If there’s one thing 2024 taught us, it’s that the cybersecurity challenges of tomorrow aren’t going to wait for us to catch up. We’ve seen vulnerabilities from all angles, including flawed software updates, risky new AI features, credential-stealing malware, and even physical threats to global digital infrastructure. Incidents like these often serve as a wake-up call for organizations to focus on resilience.
To get a sense of what’s coming next, we asked ten GRC leaders what they see on the horizon for 2025. From navigating AI-driven threats to holding security programs more accountable to the business, their message is clear: Cybersecurity isn’t just about defense. It’s about building systems that can evolve and adapt.
Here are the ten trends these GRC experts identified as critical for the year ahead:
Trend #1: Building Adaptability and Response Capabilities
Adam Arellano, Security Advisor, Traceable
“The one thing we should expect in cybersecurity during 2025 is surprises and novel issues that catch organizations off guard,” Adam Arellano told us. Rather than attempting to predict specific attacks, he emphasized the value of adaptability. He suggests comprehensive training and tabletop exercises (simulated incident response drills to stress-test plans, identify gaps, and refine processes before an actual crisis occurs).
“By cycling through realistic attack scenarios, security personnel can develop the agility and muscle memory needed to pivot quickly when faced with novel cybersecurity challenges,” he explained. For organizations aiming to navigate the inevitable surprises ahead, Arellano believes continuous training will be the cornerstone of resilience.
Trend #2: Trust Shifting from "Identifying Bad" to "Defining Good"
Nathan Cooper, Information Security Director, Lucid
“In 2025, AI-driven deception will increase in sophistication, and security leaders will be tempted to get into an arms race of identifying what is ‘bad,’” Nathan Cooper told us. With deepfakes, AI-generated voice attacks, and other generative AI scams becoming more advanced, Cooper believes organizations need to rethink their approach to security.
“Successful security leaders will prepare their organizations to identify and interact only with predefined ‘good’ processes,” he explained. “Asking the question, ‘Is this the right individual I’m talking to?’ is only a single factor. Additional questions, such as, ‘Are we conversing on an authenticated, internal-only platform?” should also come into play.’”
This shift moves the focus from trying to catch every malicious attempt to proactively verifying legitimate processes and platforms.
Trend #3: Security Leaders Shifting from Tech to Business Leader
Steve Hindle, Founder, Achilles Shield & CISO-in-residence, The CISO Society
“Organizations are challenging their technology leaders to prove that their programs are not only fit for purpose but also deliver a return on the substantial investments made,” Steve Hindle shared. While the shift from being a tech and security leader to being a business leader has been gaining momentum, he says that 2025 is the year that will finally push business and financial acumen from being a “nice to have’ to a ‘must have.’
Hindle sees this shift as changing the industry in two ways. First, cybersecurity leaders will aim for business and financial training rather than focusing single-mindedly on “the next shiny tech buzzword certifications.” At the same time, vendors will face more scrutiny as leaders demand “harder and more defined” ROI metrics.
Trend #4: Sophisticated AI Taking Risk to the Next Level
Randy Potts, CISO, RTR & Co-Founder, CISO XC
“AI reality is coming as use cases mature,” warns Randy Potts. “Deepfakes will reach economies of scale for the bad guys and take fraud to the next level. User training will be critical as we cannot necessarily trust the familiar voice or even face anymore.”
He points out that MFA bypass attacks are becoming more common and that better solutions are needed to prevent them. “Analyzing successful authentication and user behavior will become necessary,” he says. Working with the business will be critical so we are not rushing to bolt on security.”
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Trend #5: AICPA Cracking Down on Low-Quality Audit Practices
Ethan Altman, Director of Product Solutions, Anecdotes
The days of surface-level assurance in audits may be coming to an end. “The AICPA will have no choice but to step in and take action,” Ethan Altman told us. He expects the increased scrutiny to push third-party risk managers to examine SOC 2 reports more closely, focusing on the validity of testing procedures rather than accepting conclusions at face value.
Altman believes this shift will have a ripple effect, raising the bar for audit practices across industries. “Trusting an unqualified opinion at face value will become a thing of the past,” he said. In 2025, this will challenge organizations to improve their evidence collection and reporting processes, ensuring their compliance programs can stand up to deeper inspections.
Trend #6: Heavyweight Clash of AI-Powered Attackers and Defenders
Larry Whiteside Jr., Chief Advisory Officer, The CISO Society
“2025 is shaping up to be a heavyweight clash of AI-powered attackers and defenders,” Larry Whiteside Jr. told us. “Attackers are rolling out AI and LLM-driven scams, including phishing emails so convincing they’ll fool your CEO, deepfakes that make you apologize for things you never said, and vishing calls that sound like your best friend. Spoiler: It’s not,” Whiteside added.
He predicts that organizations will fight back with “AI-powered SOCs, ditching playbooks for machine learning that hunts threats in real time.” The result? “A relentless AI arms race where attackers and defenders outmaneuver each other at warp speed,” he says. “Buckle up — the 2025 cyber battlefield is no place for the faint of heart. Adapt or get left behind.”
Trend #7: Adoption of Application Security Posture Management (ASPM)
Marius Poskus, CISO, GlowFS
“2025 will mark a fundamental transformation in how organizations approach security, particularly through the adoption of Application Security Posture Management," states Marius Poskus. He explains that this shift will finally bring scalable risk management to software engineering, enabling comprehensive security visibility across the entire development pipeline.
Poskus believes this evolution will do more than just enable engineers to self-serve—it will fundamentally enhance their security knowledge and accountability. Poskus emphasizes, "As long as we establish the right cultural foundation through clear accountability measures and meaningful incentives, we should see a significant shift toward greater product maturity and quality improvements, all with security seamlessly integrated into the process.”
Trend #8: Self-healing Networks
David Forman, Founder, Mastermind
Attackers are using AI to create highly personalized phishing messages, AI-simulated voice attacks, and even malware capable of deceiving AI-driven detection systems.
On defense, AI-powered threat detection tools are helping organizations combat these risks by improving accuracy and reducing false positives. “A major trend we expect to see in the market is the proliferation of self-healing networks,” Forman said. These advanced systems will “automatically detect threats and vulnerabilities, triage security events, and remediate weaknesses in network architecture.”
Despite these advancements, Forman believes the human element remains the most vulnerable link. “The focus should be on enabling employees to make the right decisions while implementing technical and organizational controls,” he explained.
Trend #9: Unsiloing Responsible AI Initiatives
Pierre-Paul Ferland, GRC Lead, Coveo
As AI becomes a bigger part of business operations, organizations are feeling the weight of new governance requirements. “I’m often seeing three waves of questionnaires: security, privacy, and now AI governance,” Pierre-Paul Ferland told us. These areas often operate in isolation with separate teams, systems, and processes.
Ferland sees an opportunity for businesses to integrate these efforts. “Companies who manage to integrate these into a coherent mapping will save time, gain efficiency, act upon more relevant findings, and bring comprehensive visibility to management and the board,” he explained. In 2025, he believes organizations that successfully reduce these silos will gain a competitive advantage, improving both compliance and overall security maturity.
Trend #10: Moving From SOC-in-a-Box to More Meaningful Assurances
Jake Bernardes, CISO, Anecdotes
“We’ve got to a point where SOC 2 Type 2 is now held by so many companies, with such a low degree of real assurance (and real security) that it no longer seems to count as demonstrating ‘adequate security,’” says Jake Bernardes.
“I believe 2025 will see a shift backward to more granular vendor reviews, no longer relying on, or solely accepting, SOC 2 as a guarantee of security.” He predicts that fewer organizations will seek SOC 2, SOC-in-a-Box tooling will fall by the wayside, and anticipates “significant change in the industry in both how companies assess the security posture of vendors & how vendors demonstrate their posture to others.”
Cybersecurity Maturity is the Name of the Game for 2025
From anticipating AI-driven threats to rethinking how audits prove security, these ten trends are a guide to strengthening organizations in the year ahead. Above all, we detected a common thread of maturing GRC programs to meet the challenges ahead.
Steve Hindle summed it up well: “2025 will see cybersecurity become less trendy and rock–star–driven, to become (finally) more focused on maturity—in both personality and capability." Maturity isn’t just a buzzword. For these ten experts, it means taking concrete steps to build adaptable defenses, prepare teams, and make GRC programs accountable to the business.
Gaining GRC maturity in 2025 will mean asking harder questions, investing in smarter tools, and ensuring your people and systems are ready to respond to any threat.
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