The Year in Cybersecurity 2025: What Irish Businesses Learned and What Comes Next

2025 has been a defining year for cybersecurity in Ireland. Threats have evolved, attacks have become more targeted, and businesses of every size have had to adapt quickly. While the landscape has become more complex, it has also provided important lessons that will shape how Irish organisations prepare for the future.

This year, Irish businesses faced a wave of phishing campaigns, more sophisticated ransomware attempts, and a noticeable increase in social engineering attacks that targeted staff rather than systems. It proved once again that cybersecurity is no longer just a technology conversation. It is a business survival conversation.

One of the most significant lessons of the year is the role human behaviour plays in both preventing and enabling breaches. Over eighty percent of global security incidents still begin with human error. Even with high quality tools in place, one distracted click can undo months of progress. Irish businesses have responded by investing more in staff training, security awareness and internal policies that promote a culture of cyber readiness.

Ransomware continued to be one of the most disruptive threats of 2025. Criminal groups targeted Irish SMEs, financial services companies, charities, and professional services firms. Many attacks were opportunistic, exploiting outdated systems and unpatched software. Others were strategic and carefully planned against organisations with valuable data. The growth of artificial intelligence driven attacks has also created new challenges, especially as phishing emails now look more convincing than ever before.

Another major shift in 2025 was the increased focus on regulatory expectations. Irish businesses have had to pay closer attention to compliance, data protection requirements, cyber insurance conditions and board level accountability. Many organisations completed detailed reviews of their Microsoft Secure Score, backup policies and access controls as part of their efforts to stay audit ready.

The most positive development this year has been the accelerated adoption of proactive cybersecurity strategies. Irish businesses are moving away from reactive support and embracing continuous monitoring, identity protection, conditional access, device management and Zero Trust principles. Technology alone cannot eliminate risk, but the right security foundations can drastically reduce it.

As we look ahead to 2026, one thing is clear. Cybersecurity is now central to business continuity, client trust and long term success. The organisations that remain resilient are those that treat security as a strategic investment rather than a technical expense.

If your business would like to review its security posture before the new year, the VBT team is ready to support you.