Kaspersky Warns of Escalating Cyber Threats Facing Global Telecom Sector in 2025 and Beyond
Kaspersky’s latest Cybersecurity Bulletin has revealed the most critical threats faced by the global telecommunications sector in 2025, warning that these risks are expected to persist into 2026, alongside the emergence of new operational challenges driven by the accelerated adoption of advanced technologies.
According to Kaspersky, telecom operators were subjected to intense cyberattacks throughout the past year, including Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), supply chain breaches, Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, and SIM card fraud. These attacks exploited the central role telecom networks play within the global digital infrastructure.
Striking Figures Highlight the Scale of Threats
Data from the Kaspersky Security Network covering the period from November 2024 to October 2025 shows that 13% of telecom users encountered online threats, while 21% were affected by device-based threats. Meanwhile, ransomware attacks targeted nearly 10% of telecommunications organizations worldwide, underscoring the sector’s growing exposure.
New Risks Amid Rapid Technological Transformation
The report notes that as telecom companies move from experimentation to large-scale deployment of emerging technologies, growth opportunities are expanding—but so are operational risks expected to intensify in 2026, including:
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AI-driven network management, which may introduce automation errors or decisions based on misleading data.
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Post-quantum cryptography, where rushed implementation could lead to compatibility and performance issues across IT and network environments.
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Integration of 5G networks with satellite systems (Non-Terrestrial Networks – NTN), creating new integration points and potential failure scenarios.
Warning Against Overlapping Threats
Leonid Bezvershenko, Senior Security Researcher at Kaspersky’s Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), stated that traditional cyber threats observed in 2025 “will not disappear,” but will increasingly overlap with operational risks stemming from AI automation, quantum-ready encryption, and satellite-network convergence. He emphasized that embedding cybersecurity into these technologies from the earliest stages is essential.
Recommendations to Strengthen Telecom Security
Kaspersky experts advised telecom operators to continuously monitor the APT threat landscape, strengthen resilience against DDoS attacks, integrate AI-powered network automation within structured change-management frameworks, and deploy advanced endpoint detection and response (EDR) solutions for early threat identification.