Top 12 Cybersecurity Tips Everyone Should Know in2025

We live in a world run by apps and algorithms. We just need a Wifi connection to pay bills, chat with friends, and shop for groceries. On top of that, who can deny the race between AI tools like ChatGPT and DeepSeek?

Everything is changing in the blink of an eye. Although it seems pretty smooth and convenient, it comes with serious risks. But what could be the reason? Those anonymous hackers in black hoodies! Most of us don’t even think twice before clicking “log in” or tapping “buy now.”

Yes, that’s what we often do. We think, why would someone send us an email or a phishing link when we have nothing worth stealing? But wait for a second! What if someone posts your family pictures on the dark web? 

Cybercrime isn’t just something you read about in tech blogs anymore. It’s hitting every other person, from business owners to everyday internet users. One wrong click, and your bank balance is wiped. Your important files are gone, and your small business? Locked behind a ransom message.

Global cybercrime is projected to cost $10.5 trillion in 2025, which makes it a shadow economy larger than most nations. According to the World Economic Forum, 72% of businesses reported rising cyber risks in the past year, which highlights how widespread and complex these threats have become. So, it is important to protect yourself and your business before it is too late.

We have put together 12 of the best cybersecurity tips to help you mitigate these modern threats of 2025. We’re not here to sell you expensive software, instead these are practical steps that can actually keep your data and money safe from black hoodie hackers.

Origins & Evolution of Cybersecurity

Cyberattacks that seem complicated and hard to deal with were not always like this. People experienced their first cyber threat through simple computers, when there was no AI or ransomware. You might get flashbacks of the Cascade virus from the late ‘80s. This virus was annoying and made letters on your screen fall like rain, but it was easy to deal with.

Whereas the cyberattacks of 2025 are not that simple. We are dealing with clunky, prank-style viruses to AI-powered attacks that even mimic human behavior. SentinelOne reveals that more than 30,000 new software vulnerabilities were disclosed last year, with a 17 percent increase from previous figures. It highlights that threats are no longer like the 80s, they have evolved, and hackers too. Therefore, you should adopt best practices to stay ahead of them.

Cybersecurity Tips

Here are some tips which are pretty easy to follow and will help you to protect your business and bank account from hackers.

1. Patch Immediately

We often ignore those annoying popups on our laptop screen that tell us to update or restart our device. We do so because they always show up when we’re busy and block our view. But skipping those frustrating updates is one of our biggest mistakes because hackers love to attack unpatched software.

CloudFirst report reveals that 32% of cyberattacks occurred in 2024 because people hadn’t installed patches for known vulnerabilities. So, here is what we can do at the individual level:

• Turn on automatic updates for all your devices and apps
• Set a weekly reminder to check for updates on systems that don’t auto-patch
• Use patch management tools (like ManageEngine or PDQ Deploy)

Let me give you a real life example of patching. Aryza, a fintech firm, implemented this tip and witnessed an insane difference. Almost 80% employees work remotely, so their IT team set up automated patching across 10,000 systems. It used to take them almost 72 hours to push out patches before automation,n but after they did it in just 4 hours. Moreover, Aryza experienced a 70% drop in cyberthreats.

If they can do it at that larger scale, why are we afraid to do so on individual levels? You can be running a business or just protecting your own laptop; these automated updates will act like a lock against hackers.

2. Use Strong Passwords

Most of us use the same password everywhere like Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and even bank accounts (we get it, it’s convenient). Well, a NordPass survey found that 62 % of Americans and about 65 % of users globally reuse their passwords for multiple sites. We do so in fear of forgetting them, but here all of us get trapped. Hackers love weak or reused passwords, so they send phishing emails to access laptops and mobile devices. That’s why you should use:

• Use 12 to 16 characters.
• Use letters, numbers, and symbols.
• Don’t include any personal information.
• Don’t use repeating characters.

Multifactor authentication allows you to set two passwords for the same app. In case someone leaks your first password, they can’t lurk into your device without the second one.

Here is a helpful video to give you more of an idea to create stronger passwords. 

Stop Online Crime with Strong Passwords

Another notable case is of the USDA ( U.S. Department of Agriculture), when they rolled out phishing-resistant MFA for 40,000 seasonal workers in rural areas. Their goal was to make sure that stolen passwords alone aren’t enough to lurk in. This USDA approach worked, and phishing attacks that used to be a real threat, stopped working.

Apart from this, Microsoft research also found that turning on MFA blocks over 99% of automated attacks. These tips may sound repetitive and weak, but they can save us from big data losses.

3. Use Modern AV & Endpoint Protection

Most of us believe that having some antivirus means we’re safe, but these local tips aren’t going to work in 2025 anymore. Hackers don’t send those clunky viruses from the ’90s anymore, they’re using ransomware, zero-day threats, and AI-driven attacks which move quite fast.

According to a 2024 TechRadar report, every 1 in 3 companies still relies on outdated security tools for protection against modern threats. Here is what you can do though,

• Install an antivirus with behavior-based detection.
• Protect phones and tablets, too
• Use EDR tools like CrowdStrike or SentinelOne for business purposes

A telling case comes from Okta, after the company faced a breach, they brought in CrowdStrike Falcon. Their systems went from scrambling after threats to stopping and resisting against them. Okta dropped threats before they could do any irreversible damage and it strengthened their security team.

So if your protection still feels like it’s from the early 2010s, then it might be time for an upgrade. 

4. Adopt Zero Trust

If someone logs into your system, do you trust them just because they have your password? Obviously not! When we receive an email that someone from X location is trying to log in to your bank account, it is just a nerve-cracking experience.

So, this is where Zero Trust comes in. It’s not just a buzzword, instead it’s a simple idea suggesting never trust anyone by default (ain’t that a life lesson too).

Every login, every device, every request has to prove itself legitimate before getting access, and this strategy is working.

Zipdo statistics showed that companies that use a Zero Trust policy saw a 50% improvement in their threat detection speed. Another IBM study found that organizations with Zero Trust incorporation have saved up to $1 million per breach compared to those without it.

Here’s how you can take your first steps to better security.

• Only give people access to what they really need.
• Break networks into sections, so one breach doesn’t spread.
• Always verify the person trying to log in

Talking about zero trust, Google built its security system on a Zero Trust model called BeyondCorp. So if you’re ever logging in from the office or a lawn in your home, you still need to verify who you are from your already logged-in devices.

5. Update to Post-Quantum Encryption

A lot of times, we assume our data and chats are safe just because they’re encrypted. But what if I tell you the locks we’ve been using for years are now getting outdated? Hackers are getting smart with changing technology, and so are the threats.

Encryptions that worked five years ago won’t stand even for a second against post-quantum. In fact, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is recommending companies prepare for post-quantum encryption standards by 2030.

Apart from this, big companies like Google and IBM are also updating their systems to protect against quantum. What you can do is: 

• Make sure that the websites you use have HTTPS in their URL.
• Talk to your IT team about crypto-agility to stay ahead.
• Use quantum-resistant keys for backups or internal files.

IBM launched quantum-safe encryption on its z16 mainframes and IBM Cloud services in 2023 in their efforts to deal with the post quantum situation. They created a hybrid approach by combining traditional encryption methods with quantum-resistant algorithms to protect valuable data.

6. Use AI to Outsmart AI-Powered Scams

These days AI is used for almost anything and everything. Be it for editing photos, writing faster, or even answering complex questions. But our not-so-nice hacker friends use it to perform malware activities. They generate phishing emails from AI that look so real that you can’t tell the difference between a real email from your boss and a fake one.

Cofense reports that they spotted an AI-written phishing email every 42 seconds, and attacks like these are rising by 70 % every year. But what if I tell you we can counter those AI attacks with AI itself? Here’s the way,

• Use AI smartly to train your staff on GenAI-based threats
• Filter phishing emails before they damage your brand reputation
• Train your team and treat AI like a performance tool

IT Butler explains how Darktrace’s AI-powered monitoring has helped a European real-estate firm to protect its Microsoft 365 accounts from getting hacked by simply filtering emails. The Draktrace system first identified an unusual attempt and typical login behavior. Then, it flagged it as a phishing email attempt, which helped their IT team to stop account takeover on time.

7. Train, Retest & Reinforce Team

Companies feel safe once that training session is done. But i think we can all agree that one training session a year is not gonna cut it as most people forget these things within just minutes of walking out of the session. But what’s more pressing is the matter of most companies not even trying to look for better alternatives or interactive ways to make these sessions more memorable.

According to KeepnetLabs, 45% of employees say they’ve received no security training at all. This is alarming because companies that provide regular security training have only reduced their chances of a breach by over 65%.

Luckily, you can still take this matter into your own hands by just doing a couple of these things. 

• You need regular and consistent bite-sized training sessions that stick.
• Simulated phishing information shapes us, but it needs to be repeated to be effective.
• You need a blame-free culture. If someone clicks a phishing test, they have to inform the security team without playing the blame game.

MESA is an Australian manufacturing firm, and they used KnowBe4’s platform to simulate phishing attacks. MESA provided regular training to their staff which reduced their “phish-prone” percentage from 52% down to just 8.6% in just 7 weeks.

MESA is a role model of how staff training and friendly reminders help us to stay vigilant.

8. Test Your Backups

We all backup our WhatsApp chats and Google Photos full of memories, to keep them with us. How it goes is we usually just click the “turn on” button and never get back to it until our apps stop working. But having a backup is just a 50% safety of the entire process. You don’t want to wait until your phone or laptop is hit with ransomware or a server crash to find out your backup hasn’t worked in six months. Almost 30% of companies never test their backup, and they don’t even have a solid disaster recovery plan either. So, here’s our checklist:

• Back up your files, systems, and make sure to double check.
• Store those backups in more than one place (cloud & offsite).
• Test restores monthly

To quote an example, Got You Floored, a carpet and tile wholesaler, suffered a devastating vulnerability. But their CFO, Denise Koontz, caught the situation on time. They tested, updated backups, and also built a recovery plan. They were backed up and running within days without losing customers and files. 

9. Verify Your Vendors

We rely on vendors from payment systems to cloud storage as they keep our business safe. But what if they’re not secure? Yeah, we’ll surely be in danger, too. There are multiple vulnerable vendors that have caused the biggest breaches in history.

How can we forget the vendor attack of 2013 when hackers got access through a third-party HVAC vendor and stole information from 40 million credit cards? That was more than a decade ago, imagine the severity of these attacks now.

So, here’s how you can avoid such scenarios:

• Ask vendors about their security practices
• Require MFA and breach response policy
• Give vendors only the access they need
• Add security clauses to your contracts

Regional Grand Bank of the U.S. has partnered with Latest Solutions to use Ivanti’s External Attack Surface Management tool in case of vendor protection. They have adopted it to filter the malicious vendors’ attacks automatically, instead of manually guessing. This management tool has reduced the third-party risk, streamlined the onboarding process, and improved their compliance with less effort.

10. Build Incident Response Plan

Sometimes we install antivirus, set up passwords, and MFA with the hope that nothing bad happens. But this hope isn’t a plan because when a cyberattack hits, there are mere seconds to act. If your team is Googling “what to do in a breach” at that time, then that’s already a sinking ship.

This is why a clear incident response plan (IRP) is so important. According to IBM’s Data Breach Report, companies that have this IRP plan save 41% of their breach-related costs. Breaches can bankrupt you, so here’s what you should do:

• Write down a basic response plan against attacks
• Assign clear roles so your team knows who’s doing what
• Run a practice test to check if everything is working

Let me tell you about a company that successfully ran with an IPR plan. Mailchimp noticed unauthorized access on its platform in 2019. Their IT team followed a well-rehearsed plan to isolate the threat and informed users to take preventive measures. This strategic approach has helped them to save brand reputation and earn public trust even in disguise.

11. Monitor Your Digital Footprint

At one point or another, we kind of all have Googled ourselves out of curiosity to check if our photos or info appear on google, but have you ever thought to check if your email, phone number, or company domain is being used on the dark web? If not, then it’s probably the right time to verify it.

Security analysts at Digital Shadows found more than 24 billion username and password pairs on the dark web. This rate is increasing to 65% in just two years, and some even belonged to companies that had no idea about it. To prevent this from happening to you, you can: 

• Use tools like HaveIBeenPwned to check if your email has been leaked
• Set up Google Alerts for your brand and personal information
• Scan your domain with services like SpyCloud or Dark Web Monitor

A financial services company (with over $2 billion in revenue) found out that some of its login details had been leaked on the dark web. Darkfeed by Cybersixgill explains that as soon as their security team saw the alert, they blocked those login details, changed passwords, and locked things down. This quick response stopped a ransomware attack before it could even begin.

So the more you know about your online presence, the harder it becomes for hackers to use it against you.

12. Beware of Public Wi-Fi Traps

Free Wifi connections at coffee shops, airports, or hotels seem like a luxury and advantage to the public. But those free connections are very costly. Hackers often set up fake Wi-Fi networks, i.e, evil twin hotspots that look legit but once you connect, they can steal your login details, spy on what you’re doing, or even install malware. According to a Forbes Advisor, over 40% of users connect to public Wi-Fi, which makes them easy targets for cybercriminals.
To avoid being a target, what you need to do is: 

• Use your own mobile data
• Avoid logging into bank accounts when connected to public wifi
• Turn off auto-connect to networks on your devices

A real tale of this particular section is when an Australian man was arrested after setting up a fake Wi‑Fi network on a commercial flight in July 2024. He set up the trap where passengers were redirected to fake login pages. Once they fill out the form or click on any relevant link, hackers can access their devices. This incident later got caught, but it is a reminder that not every public wifi is safe. 

Also Read: Generative AI and The New Creative Age

How Smart Cyber Moves Saved Millions

Here’s how different industries took advantage of the above tips:

Company	Security Change	Before	After
Hotel Chain	Automated Patch Management	72 hrs avg patch delay	4 hrs auto-patch
Fintech	MFA and Strong Password Policy	8 phishing clicks/month	<1 phishing click/month
Clinic	Full-disk Encryption	$3.5M breach cost estimate	$0 breaches
Retailer	IRP & Backup Tests	21 days to recover	8 hours full restore

You can be innocently running a business or just checking emails on your phone and still become the main target of cybercriminals. Attacks don’t happen only because hackers are smart, but because we skip software updates, reuse old passwords, and trust public Wi-Fi, so there’s a lack of effort on our part as well.

The tips mentioned above, from patching software to using strong passwords and staying vigilant about encryption, will help to stay protected in 2025. You can protect your personal data, your family pictures, or company credentials with these simple, practical tips. While one may think this is entirely the responsibility of the companies providing us with this software, we too have responsibilities. All we have to do is be vigilant and careful with how we operate on all these platforms.