AI-Driven Threats Increase India's Cyber Risk Profile: Trend Micro Cyber Risk Report 2025 -

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AI-Driven Threats Increase India’s Cyber Risk Profile: Trend Micro Cyber Risk Report 2025

The Trend 2025 Cyber Risk Report, published by global cybersecurity company Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), provides information on India’s susceptibility to changing cyber threats.

Research

India is still one of the nations most frequently attacked worldwide across all threat vectors, with a heightened susceptibility to malware and email attacks. The study examines Trend Micro’s 2024 telemetry to identify vulnerabilities and comprehend attacker behavior, allowing countermeasures to be put in place for the upcoming year and turning security from a problem into an opportunity for innovation and company expansion.

India’s Top Cybersecurity Concern: Email Threats

With more than 1.49 trillion threats identified, email continues to be the most common attack channel worldwide. The magnitude of the problem is highlighted by the fact that 6.9% of these instances were caused by India alone.

India was the main hotspot in Asia, accounting for a startling 23.92% of email-based threats overall and a commanding 90.78% in Southern Asia. Given its exposure to many businesses and the pressing need for better email security infrastructure, India recorded over 1.03 billion email threats in absolute terms.

Ransomware and malware Keep Endangering Indian Businesses

With 19.3 million malware detections, or 4.74% of global activity, India ranks third internationally and second in Asia, making it a prime target for cyber threats. The sectors most affected were banking, financial services, and government; these were often the targets of malware families like CoinMiner, FakeMS, and Mudyupdate.

Ransomware is still a huge problem in the region, with India accounting for 3.36% of ransomware detections worldwide and a startling 77.68% in Southern Asia. Ransomware occurrences totaled 209,000 in 2024 alone, with WannaCry (WCRY) being the most commonly seen strain.

The persistence of these earlier threats suggests that patching and endpoint protection are still lacking in many enterprises.

Sharda Tickoo, Country Manager for India & SAARC, Trend Micro

“India’s growing digital footprint makes it an attractive target for cybercriminals. From ransomware and malware to email threats, attackers are becoming more persistent and adaptive.

With AI transforming the threat landscape, it’s crucial that businesses in India recognize the dual-edged nature of these technologies. Now is the time for proactive, intelligence-driven cybersecurity that goes beyond basic defenses.”

The study discusses noteworthy applications of AI in cybercrime as well as some noteworthy APT campaigns, providing a worldwide perspective in addition to India-specific insights. Other significant worldwide highlights include:

AI-driven exploitation and deception: Generative AI is being used by threat actors in phishing, disinformation campaigns, and scams, including virtual kidnapping and pig slaughtering.

Malicious digital twins and deepfakes make these attacks more realistic and challenging to identify. But, as demonstrated by the industry-first security LLM Trend Cybertron, AI may also enable network defenders to more accurately anticipate and stop intrusions.

LLM and rogue AI risks: Weaknesses like disinformation and embedding flaws are highlighted in the OWASP Top 10 for LLMs, which lists the most important web application security threats.

Attacker manipulation, human error, or technological constraints can potentially result in rogue AI attacks.

Enhanced post-breach tactics: By automating data extraction and processing, artificial intelligence (AI) facilitates speedier, large-scale reconnaissance, assisting hackers in more effectively identifying victims and intensifying attacks.

Patterns of Global and Regional Threats

Ransomware reached 6.23 million, malware detections surpassed 407 million, and email threats surpassed 1.49 trillion globally.
Over 430 billion emails were sent in Asia, with India accounting for almost 25% of those threats.
India led Southern Asia in every category: ransomware accounted for 77.68%, malware for 93.82%, and email threats for 90.78%.
Businesses that implemented proactive security measures are seeing quantifiable drops in cyber risk; their average annual score on the Cyber Risk Index (CRI)* is 38.4, which is 6.2 points lower than in 2023.

Trend Micro advises businesses to take the following actions to reduce the Cyber Risk Index:

Maximize product benefits and receive notifications about setup errors, vulnerabilities, and other threats by optimizing security settings. By using third-party sources and native sensors to create a thorough picture of the attack surface.
Once a risky event has been identified, use the Trend Vision OneTM Workbench search option to confirm and look into it by getting in touch with the device and/or account owner.
Perform a stale account inventory to eliminate unused and inactive accounts, disable accounts that pose a danger, change passwords with secure credentials, and activate multi-factor authentication (MFA).
Update your operating system and applications frequently, and apply the most recent fixes.

About The Author

Suraj Koli is a content specialist in technical writing about cybersecurity & information security. He has written many amazing articles related to cybersecurity concepts, with the latest trends in cyber awareness and ethical hacking. Find out more about “Him.”

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