Summary Bullets:

• While the escalation in cybersecurity cuts leveled off in 2025, the ISC2 survey showed economic instability is keeping IT budget expansion in check, which is a cause for concern that organizations will hold off on making needed investments in cybersecurity.
• AI is changing the IT industry as a whole, and cybersecurity specifically. Seen as both an offensive weapon and a potential defensive shield, security professionals see the technology as opportunistic for their careers rather than a threat to job security, offering them a chance to hone their skills and improve their professional trajectory.

One of the most significant challenges in cybersecurity is the resource constraints and skills gaps that plague so many organizations. Add to the mix technologies like AI that enterprising threat actors are all too eager to insert into their arsenals, and the issue of staff limitations is magnified. In its 2025 ISC2 Cybersecurity Workforce Study, the non-profit association uncovered a profession balancing the struggle to keep ahead of increasingly sophisticated adversaries while also savoring the chance to leverage AI and other technologies to elevate their defenses. The annual study of industry workplace trends, which surveyed 16,020 security professionals globally, found resource constraints are front and center in impacting the cybersecurity workplace.

Summary Bullets:

• Fueled both by its lucrative results and AI-driven toolkits that lower the barrier of entry for enterprising yet inexperienced bad actors, ransomware incidents are soaring.

• In 2024, ransomware drove 44% of data breaches around the world and accounted for 54% of those in APAC, according to the 2025 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR).

As is the case with any IT security breach, it is no longer a question of if but when an enterprise might be hit with ransomware. Motivated in large part by profit potential, cybercriminals are drawn to ransomware as a mechanism to extort money. As a result, ransomware incidents are on the rise with the 2025 Verizon DBIR finding the number has increased 37% in 2024 versus the prior year.

Summary Bullets:

• In a survey of 2,286 technology and security-focused executives, Accenture reports that only 34% have a mature cybersecurity strategy.
• Just 20% say they are confident in their ability to protect their generative AI (GenAI) models from a breach.

Artificial intelligence (AI) presents as a double-edged sword for many enterprises. The technology has the potential to revolutionize business processes and drive further innovation but is protecting the model from advancing threats that could compromise the integrity of data output. This is a daunting challenge that few organizations have a handle on today. Add threat actors harnessing AI for their own nefarious purposes to the mix, and the situation becomes much more daunting for the enterprise.