Arctic Wolf: AI surpasses ransomware as leading cybersecurity concern

By Mia MacGregor

May 20 - (The Insurer) - AI has become the leading cybersecurity concern for security and IT leaders, according to a new report from Arctic Wolf.

The 2025 Trends Report, which surveyed over 1,200 senior IT and cybersecurity decision-makers across 15 countries, found that AI has surpassed ransomware as the top concern, with 29% of security leaders citing AI, large language models and privacy issues as their primary worry.

Concerns about ransomware, malware and data extortion accounted for 21%.

The report also noted an increase in breach occurrences and improved transparency.

About 52% of respondents confirmed experiencing a breach in the past year, up from 48%, and 97% of known breaches were disclosed. Arctic Wolf highlighted this as progress in regulatory compliance and incident transparency.

Significant attacks remain widespread, with 70% of organizations experiencing at least one significant cyber attack in 2024.

Malware and business email compromise were the most common attack types, reported by 35% of respondents, surpassing ransomware and data exfiltration (23%), according to the report.

Additionally, the report noted that nearly two-thirds (64%) of the significant cyberattacks led to a loss of productivity lasting at least three months, affecting 45% of organizations overall.

For some, disruptions lasted even longer, with 24% of organizations experiencing productivity losses for six months or more.

The report highlighted that more than half of the organizations experiencing a significant attack had not implemented multifactor authentication (MFA).

Arctic Wolf emphasized that strong phishing-resistant MFA should be a fundamental element of an organization's security posture, helping to prevent initial access and thwart intrusion actions.

The findings also revealed that professional ransomware negotiators have helped reduce payouts.

Among organizations hit by ransomware, 76% paid the ransom, down from 83% last year. Of those, 90% engaged a professional negotiator, resulting in reduced payments in more than half of the cases.

In contrast, only 30% of organizations that handled negotiations themselves were able to secure a reduction.

The report indicated several reasons why organizations chose to pay a ransom, with the most popular being to prevent the release of stolen data, to avoid costs associated with recovering the data, and to prevent issues with downtime and affected operations.

While 84% of organizations use next-generation endpoint security solutions, only 40% reported having full visibility and coverage, with expectations to maintain it, the report stated.

“By leaving gaps, those organizations are inviting risk,” Arctic Wolf said.

Additionally, 24% of security leaders expressed dissatisfaction with elements of their security stack, citing a high rate of false positives and lack of efficacy as top concerns.

Arctic Wolf noted that ineffective security products waste time and energy of already-burdened security personnel.

The report also highlighted that 99% of organizations have established or will soon establish a position on AI usage within the workplace.

The rapid implementation of corporate policies on AI usage indicates a shift from reactive security measures to proactive preparation, according to Arctic Wolf.

“AI will continue to reshape the cybersecurity landscape, but the challenge here is not reinventing cybersecurity, it is evolving and adapting by reinforcing and extending existing security frameworks and controls, enabling security teams to manage AI-driven risks without overhauling their entire security Infrastructure,” the report concluded.