Bitdefender's 2025 Cybersecurity Assessment Report synthesizes data from over 1,200 IT and security professionals and analysis of 700,000 cyber incidents, revealing a complex and evolving threat landscape. A key finding is the increasing trend of organizations instructing staff to keep breaches confidential, with 58% of security professionals reporting such pressure, up 38% since 2023. This secrecy risks undermining trust, regulatory compliance, and long-term resilience. The report highlights that 84% of high-severity attacks now employ Living Off the Land (LOTL) techniques, where attackers leverage legitimate tools and processes already present in the environment to evade detection and maintain persistence. This shift challenges traditional defense mechanisms and necessitates a focus on attack surface reduction, including disabling unnecessary services, removing unused applications, and limiting lateral movement pathways. AI-related threats are a significant concern, with 67% of respondents perceiving an increase in AI-driven attacks and 58% worried about AI-powered malware; however, the actual prevalence of AI-enhanced attacks remains lower than feared, indicating a perception gap. Another critical issue is the disconnect between C-level executives and frontline security teams, with only 19% of mid-level managers sharing the high confidence executives have in managing cyber risk. Executives prioritize AI adoption, whereas operational teams emphasize cloud security and identity management, potentially causing resource misallocation and security blind spots. The report concludes that cyber resilience requires preemptive strategies focusing on attack surface reduction, simplifying security toolsets, addressing workforce burnout and skills shortages, and bridging leadership-operational divides. Although no specific CVEs or exploits are cited, the report’s emphasis on LOTL techniques and organizational challenges underscores a sophisticated threat environment demanding comprehensive defense strategies.

For European organizations, the implications are significant. The widespread use of LOTL techniques means attackers can operate stealthily within networks, making detection and response more difficult and increasing the risk of prolonged breaches affecting confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data. The pressure to conceal breaches may lead to non-compliance with GDPR and other regulatory frameworks, resulting in legal penalties and reputational damage. The leadership disconnect risks delayed or ineffective incident response and security strategy implementation, potentially exacerbating the impact of attacks. Organizations with complex IT environments and extensive cloud adoption face elevated risks due to the expanded attack surface. The perception gap regarding AI threats may lead to misdirected investments, neglecting current prevalent threats. Overall, these factors can disrupt business operations, erode stakeholder trust, and increase financial losses. European critical infrastructure sectors, including finance, energy, and healthcare, are particularly vulnerable to these stealthy, high-severity attacks, which could have cascading effects on national security and economic stability.

European organizations should implement targeted attack surface reduction by conducting comprehensive asset inventories to identify and disable unnecessary services and applications, thereby minimizing exploitable vectors. Employ strict application whitelisting and monitor for anomalous use of legitimate tools to detect LOTL tactics. Enhance internal policies to encourage transparent breach reporting aligned with GDPR and other regulatory requirements to maintain compliance and stakeholder trust. Foster alignment between executive leadership and frontline security teams through regular communication, joint risk assessments, and shared cybersecurity objectives to ensure coherent strategy execution. Invest in continuous security training emphasizing current adversary tactics rather than solely focusing on emerging AI threats. Deploy advanced behavioral analytics and endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions capable of identifying subtle indicators of compromise associated with LOTL attacks. Prioritize identity and access management improvements to limit lateral movement and privilege escalation. Address workforce burnout and skills gaps by promoting security automation and providing adequate resources. Finally, conduct regular tabletop exercises simulating breach scenarios to improve organizational readiness and response coordination.