BlackBerry forecasts cybersecurity challenges for 2025

David Wiseman, Vice President of Secure Communications at BlackBerry, has highlighted security predictions for Australia, particularly related to telecommunications and political figures.

Wiseman highlighted global cybersecurity concerns such as outages, espionage, and AI-led misinformation, all of which posed significant challenges this year and are expected to escalate in 2025.

"Cybersecurity outages, espionage attempts by foreign actors, and AI-led misinformation were significant causes for concern to governments and organisations across the world this year, and we expect this to continue to escalate in 2025," he told TechDay.

He pointed to the Australian Cyber Security Act as a recent measure by the government to enhance cyber resilience.

"The recently introduced Australian Cyber Security Act reinforced the government's commitment to cyber resilience, bolstering national security and protecting businesses and people from cyber threats," Wiseman added. "This commitment is crucial as Australia heads towards the federal elections next year."

Wiseman emphasised the risk to politicians, referring to reports of Chinese espionage groups targeting political figures' cellphones in the United States, including former President Donald Trump. He explained, "Recent reports of Chinese espionage groups allegedly targeting the cellphones of former President Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance and Democrat staffers is one of many such examples this year of adversarial activity targeting the fabric of democracy globally."

The vulnerabilities in telecommunications infrastructure were also highlighted. Wiseman warned, "This scenario exposes vulnerabilities in telecommunications infrastructure – as metadata generated by 'free' apps for voice calls and messaging can be easily traded, fuelling 'wire-tapping-as-a-service' markets that are readily available for purchase on the internet."

Wiseman stressed the importance of secure communications, particularly as elections approach.

"In this uncertain threat landscape, government agencies, political figures, and their teams must mitigate risk with military-grade, highly secure communications solutions, which will be critical to maintaining election and democratic integrity," he advised.

Among his top cyber predictions for 2025, he cited that telecom networks would become a primary target for attackers.

"Attackers are expected to target telecom and internet service provider (ISP) networks more aggressively using 'supply chain' attack methods, and lessons learnt from recent US telco-network hacks," Wiseman predicted.

He also highlighted ongoing concerns with mobile spying and messaging apps. "The use of Whatsapp, Signal and similar apps for government and other sensitive communications will continue to come under scrutiny – especially as Australia prioritises data and communications sovereignty in an election year," he noted.

Wiseman predicted an escalation in identity spoofing, aided by advancements in AI and deepfakes. "Gen AI learns from voice and text, as much as imagery, which can afford attackers 'up-to-the-minute' information to target victims almost immediately," he explained.