The Windows security landscape has dramatically evolved in early 2025, marked by increasingly sophisticated attack vectors and Microsoft’s accelerated defensive innovations.
February 2025 witnessed a sharp 87% increase in ransomware incidents globally, with 956 reported victims compared to January. As threat actors adapt their techniques, Microsoft has responded with significant security enhancements while organizations navigate a complex threat environment dominated by privilege escalation attacks and driver vulnerabilities.
Emerging Threat Landscape
The “Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver” (BYOVD) attack has emerged as one of the most concerning Windows security threats in 2025. This technique involves attackers exploiting legitimate but flawed driver software to disable security controls and compromise systems.
These attacks are particularly effective because drivers operate at the most privileged level of the operating system (ring 0), giving them direct access to critical system resources.
According to recent reports, cyberattacks related to vulnerabilities in Windows drivers have increased by 23% based on 2024 vulnerability analysis.
In March 2025, a zero-day vulnerability in a Microsoft-signed driver from Paragon Software (CVE-2025-0289) was actively exploited in ransomware attacks.
The CERT Coordination Center warned that this insecure kernel resource access vulnerability could be used to escalate privileges or execute DoS attacks, even on systems where Paragon Partition Manager was not installed. Microsoft observed threat actors using this vulnerability “to achieve privilege escalation to SYSTEM level, then execute further malicious code.”
Elevation of privilege vulnerabilities continue to dominate the Windows security landscape, accounting for 40% of total vulnerabilities in 2023. This persistence indicates that hackers’ objectives remain unchanged – they need to gain privileges to execute their attacks.
InfoStealer malware campaigns have also seen a sharp increase since the start of 2025, with attackers leveraging social engineering via fake CAPTCHA prompts. These attacks direct users to paste malicious commands into the Windows “Run” dialog, establishing code execution that enumerates credentials and stored sessions before exfiltrating them.
Microsoft’s Defensive Strategy
In response to these evolving threats, Microsoft has announced several significant security enhancements. The most notable is Administrator Protection, a new feature that gives users standard permissions by default and requires Windows Hello authentication for actions needing administrator rights.
This creates a temporary token that is destroyed once the task is completed, making it “disruptive to attackers as they no longer have automatic, direct access to the kernel or other critical system security without specific Windows Hello authorization.”
Microsoft Defender XDR (formerly Microsoft 365 Defender) has received major updates to provide incident-level visibility across the cyberattack chain.
The solution now features automatic disruption of advanced attacks with AI to limit cyberattackers’ progress early on. At Microsoft’s Secure 2025 event, the company announced further enhancements to alleviate the burden of repetitive tasks for SOC analysts as phishing threats grow increasingly sophisticated.
A new “Quick Machine Recovery” feature will help administrators remotely fix systems rendered unbootable via Windows Update “targeted fixes,” eliminating the need for physical access to affected machines.
This development appears to address concerns raised by the CrowdStrike meltdown that caused billions of dollars in damage by crashing millions of PCs and servers worldwide.
Windows Protected Print mode, introduced with Windows 11 24H2 in October 2024, eliminates the need for third-party print drivers that have become effective entry points for attackers.
This represents the first major change to Windows printing in 25 years and prevents the installation of V3 or V4 printer drivers, requiring Mopria-certified printers using the Microsoft IPP class driver instead.
Recent Security Incidents
April’s Patch Tuesday addressed 121 vulnerabilities, including a Windows zero-day (CVE-2025-29824) actively exploited by the Storm-2460 ransomware group.
This Windows Common Log File System Driver elevation-of-privilege flaw affected most Windows Server and desktop systems, allowing attackers with local access and a regular user account to gain full system privileges.
Storm-2460 targeted organizations across the U.S., Venezuela, Spain, and Saudi Arabia, infiltrating vulnerable systems to deploy malware.
February 2025’s ransomware landscape showed unprecedented growth, with Clop ransomware seeing a staggering 453% increase compared to January, while Play experienced a 360% spike. The Manufacturing sector was hardest hit, with attacks increasing 112% from January to February.
Looking Forward
As Microsoft continues to reduce critical vulnerabilities and remove excessive privileges on endpoints, attackers are increasingly forced to exploit elevation of privilege vulnerabilities.
The company’s roadmap includes plans to allow security products to operate in user mode instead of kernel mode, with a private preview scheduled for July 2025.
These developments represent a significant shift in Windows security architecture, addressing fundamental flaws exposed by recent incidents while countering the sophisticated techniques employed by modern threat actors.
For organizations, staying ahead of these evolving threats requires vigilant patching, implementing advanced threat detection, and adopting Microsoft’s latest security features.
Stay updated with SOC News for cutting-edge security innovations and expert industry insights!
Source: https://cybersecuritynews.com/windows-security-in-2025/
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has announced an expansion of its HPE Aruba Networking and HPE GreenLake cloud offerings to support enterprises in enhancing secure connectivity and hybrid cloud operations.
New capabilities now available in HPE Aruba Networking Central include cloud-based access control security designed to accelerate enterprise-grade zero trust security. This approach treats every user, device, and application as a potential threat until verified, employing robust policy capabilities to strengthen protection measures. Additionally, HPE Private Cloud Enterprise introduces threat-adaptive security features to support compliance with the Digital Operations Resilience Act (DORA), offering the capability to disconnect from the public internet when a network threat is detected.
Phil Mottram, Executive Vice President and General Manager, HPE Aruba Networking, commented on the evolving cyber threat landscape and the need for advanced security: “With the rise in adoption of data-fueled AI applications, organisations are facing more sophisticated threats to anywhere data is stored, captured or transmitted. HPE’s security solutions deliver advanced protection to help organisations mitigate risk, defend against attacks and build resiliency.”
The new features in HPE Aruba Networking Central Network Access Control (NAC) include precision cloud-based access controls, enabling IT teams to define and implement role-based policies for user and device identification. These enhancements are designed to help enterprises advance universal zero trust network access initiatives. Additional features, such as Intrusion Detection System (IDS), Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), AI-powered observability, and microsegmentation, are aimed at reducing the impact of potential security breaches.
Among the new security functionalities are the Enhanced Policy Manager for HPE Aruba Networking Central NAC, which establishes detailed network access policies—such as application-to-role, role-to-subnet, and role-to-role policies. This ensures consistent enforcement of security and compliance across edge-to-cloud networks.
Integration between HPE Aruba Networking Central and HPE OpsRamp has been strengthened to provide native monitoring of third-party devices from vendors like Cisco, Arista, and Juniper Networks. Enhanced application profiling, classification, and risk assessment tools now give enterprises the capacity to establish application-specific access policies based on risk criteria.
Updates to HPE Aruba Networking EdgeConnect SD-WAN bring new Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) integration and Adaptive Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) defence capabilities. These use machine learning to dynamically adjust DDoS protections in real time. All Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) customers now receive a complimentary licence for HPE Aruba Networking Private Edge.
HPE Aruba Networking SSE offers new high-availability and high-performance mesh connectivity for routing traffic between global points of presence, aiming to improve reliability and resiliency. Mesh connectivity automatically determines the fastest secure path for data, providing alternative routes and automatic recovery to ensure continued security, without requiring manual intervention by IT teams.
On the private cloud front, HPE GreenLake receives further security enhancements intended to protect against emerging threats and to support compliance with new regulations. HPE Private Cloud Enterprise now features threat-adaptive security, capable of temporarily isolating critical systems by disconnecting from the public internet when a threat is detected. This function acts as a “digital circuit breaker” and is designed to minimise impacts before securely reconnecting systems once the threat is resolved. These features specifically address requirements for regulated industries, including the financial sector, under DORA.
HPE also announced the general availability of air-gapped cloud management through HPE Private Cloud Enterprise. This service enables customers in regulated industries or government to manage private cloud infrastructure entirely on-premises, without any external connectivity, and is deployed by security-cleared HPE staff. Future enhancements will allow cloud-native and Kubernetes workloads to be managed with the same air-gapped approach.
Additional offerings include HPE Cybersecurity Services for sovereign cloud, providing expertise to integrate sovereign security solutions into an organisation’s risk management framework. New cybersecurity services focused on AI aim to give customers governance and compliance support while transforming operations to predict and counter both traditional and AI-driven threats.
The integration between HPE’s OpsRamp and CrowdStrike provides unified observability and real-time threat detection, designed to enhance performance and resilience for enterprise systems.
HPE’s announcement comes as the company marks a year since signing the CISA Secure by Design pledge. HPE reports that it deploys more than 2,200 security controls within HPE GreenLake, and utilises Zero Trust frameworks to meet requirements set by CIS, CISA Secure by Design, STIG, and DORA.
Other advancements in HPE’s secure by design initiatives include Aruba Networking’s AI-based network detection and response (NDR), ransomware protection through the HPE Cyber Resilience Vault, and the introduction of the HPE ProLiant Compute Gen12 portfolio with HPE Integrated Lights Out 7. The new servers also provide a silicon root of trust and feature post-quantum cryptography capabilities meeting FIPS 140-3 Level 3 security certification.
Stay updated with SOC News for cutting-edge security innovations and expert industry insights!
Source: https://datacentrenews.uk/story/hpe-unveils-enhanced-ai-powered-security-for-cloud-network
