Three Resolutions for 2025 Cybersecurity Success

A list of 2025 cybersecurity predictions is helpful for planning your year. But we think it’s more helpful to have a list of recommendations, priorities and resolutions.

SteelCloud’s 2025 Resolutions for Cybersecurity Success list has only three items on it. There are plenty more initiatives to take on, but the goal in keeping the list short is that it hones the focus and enables you to triage your highest priorities based on how bad actors are evolving at this time.

Start With A Secure Foundation

At the root of every cybersecurity mission you undertake, there should be a secure baseline. Establishing and maintaining a secure or compliant baseline is integral to any cybersecurity effort.

Many organizations will leverage trusted STIG or CIS playbooks for finding and remediating vulnerabilities in your system. SteelCloud has software to help you simplify and automate the process. Your worries aren’t over once the foundation is created, however.

A secure baseline protects your technology, but it doesn’t secure user behavior, system access, partner interactions or how to contain damage if bad actors DO get in. Those are the areas we’ll address in our Top 3 2025 Resolutions for Cybersecurity Success.

2025 Cybersecurity Resolution #1: Build Your Zero Trust architecture.

In both government and private organizations, Zero Trust is a key element of cybersecurity. Zero Trust assumes that no actor/service/system can be trusted and, therefore, moves the concept of cyber defense from the perimeter to—or closer to—the individual data repository or application.

Equally important, a Zero Trust architecture increases the breadth and depth of continual verification and evaluation versus the traditional single verification at the network perimeter. If a bad actor does manage to get in, they will only get so far before being asked to verify their identity again, usually requiring them to use different credentials to move through your system.

In the DoD and other parts of the federal government, Zero Trust is mandated and deadlines hit in 2027. While baseline security manages endpoint vulnerabilities, Zero Trust addresses vulnerabilities in how your system is accessed and by whom, as well as the interactions therein—from employees through contractors, suppliers and partners.

Gartner reports that, in 2023, less than 1% of large enterprises had a comprehensive and mature Zero Trust foundation. They further predict that, by 2026, that number will rise to 10%. Right now, a lot of organizations are getting busy implementing Zero Trust because it forms a next horizon of protection after implementing baseline security.

We recommend Zero Trust as your #1 resolution because, paired with robust baseline security, it makes your system nearly impossible for hackers and bad actors to penetrate. There will always be risks as attacks continue to become more sophisticated. But the harder and more precarious you make it for hackers, the more likely they are to go elsewhere.

2025 Cybersecurity Resolution #2: Safeguard Your Supply Chain Security

Perhaps the most infamous supply chain attack occurred when attackers injected a backdoor into a software update of SolarWinds, allowing remote access to thousands of corporate and government servers. A more recent and gruesome example is the electronic pager attacks against Hezbollah just a few months ago.

This year, nearly 45% of global organizations will have experienced a supply chain attack. And just as the attacks are quickening, so is the sophistication of the attackers. Through Executive Order, the President requires public organizations to establish deeper supply chain security through both Zero Trust and a Software Bill of Materials (SBOM).

An SBOM identifies third-party and open-source components within an application’s code. When you consider that developers often use open source and third-party software components to create a product, knowing the details can help determine the potential risks and vulnerabilities of the software and respond accordingly. In essence, the SBOM can help you protect your software’s back doors and Zero Trust can help you protect your physical back doors.

In addition to the SBOM, your action plan should also include assessing vendors across the board, from their cybersecurity practices and their users to their supply chains. It can become a deep rabbit hole, but if you want to remain secure, you have to be discerning as to who you work with.

Many in the cybersecurity community agree that shoring up supply chain security is critical for 2025 cybersecurity. SteelCloud has been swimming in the world of supply chain security for years and we see it as a growing attack vector that, if not addressed now, will cost organizations considerably in the future.

2025 Cybersecurity Resolution #3: Build A Cybersecurity Emergency Plan

The sad fact about all of this is that you can do everything right and your system can still be breached. It’s less likely, but it happens. And when it happens, every minute will count in your effort to contain and mitigate the damage. Having an incident response plan in place will have a huge impact on everything from securing the breach before further damage happens to speaking publicly about the incident.

NIST and CISA both have plans outlined for actions you can take before, during and after an incident. And, of course, both of those plans recommend you secure your vulnerabilities and your supply chain first. The best defense is a strong offense.

These plans include building a strong internal team to respond should something happen, establishing relationships with attorneys and law enforcement entities that will aid your response, developing your plan and exercising it, determining a containment strategy for different types of breaches and holding a retrospective meeting once the incident has been handled.

Establishing a plan for hypotheticals with a cool head will go a long way in delivering the confidence your team needs to ride out a very stressful and disheartening situation. Incident response plans are common throughout business and government for preparing for unforeseen disasters. Considering data theft, ransomware, denial of service and other types of attacks, it makes sense there should be similar plans for cybersecurity. That’s why this is SteelCloud’s #3 2025 Cybersecurity Resolution.

Three Resolutions Working Together For Cybersecurity Success

SteelCloud believes these three 2025 Cybersecurity Resolutions—developing a Zero Trust architecture, securing your supply chain and creating an incident response plan—should be your top three priorities for the year ahead. Assuming you begin with a secure baseline, that is. Once a secure baseline is established, these three resolutions work together to ensure your overall cybersecurity success.

Establishing and maintaining a secure baseline, however, can take an outsized portion of your team’s available effort. SteelCloud’s ConfigOS software can automate STIG and CIS alignment, creating and maintaining a secure baseline with nearly zero effort. This frees up your team (and your headspace) to focus on Zero Trust, your supply chain and how you’ll respond if something unfortunate does occur. It helps you mature your cybersecurity posture to include measures like Zero Trust, SBOMs and emergency response plans.

To learn more about establishing a solid foundation upon which to build a nearly impenetrable system, schedule a demo with SteelCloud today.