For years, cybersecurity headlines followed a familiar rhythm: breach → apology → credit monitoring → repeat. In 2025, the rhythm changed. The biggest stories weren’t just about stolen data; they were about who can safely operate modern infrastructure—especially when attackers include nation-states and AI-enhanced espionage.
The telecom wake-up call didn’t end—it widened
One of the defining security narratives has been the “Salt Typhoon” telecom intrusions attributed to Chinese state-backed hacking. A U.S. Congressional Research Service brief describes the infiltration of U.S. telecommunications firms and an ongoing federal investigation into the hacks.
By December, lawmakers were still treating the problem as unresolved. A U.S. Senate Commerce Committee statement described expert testimony that communications networks remain vulnerable and that some infiltrated telecom companies have not proven the hackers have been fully eradicated. That’s not just a technical issue it’s a trust issue. If the pipes that carry your calls and data can’t convincingly prove they’re clean, every downstream security claim becomes shakier.
The lesson is brutal and simple: cybersecurity is increasingly about visibility into systems you don’t fully control unmanaged devices, legacy network gear, supply-chain dependencies. When attackers live in the network instead of “breaking in and leaving,” incident response becomes a long-term containment job.
Then came a new kind of headline: “AI-orchestrated” cyber operations
If Salt Typhoon represents classic state-sponsored persistence, the 2025 twist is what happens when attackers can automate the boring parts of espionage.
Anthropic published a report describing what it called a disrupted campaign with a large degree of AI-driven activity illustrating how models can be used as operational accelerants for adversaries. Security observers debated the implications, but the direction of travel is obvious: AI doesn’t need to invent brand-new hacking techniques to matter. It only needs to scale reconnaissance, scripting, and iteration.
Microsoft’s own threat reporting has been warning along similar lines. The company’s Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2025 frames a threat landscape where AI is used by both defenders and attackers and where cybercrime is increasingly commercialized. The subtext: “one-off hacks” are being replaced by repeatable business processes, with AI acting as the speed booster.
Consumer platforms showed how fast “disruption” can become “trust damage”
Cybersecurity isn’t only about secret espionage. It’s also about public-facing chaos.
Reuters reported that China’s short-video platform Kuaishou suffered a cyberattack targeting its livestreaming service, prompting emergency response actions and public concern after inappropriate content appeared. Even when “core services” remain intact, disruptions like this damage the sense that a platform is safe and controlled which is the real product social apps sell.
This is one reason modern security strategy increasingly includes “abuse response” and “content integrity” alongside classic data protection. When attackers can hijack attention, not just steal files, the harm is reputational and immediate.
The business response: consolidation and security platforms
When threats scale, buyers want fewer tools that do more and vendors respond by buying capability.
Reuters reported that ServiceNow agreed to buy cybersecurity firm Armis for $7.75 billion, its biggest-ever deal, explicitly framed around rising cyberattacks and AI adoption expanding the attack surface. The strategic logic is easy to understand: as enterprises connect more devices IT, OT, medical, industrial asset visibility and vulnerability response become board-level concerns, not just “IT department issues.”
This kind of acquisition also signals something else: cybersecurity is increasingly a workflow problem. Knowing you’re exposed isn’t enough; organizations need the ability to route, prioritize, remediate, document, and prove improvement. That’s where enterprise platforms want to live.
What 2025 taught security leaders
Three big lessons emerge from the year’s news:
- Critical infrastructure is a front line. Telecom hacks are not isolated incidents; they’re geopolitical reality.
- AI changes the tempo. Even without “magic hacker AI,” automation increases the scale and persistence of adversaries.
- Security becomes a platform fight. Big acquisitions point toward “security as an operating layer,” not just a collection of point products.
The end result is a new definition of security maturity: not “Do we have tools?” but “Can we respond at speed, across everything we run, under pressure from both criminals and states?”