People, in their daily lives, will be potential victims:

“2025 is predicted to be a year of more complex threats than we have been seeing, precisely because of the evolution of these and the massive incorporation of artificial intelligence,” says Walter Montenegro, regional cybersecurity manager at Cisco.

AI was quickly adopted by cybercriminals to commit increasingly sophisticated crimes. Its use, in different forms, marks one of the main trends this 2025.

We asked cybersecurity specialists about what would be the main digital threats and dangers we will be exposed to in 2025 and these were their predictions:

Fake celebrity videos

A trend that started in 2024 and will increase in 2025 will be the use of videos of famous people (artists, athletes or politicians) offering or disclosing something and that are distributed on social networks. “But that video is fake, it was created with AI tools to deceive people,” says Fabio Assolini, director of Analysis and Research at Kaspersky for Latin America.

The specialist says that it is common to find on Instagram supposed videos of Messi promoting a cryptocurrency that can generate a lot of profit or Shakira announcing a free perfume promotion. “Everything is fake, users should be well informed so as not to fall into traps,” he clarifies.

“Complex AI-based spoofing will become increasingly convincing,” complements Cristian Vasquez, country manager of Check Point Software in Chile.

Phishing perfected

AI will be widely used to commit cybercrime. Traditional phishing, in which a fake email is used to lure unsuspecting users, is now sophisticated with the help of AI.

“AI can analyze the language of emails to create messages that perfectly mimic a style,” says Mario Micucci, IT security researcher at ESET Latin America.

Voice cloning

Related to the above is the use of Deepfake – Deepvoice, “techniques that clone a person’s face, timbre and way of speaking almost perfectly,” says Francisco Fernandez, general manager of Avantic Chile. And he adds: “This kind of fraud is associated with calls to relatives, friends, colleagues and bosses, urgently requesting money or some kind of money transaction approval”.

The scam “will also use tools such as lipsync and deepfakes, capable of creating extremely realistic videos and audios that simulate people’s voices and gestures”, adds Miguel Cisterna, Security and Intelligence Manager at Movistar Chile.

The danger of telling everything on the networks

“Cybercriminals will increasingly focus on social networking platforms by using personal data for specific scams and impersonations,” says Vasquez.

“In 2025, the common practice of sharenting – parents oversharing information about their children online – will render traditional knowledge-based security questions, such as ‘What is the name of your first pet,’ completely useless,” he says. With people easily divulging these personal details on social networks, fraudsters will have a free hand to exploit this information and circumvent security measures, compromising accounts,” says Daniel Molina, iProov’s vice president for Latin America.

Stealers are a family of malicious code programmed to steal anything (from data to passwords) and we believe they will be one of the most important threats for 2025, since the way they are distributed directly affects the end user,” says Assolini.

They are often found as links on YouTube channels, as activators, for example, of a WhatsApp Gold or a crack (small program to activate a pirated application) of some popular commercial software. “Once installed they steal everything: passwords, card numbers, any data. In the end, cybercriminals are going to create databases and sell them on the Deep Web.”

Watches under attack

Wearables, such as smartwatches, will also be targets, says Walter Montenegro. “They manage users’ location, movements and health information. By hacking them, attackers gain the necessary knowledge to be able to carry out a much more targeted attack, steal personal information that is stored and misuse it (such as the locations where they have been during the day). We must be especially cautious and aware, as these are devices that we use on a daily basis”, explains the specialist.

Computer ransomware with a focus on the consumer

Ransomware (computer hijacking in exchange for money) is no longer limited to companies. “By 2025, attackers are expected to encrypt (ransomware) personal devices, demanding cryptocurrency payments in exchange for releasing photos, documents and other critical personal data. Recent cases have shown an increase in attacks on small personal NAS (data storage) devices,” says Mario Micucci.

How to protect yourself

“These threats make it imperative that users take extreme precautions,” says Miguel Cisterna. Among them he mentions always verifying the source of any data request, avoiding accessing suspicious links and using additional security measures, such as two-step authentication, to protect personal information.

“We must be suspicious of the veracity of messages that seem too good to be real: Is it logical that this promotion has only reached me? Is the value offered reasonable? Before giving out any personal or financial data, double check, consult reliable sources and make sure that the sender is legitimate”, adds the Movistar specialist.

Mario Micucci, meanwhile, recommends what he calls “password hygiene”: don’t always use the same passwords and change them constantly.

Source: El Mercurio