Let’s rip the Band-Aid off: cybercrime isn’t slowing down—it’s evolving faster than we can patch it. Between AI-powered phishing, state-sponsored hackers, and the 26 billion records leaked in 2024’s “mother of all breaches,” the digital underworld is thriving. As NordVPN’s CTO, Marijus Briedis, bluntly put it at RightsCon 25: “Prevention alone is insufficient. What you need is resilience.”
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The New Cyber Battlefield: Adapt or Die
Gone are the days when a firewall and antivirus were enough. Today’s threats? Smarter, meaner, and shockingly scalable. Briedis knows this firsthand—NordVPN, based in Lithuania, faced a surge of attacks after the Ukraine war ignited. His warning? “With little resources, you can have a lot of damage.” And boy, does that sting.
2024 wasn’t just a bad year for cybersecurity—it was a dumpster fire. Ransomware gangs weaponized AI, phishing emails got eerily persuasive, and Google’s 2025 forecast labeled generative AI a top-tier threat. Meanwhile, NordVPN rolled out Threat Protection Pro and NordProtect, tools lauded for malware defense and ID theft prevention. But here’s the kicker: even the best tools aren’t bulletproof.
Cyber Resilience: The Only Way Forward
Laws and firewalls help, but they’re reactive. Briedis argues cybersecurity isn’t a checkbox—it’s a mindset. “We have to be adaptive,” he insists. That means learning from breaches, not just blocking them. For activists and NGOs at RightsCon, his advice was simple: educate, share, and stay paranoid.
- Step 1: Know thy enemy. Follow threats, test security tools, and—crucially—talk about them. Not just with IT, but with your grandma, your barista, everyone.
- Step 2: Shared responsibility. Cybersecurity isn’t just a “tech team” problem. One weak link—a reused password, a dodgy link—can sink the ship.
The Bottom Line: Resilience Beats Perfection
No one’s immune. Not governments, not corporations, certainly not individuals. But here’s the good news: resilience is teachable. Stay informed, spread knowledge, and assume everything is a target. Because in today’s digital warzone, survival isn’t about avoiding hits—it’s about weathering them.
