Why effective cybersecurity is a team effort
It's been 35 years since the first ever documented ransomware attack. Known as the AIDS Trojan, it was released via floppy disk in 1989, long before most people even had a personal computer. However, since then, not only have PCs become ubiquitous in people's homes around the world, but the volume and variety of cyber-attacks have also grown exponentially, turning cybercrime into a trillion-dollar industry.
Cybersecurity experts haven't stood idly by as the cybercrime industry has exploded. Cybersecurity tools and techniques have also grown and evolved at an incredible pace, enabling individuals, businesses, and nation-states to build robust countermeasures and defenses against the onslaught they face on the digital battleground.
Cybercrime continues to grow at an alarming rate
Since the very first deployment of the AIDS Trojan, the number of cyber-attacks taking place every day has risen at an alarming rate. In its 2024 Digital Defence report, Microsoft stated that its customers now face around 600 million cyberattacks daily, ranging from small-scale attacks carried out by rogue individuals to huge multi-target attacks conducted by state-sponsored attackers.
Organized ransomware groups are also on the rise, with specialist companies actively tracking 73 groups on the dark web in 2025, compared to just 46 groups last year, representing a 56% increase YoY.
The rise of AI-powered cyber attacks
The type of attacks taking place continue to evolve at a rapid rate too, as criminals quickly harness emerging technologies to open new attack vectors and methods. A great example is the arrival of commercial generative AI tools, which have enabled even low-level cyber criminals to start performing much higher-level attacks than were previously possible.
A recent assessment by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) stated that all types of cyber threat actors – state and non-state, skilled and less skilled – are already using AI to varying degrees. In particular, the technology is ‘providing capability uplift in reconnaissance and social engineering, almost certainly making both more effective, efficient and harder to detect’.
How organizations are fighting back with ethical hacking
In the face of this growing threat landscape, security researchers leading the fightback are also highly adept at harnessing these technologies alongside tried and trusted methods to ensure robust protections remain in place.
Cybersecurity is a team effort, and it is only by working together that businesses can maintain the upper hand in this ongoing game of cat and mouse. We've made a list of the best identity management software. This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today.
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