5 email threats to look out for in 2025

If you're part of an organization or someone who runs a business, the sheer volume of transactions and communications that happen in a single day is no surprise to you. 

An organization's most important data is often present in these communications. This information needs to be guarded with the utmost security and revealed only to a select few members who need to be aware of this data. Most organizations make use of email for any such conversations because it's considered to be one of the most secure and reliable modes of communication. 

Unfortunately, this dependence on email to store important data hasn't escaped the notice of threat actors. Hackers, who treat every piece of sensitive information as wealth, try to exploit human vulnerabilities and use email solutions to gain access to this data. 

This is why email is one of the most sought-after targets for hackers. While the technology world keeps coming up with newer ways to combat these threats, hackers come up with more innovative ways in which they can propagate their attacks and achieve their motives. 

As we step into a new year, let's take a look at the email threats that continue to stand the test of time and newer email threats that have cropped up and gained popularity in the past year. 

The evolution of email threats

Email threats have been around for decades now. What started as harmless spam emails that simply tried to grab users' attention quickly grew to viruses that affected people's systems and their digital environment completely. 

Over the years, it has taken many forms. Growing threats, such as spoofing and phishing, that depend on psychologically manipulating email recipients came into being. While software engineers keep coming up with ways to combat the threats, threat actors create more sophisticated ways to wreak havoc on organizations. 

Just over the past decade, cyber threats have taken more advanced forms, making detection difficult and increasing the number of people who fall prey to such attacks. One of the major changes is the introduction of AI to create cyberattacks. 

With AI, hackers create email threats that imitate legitimate emails with utmost accuracy, making the threat look genuine and believable. Taking this a notch further, threat actors have also started using AI to create phishing toolkits, and they sell them on the dark web to help other hackers carry out their attacks. They can imitate popular brands without arousing any suspicion. 

Ransomware groups create a fear of sensitive organizational data being leaked on the internet if the demand for ransom payments isn't met. The dark web has become a goldmine for leaked passwords, findings from data breaches, and similar information to help hackers propagate cyberattacks. Knowing the various methods hackers deploy and the innovative ways they gain access to account information can help your organization and your employees exercise caution while handling data. 

5 email threats to watch out for

It's important for all email users handling sensitive data to be aware of the different types of threats that hackers propagate. In the past year, 75% of cyberattacks began with an email, making it one of the most common ways in which attacks are delivered. The growth in the volume and cost of cyberattacks makes it vital to know about the different attacks that could cause harm. Let's take a look at five email threats, some new and some old, that we need to watch out for in the coming year. 

Increase in ransomware groups

Hackers use ransomware to hold their targets' data or account information as hostage and force the targets to pay a ransom, only after which they'll reinstate access to the data. Ransomware attacks find their way into users' systems or emails by injecting malicious code or installing malicious software that locks users out of their accounts or systems. The attacker is the only one with access to the key that can unlock it again, which they won't do until the ransom is paid. 

Over the years, the number of ransomware groups across the globe has seen a sharp incline. Compared to Q1 in 2023, the number of ransomware groups in 2024 saw a 23% increase. Popular ransomware groups, such as RansomHub, LockBit, Akira, and others, have posted leaks on their websites that surmount their previous numbers by a wide margin. 

Ransomware groups that used to have enough ethics that they didn't invade healthcare providers' systems have now started targeting medical and health records, too. This is because the value of healthcare data is priceless, which further proves their increasing ruthlessness. 

With these groups setting up networks of hackers across the globe, it's clear that ransomware as a threat has the potential to be one of the most expensive and harmful attacks out there. Organizations and individuals alike must be careful to fix any existing vulnerabilities in their systems and stay vigilant to any attachments or software they download from unknown sources.

The rise of infostealers

Infostealers are another type of malware that is injected into computer systems through malicious software. They silently monitor the activities performed in the system or steal sensitive information that's present on the system. Infostealers are even more risky compared to ransomware because it takes months to identify that a vulnerability has been exploited and that sensitive data has been compromised. In fact, according to IBM, it takes 194 days to identify a data breach and contain it. 

Infostealers make their way onto systems like any other malware. They either find existing vulnerabilities in a system and exploit them, get downloaded through malicious websites or code, or even be present as an attachment in a phishing email. If the email recipient downloads the infected attachment, the malware extracts all of the activities performed in the system and any sensitive information that may be present. One example of such infostealers is keylogging. 

Because hackers are getting more sophisticated with masking malicious code from email providers and security systems, the prevalence of such attacks has increased in the past year. Organizations must provide sufficient training to their employees on how to stay away from them. 

Account takeover attacks

Account takeover refers to a hacker or intruder gaining access to a legitimate email account and using it under the pretext of being the original account owner. In these attacks, the hacker presumes the identity of the account owner and takes one of two actions. 

In some cases, they silently monitor the actions performed in the account or intrude on certain conversations. In other cases, they take control of the account and lock the original user out either by encrypting the account or changing the account password. 

The hacker gains initial access to the user's account through leaked account credentials as part of a data breach, or they can also install malware into the user's system through some other hack and gain access to the credentials. This type of attack is also difficult to spot because the attacker could be silently monitoring the activities that are performed in the account. 

Since malware has started taking novel shapes, determining such breaches or malicious files has also become difficult, leading to a rise in such attacks over the past year, making it a threat to watch out for in the coming year as well. 

Such attacks can be avoided by setting security controls in your email provider, such as safe password policies, multi-factor authentication, and login activity tracking.

Sophisticated BEC attacks

Business email compromise has long been one of the leading threats to organizations. BEC makes use of social engineering techniques to convince the email recipient into taking a particular action. While BEC attacks have been a problem throughout the past decade, the invasion of AI has complicated things even further. By scouring all publicly available information, such as social media profiles, hackers can train AI models to create emails and messages that arouse no suspicion.

With AI, hackers can mimic content that sounds exactly like the individual they're impersonating. By copying their writing style and knowing about their personal and professional life, hackers can use AI to not just draft a convincing message but also carry out entire conversations that can avoid getting detected both by the recipient and traditional email security systems. With AI tools gaining even more sophistication in the coming year, this is only going to pose a higher level of challenge to cybersecurity officials.

Hackers are becoming harder to detect with AI, but this technological improvement is also being applied to security solutions, cementing their place as trusted detectors of malicious content. Deploying such robust solutions can help secure sensitive data.

Surging supply chain attacks

There are multiple vendors involved in the functioning of an organization. Payment, communications, order placements, and contracts between the vendors and the organization happen in multiple phases. Having all of these pieces come together as a whole and communicate securely involves following secure communication practices in all stages. 

A supply chain attack is one where a hacker finds a vulnerability in one of these phases or vendors and either exploits it or presumes the identity of the vendor to trick the organization into making a payment or revealing sensitive data.

Even in supply chain attacks, the hacker spends time conducting extensive research on their target to assume their identity and position. This involves paying attention to their customers, their product portfolio, the periodical payment cycles, and many other such specifics. 

Once the hacker gains a deep understanding of these specifics, they carry out an attack in which they send an email to the target's customers, impersonating the vendor's identity. They make it convincing enough for the customer to fall prey to it. If the email follows their usual payment cycle, the customer proceeds to make the payment to the hacker's account without much thought.

Supply chain attacks can be avoided by making sure there are robust practices in place for every organization. Stabilizing these processes with multiple levels of approval makes sure there's a smaller chance of error.

Key protection measures to undertake

While the evolution of cyber threats continues at a scary pace, following certain security practices can help organizations and individuals avoid falling prey to these threats. Let's take a look at some of them.

Have a secure data backup

Even if your data gets corrupted or lost due to an attack, it's important that your business springs back so you retain customers' trust. So make sure you archive your data or maintain a backup of all important emails. This will help you maintain business as usual while the disruption gets sorted.

Opt for cyber insurance

Cyber insurance protects your organization from any potential data loss or breach. Having cyber insurance will help your company recover from an attack and improve your cyber resilience posture.

Prepare an incident response strategy

In case an incident strikes, it's vital that you're prepared to handle it. Include all of your key stakeholders and prepare an incident response strategy well in advance. This will help you plan the next steps if an attack strikes. Formulating the necessary steps when you're already in a state of panic will make things more difficult.

Conduct training programs

Structure employee training programs for your employees and mandate these trainings to educate employees about the recently developed threat landscape. Teach them to identify such steps and make sure they follow these practices without fail.

Enforce a strict security policy

Every organization needs a security policy that needs to be published publicly, understood, and followed by all employees. Mandate this policy and conduct regular checks within your company to ensure that there are no weak links and everyone abides by the policy.

Deploy an email security solution

While taking all of these steps can help your company recover in case an attack strikes, the best way to protect your company is by detecting these threats when they try to enter your organization's mailboxes. An email security solution can help detect these threats and make sure they don't land in your employees' mailboxes.

eProtect is a cloud-based email security and archiving solution that provides an additional layer of security for email accounts. The solution offers advanced threat detection mechanisms that can secure on-premise and cloud email accounts from evolving email threats. eProtect is the security solution powering Zoho Mail, a platform trusted by millions of users.