eSecurity Solutions Articles/Blog
A Hacker’s Guide to 2025 Security Planning: 5 Factors to Consider
Published On:October 25, 2024 By: Tom Ruffolo 
In 2024, cybersecurity saw a whole range of challenges, with cyberattacks growing more frequent. High-profile breaches like the MOVEit Transfer supply chain attack and the rise of generative AI-assisted phishing campaigns forced organizations to rethink their security strategies. As we look ahead to 2025, it’s clear that traditional defenses are no longer enough.
Cybercriminals are leveraging newer techniques, automation, and collaboration on cybercrime forums and networks to exploit vulnerabilities faster than ever before. This guide highlights five factors to consider in your 2025 security planning to ensure your organization stays strong in the face of threats.
1. Attack Surface Management
When looking at any organization, you’ll quickly realize there are numerous entry points for cybercriminals, known as the attack surface. This includes subdomains, services, endpoints, web applications, user accounts, third-party vendors, and more.
The larger the attack surface, the easier it is for cybercriminals to find a way in and compromise your systems. Ideally, you’d secure everything, but for large organizations, this becomes systematically impossible, especially when factoring in “shadow assets”—things you might not even know exist.
If you don’t know something is part of your infrastructure, you can’t protect it. This is where attack surface management (ASM) platforms come into play. These platforms help by automatically discovering and scanning your attack surface. They can alert you when something changes, such as an outdated service on a subdomain, allowing you to address it before it becomes a vulnerability.
The traditional approach involves keeping an extensive inventory of all assets, but with the size and complexity of modern infrastructures, ASM tools in 2024/2025 make discovery more manageable. These tools often mimic the techniques cybercriminals use to find weak spots, ensuring you’re not caught off guard by redundant applications or forgotten subdomains that could be exploited.
2. Employees
When cybercriminals can’t find technical vulnerabilities, they often target employees. Large organizations, like the US Department of Defense, have millions of employees, making it a numbers game for attackers. By sending thousands of phishing emails, it’s almost inevitable that at least one employee will fall victim, providing a way in.
The solution to this problem is multi-layered. First, use multi-factor authentication (MFA) and identity access management (IAM) to restrict access to what employees need, limiting potential damage if an account is compromised.
Second, employ cloud-based email security solutions that scan incoming emails for malware and suspicious activity to prevent phishing attempts from even reaching employees.
Finally, security awareness training is essential. You can run mock phishing campaigns using tools like Gophish, and based on the results, focus specific training on employees who are more susceptible. The goal is to reduce the human factor as a vulnerability by keeping employees informed and alert.
3. Supply Chain Security
Supply chain security is a huge concern in modern cybersecurity. When thinking about major cyberattacks from the last few years, supply chain attacks—like SolarWinds—come to mind. However, the supply chain goes beyond just the software installed on your devices. It also includes the infrastructure your services rely on.
For example, if you host your website on shared hosting platforms like GoDaddy or Namecheap, your website may be vulnerable because of the shared infrastructure. Attackers could compromise other websites hosted on the same server and use that as an attack vector to compromise your website.
The key to mitigating supply chain risks is to realize that any service or infrastructure not directly controlled by you can be an additional attack vector. This could be something as simple as an image displayed on your website that’s hosted by a third-party provider. If that provider gets compromised, an attacker can deface your website by altering that image.
While it’s hard to control everything in-house, you can use cloud security solutions that assess the risk level of vendors before integrating them into your systems. Conduct vendor risk assessments, ask about compliance with relevant regulations, and ensure they follow best security practices. Also, apply IAM principles by giving third-party software the least amount of access necessary.
4. Web Application Security
Some security professionals may dismiss attacks like SQL injection, cross-site scripting (XSS), subdomain takeovers, and file inclusion vulnerabilities as relics of the past, but they remain highly effective today. Hundreds, if not thousands, of companies are still being compromised by these attack methods. Just take a look at bug bounty platforms like HackerOne, and you’ll see that vulnerabilities like these are still prevalent.
A single serious web application vulnerability can give cybercriminals easy access to your systems. They could upload a web shell, escalate privileges, exfiltrate data, or deface your website.
To mitigate these risks, consider implementing a bug bounty program using platforms like HackerOne, Bugcrowd, or Open Bug Bounty. Bug bounty programs encourage hackers to disclose vulnerabilities in exchange for recognition or monetary rewards. If managing a bug bounty program seems too complex, you can create a security.txt file or a responsible disclosure policy that allows ethical hackers to report vulnerabilities without direct incentives.
Additionally, regular vulnerability management through penetration testing and automated security scanning is essential. Penetration testing can be conducted in several ways, such as white-box, gray-box, or black-box testing. Automated tools like Burp Suite can help you regularly check for low-hanging vulnerabilities, keeping your web applications secure.
5. Ransomware
Although ransomware isn’t an attack vector, it’s included here because its growing rapidly. Ransomware is on the rise, not because of sophisticated methodologies, but because the cybercrime landscape has evolved to let more criminals participate in these attacks.
For example, someone with a few thousand dollars can go onto a cybercrime forum, purchase initial access from an access broker, and deploy ransomware using a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) platform that takes a commission from the ransom.
The key to defending against ransomware is preparation. First, develop an incident response plan that outlines the steps you’ll take if an attack happens, including containment, communication, and recovery. A comprehensive disaster recovery and business continuity plan (DBRCP) is essential to ensure operations can resume as quickly as possible.
Additionally, managed detection and response (MDR) solutions can also provide continuous monitoring to detect ransomware activity before it spreads. If your organization is well-prepared for ransomware, recovery isn’t difficult, but unfortunately, many organizations are still underprepared.
Your Next Steps with eSecurity Solutions
As the frequency of supply chain attacks and ransomware incidents continues to rise, taking these threats seriously is incredibly important for organizational security. At eSecurity Solutions, we offer a comprehensive suite of services designed to help you manage these risks effectively.
By conducting third-party risk assessments, identifying potential vulnerabilities, and creating a detailed security roadmap, we can help you secure your organization with maximum protection at the lowest cost.
Our team can guide you through the process of understanding and mitigating your specific security risks. Let us help you identify security gaps, develop a custom security strategy, and acquire the tools you need to protect your organization as we move toward 2025.
In order to move forward, get in touch with us today.