Top 5 Cybersecurity Hacks of 2025 | Biggest Breaches

2025 has shaped up to be one of the most dangerous years on record for cyber risk. Attackers are moving faster, utilizing AI, and expanding into sectors that were once safe from cyberattacks.

Before we dive in, here is how we define a “top hack.” Each incident on this list met at least one of these criteria:
• Scale or severity of impact
• Economic or operational disruption
• High public interest or government relevance
• A clear and actionable lesson for organizations

Although we only cover five incidents, the estimated number of cyber incidents for 2025 is 292 million, driven largely by AI-powered attack automation. 

Cyber Threat Landscape in 2025

Organizations across sectors agree that the landscape is growing more complex. According to the World Economic Forum, 72% of organizations reported an increase in cyber risk over the past year.

Attackers are also evolving, with 16% of all reported cyber incidents in 2025 involving AI-generated content such as deepfakes or voice cloning. This marks one of the first years where AI-driven social engineering moved from an emerging threat to a mainstream attack vector.

Across all industries, a few major patterns defined the year:
• Supply-chain compromise and third-party vendor breaches
• Disruption to critical infrastructure and public services
• Attacks on manufacturing and industrial operations
• Growing use of AI to scale social-engineering attacks

These themes set the stage for 2025’s biggest and most consequential hacks.

Let’s take a closer look at what happened in each case, how it impacted people, and what we can learn going forward.

Hack #1: Bybit Exchange Crypto Heist 

Crypto exchange Bybit suffered one of the largest digital-asset thefts in history when threat actors linked to the Lazarus Group compromised a third-party wallet interface and approved transfers from a cold wallet and stole $1.5 billion in Ethereum.

Impact:
• Largest single crypto theft of 2025
• Shockwaves across regulators and global crypto markets
• Renewed focus on exchange-level security and insider risk

Key takeaway: Even crypto-native organizations must assume that nation-state groups are watching. Cold wallets are not invincible. Insider risk, third-party access, and nation-state resources and capabilities must be built into security models from the ground up.

Hack #2: St. Paul, Minnesota Municipal Systems Ransomware Attack

A ransomware attack forced St. Paul officials to shut down IT systems across the St. Paul, MN, municipality to contain the threat. The governor activated the Minnesota National Guard, and attackers claimed responsibility and posted approximately 43 GB of data taken from a Parks and Recreation network drive.

Impact:
• Disruption to city services
• Emergency declaration
• Data exposure from a Parks & Recreation network drive
• Forced offline restoration efforts across agencies

Key takeaway: Local governments are now prime targets. Municipal systems often rely on aging infrastructure, fragmented cybersecurity budgets, and complex vendor environments. They also store valuable information about their citizens, which is becoming a target for cyberattackers. Cities need to include high-impact cyber scenarios in both emergency and continuity planning from the outset.

Hack #3: Jaguar Land Rover Production Disruption (UK)

In September, a cyberattack forced Jaguar Land Rover to halt production across multiple facilities. OEMs and tier-1 suppliers suffered major operational setbacks.

Impact:
• Significant production losses and halted manufacturing operations (public cost estimates vary)
• Supply chains frozen, causing halts across the UK automotive industry
• Automotive sector placed on high alert
• UK officials categorized it as an “economic security event”

Key takeaway: Industrial and manufacturing companies face the same level of cyber risk as finance and tech. Operational disruptions can snowball into international supply-chain failures, creating real-world economic consequences.

Hack #4: Asahi Group Ransomware Attack

Japan’s largest brewer, Asahi Group Holdings, was attacked by the Qilin ransomware gang. The group claimed to have stolen 27 GB of internal data and forced production and distribution systems offline. Asahi shipments dropped to just 10% of normal levels. Economic losses reached an estimated $335 million.

Impact:
• Country-wide beer shortages
• Restaurants and bars affected
• Public frustration and brand damage
• Operational downtime across domestic plants

Key takeaway: Supply-chain attacks do not just affect factories. They affect consumers, brand reputation, and entire national markets. Any organization that touches the physical movement of goods needs modern cybersecurity practices. Just because a company is not digitally-based does not mean it is immune to cyberattacks. 

Hack #5: U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Breach 

The CBO confirmed that a suspected foreign actor accessed internal communications between the agency and congressional offices. TechCrunch spoke with a CBO spokesperson, Caitlin Emma, who confirmed the CBO hack. Investigators believe the hackers may have accessed emails and sensitive legislative cost-estimate discussions.

Impact:
• Potential compromise of legislative strategy
• Exposure of high-value economic analysis
• Increased geopolitical risk
• Federal-level urgency around public-sector cyber resilience

Key takeaway: Even government agencies that influence national policy are at risk. We might assume, because these are government “protected” agencies, that they are safe. But as we’ve seen, the public-sector cyber resilience isn’t as strong as we thought. The ripple effects of these breaches extend well beyond data loss.

Key Takeaways and Lessons from 2025 Cyber Hacks

Across all major cyber incidents of the year, several themes stood out:

• Vendor and supply-chain risk has overtaken many traditional threat categories
• Government, municipal, and public-sector systems are now routine targets
• AI-enabled attacks continue to accelerate, especially around social engineering
• The average breach cost was reported as $4.4 million globally
• Organizations must shift from “if” to “when” and plan accordingly

The lesson is simple. Every organization is exposed, and no industry is truly safe.

What Organizations Should Do to Avoid a Cyberattack in 2026

Here are practical steps businesses can take as they prepare for 2026:

• Conduct rigorous vendor and third-party risk assessments with continuous monitoring
• Update incident-response plans and continuity models to reflect large-scale disruptions
• Implement zero-trust architecture and enforce MFA for all access layers, including vendors
• Use AI defensively for threat hunting and analytics, while training teams to recognize AI-generated phishing and deepfake threats
• Build scenario plans for high-impact events such as municipal shutdowns or supply-chain halts
• Monitor emerging regulations, especially those tied to cross-border incident reporting

These are not optional anymore. They are the minimum requirements for operating safely in 2026.

If 2025 taught us anything, it’s that cyber incidents are increasing in scale, variety, and speed. The top five breaches outlined above are not just headlines, but warnings that carry real-world lessons. Each of these attacks had a ripple effect that impacted security teams, businesses and their leaders, and most importantly, the customers and people they serve. 

The window to prepare for 2026 is already closing. The organizations that invest in visibility, unified exposure management, and proactive defenses today will be the ones who stay off next year’s Top 5 Cybersecurity Hacks list.