2025 Trends: Ransomware Detection and DR Take Center Stage as AI Security Risks Rise

Happening in tandem with the evolution of the cyber threat landscape are the continued efforts to identify and implement new technical measures to lessen the risks that businesses face. As we enter the new year, Andrew Eva Global CIO, Assured Data Protection looks ahead and shares his top predictions for 2025, which include deeper levels of integration between backup, ransomware detection and antivirus systems, as current threats continue, while new AI related ones emerge. 

Increasing integration between backup and ransomware detection & a more frontline role for disaster recovery systems

In 2025, we’re likely to see continued integration between backup, ransomware detection and antivirus systems. This will extend into intrusion detection systems, which can identify known exploits and vulnerabilities. Building on developments we’ve seen in recent years, we’ll see advancements in the ability to extend scanning for exploits and vulnerabilities into metadata. 

An example of this can be seen in the recent agreement between Rubrik and Google that provides access to a database of known exploits. This will give Rubrik enterprise customers insights that weren’t previously possible, allowing them to quickly identify exploits that can lurk undetected in systems for months. The significance of this is that it will facilitate the detection of malicious code before antivirus software has been updated. 

This marks a very interesting development in the fight against cyber threats, with backup and disaster recovery systems taking on a more frontline role. This will be achieved through the ability to scan backup systems and comparing the data from one day to the next with machine learning tools to identify differences in files and checksums that could indicate a virus. By examining the identified differences against databases of known exploits, viruses that may have been missed by antivirus software can be easily identified. Together, these developments will be a significant step in the fight against ransomware in 2025.  

Ransomware to remain the number one cyber resiliency concern as worries around AI data security emerge

Ransomware will remain the number one cyber threat in 2025. This is likely to see the continuation of a trend that has become well established this year, with organizations increasingly focusing on disaster recovery and backup and becoming more concerned with DR capabilities and understanding the importance of third party recovery sites, or ‘clean rooms’.

Organizations are also increasingly expressing concerns around the safety of their data when sharing it with third parties. Beyond data compliance concerns, they want to know how those third parties use AI themselves and where their customer data resides, seeking assurances that it won’t be fed into AI models. MSPs providing backup and disaster recovery services will need to be able to provide watertight assurances concerning customer data and their own AI usage. 

We’d welcome a discussion about your backup and disaster recovery requirements if you’re thinking ahead to 2025. You can get in touch with our team here.