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Lessons From the Largest Cyber Attacks of 2025
Taylor Hawes
January 14, 2026
From the Editor’s Desk
In the past week, security teams have had to balance two competing pressures: faster adoption of AI tools and tighter scrutiny from regulators. Both trends raise the same question for IT leaders. How much risk is entering the organization through tools that promise speed and savings but lack clear security controls?
🔎 Deep Brief
Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 Signals a Shift in Threat Scale
The World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, discussed with leaders from INTERPOL and Dragos, points to a steady rise in attacks that target critical systems rather than individual users. Threat actors are focusing more on supply chains, industrial environments, and services that support essential operations. The discussion highlights how geopolitical tension, low-cost attack tools, and the spread of automation have lowered the barrier to launching complex cyber attacks.
Another theme is the growing gap between defensive maturity in large enterprises and smaller organizations that form part of the same supply chain. Attackers continue to exploit this gap to gain indirect access to high-value targets. The outlook also stresses that AI is now used on both sides, with attackers automating reconnaissance and defenders relying more on predictive tools.
Takeaway
Cyber risk in 2026 is less about isolated breaches and more about systemic exposure across connected systems and partners.
🧠 Strategy in Action
Lessons From the Largest Cyber Attacks of 2025
A review of major cyber attacks in 2025 shows that many incidents shared common failures rather than advanced techniques. Several breaches began with known vulnerabilities that were left unpatched, while others relied on weak identity controls or poor visibility into third-party access. In many cases, organizations had security tools in place but lacked clear ownership and response plans.
The most effective responses came from companies that had tested incident response processes before an attack occurred. These organizations limited downtime and data loss by isolating affected systems quickly and communicating clearly with customers and regulators.
Takeaways:
Many major attacks started with known vulnerabilities that were not patched in time.
Weak identity and access controls remained a common entry point for attackers.
Third-party and supplier access continued to expose core systems to indirect risk.
Having security tools did not prevent breaches when ownership and response roles were unclear.
Organizations with tested incident response plans reduced downtime and data loss.
🕵️ Threat Actor Spotlight
Fancy Bear
APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, is a state-linked threat group associated with long-term espionage campaigns. The group is known for targeting government bodies, defense contractors, media organizations, and political entities. Its operations often rely on spear phishing, credential theft, and exploitation of publicly known software flaws. APT28 is also linked to the use of custom malware families and ongoing attempts to evade detection by changing infrastructure and techniques.
🛠️ Tool Check
Network Monitoring Tools
Comparitech’s review of network monitoring tools compares platforms based on visibility, alerting, ease of deployment, and support for hybrid environments. The analysis shows that while feature-rich tools suit large enterprises, many mid-sized teams benefit more from simpler platforms that offer clear dashboards and fast setup. The review also notes growing demand for tools that integrate performance monitoring with security signals, rather than treating them as separate functions.
🗣️ Community Signal
Now, we’ve got folks logging in from home networks. They’re working from home. You’ve got all sorts of different devices, like managed and unmanaged devices. So, that’s an expanded attack surface that is making it easier for the attackers to take advantage. All that it takes is a single misconfiguration that the attacker can take advantage of. So the way you combat all that stuff is to really increase your visibility into what is going on in your network. Douglas Holland, Senior Solutions Engineer at Akamai Technologies.
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Until Friday’s edition - Let’s keep that zero-day count at zero!