
In 2024, Entrust CISO Jordan Avniam cautioned: “In the next year, we expect a regulatory surge that CISOs must prepare for — which could include continued AI regulation, new post-quantum guidance, and, in late 2024, new legislation is expected around Know Your Customer (KYC) guidelines.
“Businesses should consider each of these a call to action to improve not only their own cybersecurity strategies, but also to consider the impact of new technologies, like AI, on their organization and their customers… CISOs and leaders will need trusted advisors, sound support, and secure solutions to successfully and safely forge ahead.”
Matthew Corwin, Managing Director of Guidepost Solutions, added that “security teams must navigate new breach reporting landscapes shaped by the SEC’s four-business-day rule for material cybersecurity incidents, state PII breach notification laws, and other regulatory requirements.
“These regulations underscore a shift towards rapid, transparent incident disclosure, emphasizing the need for advanced detection, streamlined reporting processes, and comprehensive incident response strategies.”
Incoming regulations have yet to be fully tested and understood, but the well-established GDPR and similar regulations can provide a basic understanding of the methods required for basic compliance requirements.
Even as administrations launch regulations designed to influence corporate behavior, other governments will sponsor cyberattacks to push their influence. As early as 2024, Stephen Helm, product marketing director at Nisos, warned teams about what state-sponsored attacks will look like.
“As geopolitical waters become more turbulent, and with the US election season fast approaching, China, Russia, and Iran promise to redouble their efforts to sow confusion and discord across the globe as they further their own goals of expanded influence,” he said. “The use of sockpuppets, comment spamming, and bots to amplify narratives will continue to evolve to be more difficult to detect, thanks to AI and other tools.”
“Influence operations in Latin America in 2022-2023 demonstrate this evolution. The China News Service used to hijack permissions to invasively access and potentially take over subscribers’ Twitter, Sina Weibo, and Weixin accounts to push pro-Beijing content… Companies offering election manipulation services that leverage fake social media accounts, AI, and other digital assets now operate as legitimate businesses in some parts of the world.”
Over the past two years, attacks by Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea have exploited vulnerabilities and created enormous challenges for public and private organizations of all sizes. Reading up on past attacks can provide hints for tactics and the speed at which nation-sponsored attacks can occur.
Increased Need for Regulatory Documentation
In addition to regulations and direct government actions, experts expect more enforcement from the US Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other agencies on recently passed legislation or rules. Cybersecurity teams need to improve documentation to defend themselves and their teams.
Nicole Sundin, CPO of Axio, predicted that “CISOs will need a system of record to protect themselves from the fallout of breaches. It’s no secret that the SEC now holds CISOs accountable for the risks organizations take. Currently, CISOs … make difficult choices, and act as they see necessary—but these may or may not be documented.”
Matt Wiseman, Senior Product Manager of Opswat, extended the warning to documenting third parties and the software bill of materials (SBOM). “Greater requests for SBOMs and more demand to understand tools at a deeper level will lead to increased requirements from regulatory organizations or government agencies,” Wiseman said.
“Given the growing concern for threats from vendors, third-parties, or nation-states, all software will be more thoroughly vetted before being deployed in critical areas.”
Simplifying Compliance
Simplifying compliance starts with visibility and consistency. Meeting today’s regulatory demands requires unifying event data, automating reports, and reducing manual tracking; moves that transform compliance from a last-minute fire drill into an integrated function of everyday security operations.
Graylog helps make that shift possible by centralizing logs for audit evidence, providing on-demand dashboards aligned with major reporting frameworks, and applying retention controls that automatically match policy requirements without adding manual overhead.
Previous Years’ Cybersecurity Issues Continue
Some challenges never go away. Weak security foundations, poor cybersecurity awareness, and ongoing ransomware attacks remain a major focus until these threats can be mitigated.
Weak Security Foundations
Even as vendors and technologies race ahead to tackle next year’s threats, many organizations lag in basic cybersecurity fundamentals such as asset management, identity, access management, defense in depth, and cybersecurity awareness and training.
“Some of the foundational requirements for securing an organization will continue to challenge InfoSec leaders – primarily, establishing comprehensive visibility into all assets and tight control over who can access them and with what level of privileges,” said Vinay Anand, Chief Product Officer of NetSPI.
Yaron Kassner, co-founder and CTO of Silverfort, added that “compromised identities will remain a favored weapon for cybercriminals. Countless organizations struggle to modernize their access systems amidst legacy constraints and a tangled web of identity providers.” It’s challenging to streamline access security when different teams have been using different strategies for decades.
“We are beginning to see a shift in cybersecurity investment strategies that better reflect the current threat landscape,” said Roman Arutyunov, co-Founder and SVP of products at Xage Security.
“Companies are recognizing that threat hunting and responding to endless detections and false positives uses too much of their precious security resources and they’re growing tired of chasing needles in a haystack. They are now turning their attention to reducing the attack surface by proactively protecting their assets.”
Poor Cybersecurity Awareness
Just as harassment and anti-bias training continue to be human resources priorities, basic cybersecurity training must also become a regular fixture in the professional landscape.
Frank Gartland, chief product and technology officer from Skillable, reminded security teams that “eight in ten cyber-attacks occur due to human error, so providing people with regular cybersecurity training can make a significant difference to your cyber resilience.”
Raytheon cyber incident response manager Nick Carroll,, noted an even broader need for a security culture. “Without a solid security culture at the foundation, security tools, such as expensive firewalls or endpoint detection and response (EDR), will ultimately become ineffective down the line,” he explained.
“If organizations haven’t already, they must begin to build cybersecurity awareness among employees and third-party partners, while also determining the best path for how to integrate security into the organization’s culture and operations.”
Continued Ransomware Attacks
Ransomware began dominating headlines back during the pandemic and has only continued to be a problem. Desperate organizations, often against the advice of law enforcement, continue to pay ransoms and fuel interest for cybercriminals.
At that time, Raffaele Mautone, CEO and founder of Judy Security, anticipated trouble for even small and medium-sized businesses. “Ransomware attacks will continue to diversify their targets, expanding beyond large enterprises to encompass small and medium-sized businesses, municipalities, and healthcare institutions. This trend will lead to a surge in attacks on SMBs, who may be more vulnerable due to limited cybersecurity resources.”
Kev Breen, director of cyber threat research at Immersive Labs, recommends preparing for the worst. “We should expect to see ransomware groups leveraging new techniques in endpoint detection and response (EDR) evasion, quickly weaponizing zero days and as well as new patched vulnerabilities, making it easy for them to bypass common defense strategies.
“As a result, security teams can’t rely on an old security playbook. Companies should not worry about how they can detect everything, and instead just assume at some point it will go badly [and] have plans in place to best respond.”
Ransomware requires access to endpoints to strike. While advanced attackers will seek novel evasion tactics, organizations can’t make their job easy by deploying sloppy cyberdefense. Consider implementing strong endpoint protection (antivirus, EDR, or XDR) as one of many layers of defense against ransomware and other attacks.
Simplifying Defenses
Simplifying defenses starts with getting the fundamentals right — visibility, automation, and proactive detection.
Graylog supports this approach by normalizing data ingestion across hybrid environments, enabling maintainable detection rules that cut down on false positives, and streamlining ransomware response workflows to quickly isolate affected systems before damage spreads.
Ransomware has become a popular topic for media and podcasts. If you’re interested in hearing more about major security trends, check out our guide to the best cybersecurity podcasts.
Bottom Line: Prepare Now Based on Risk
The cybersecurity landscape of 2025 is proving to be complex as ever — but teams can simplify it by focusing on clarity, context, and control. With the right balance of AI, automation, and unified visibility, overloaded SOCs can regain focus and precision.
To see how Graylog helps teams turn those principles into daily practice, explore the company’s latest platform capabilities and success stories.
