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Kiteworks’ 2025 Annual Report on Data Security & Compliance Risk
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The global threat landscape is evolving faster than organizations can secure it. In 2025, businesses are either underestimating their readiness—or admitting outright that they’re unprepared. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, the risk of sensitive data exposure is amplified by poor visibility, weak governance, and fragmented third-party oversight.
The report reveals a stark reality:
• Supply chain scale corresponds to slower breach discovery. Organizations managing 5,000+ supply chain partners take 3+ months—often longer—to detect a breach. Prolonged detection windows directly correlate with higher litigation costs and legal exposure, leaving companies blindsided by compounding financial and regulatory damage.
• AI oversight is critically lacking. Only 17% of surveyed companies say they have technical AI governance frameworks in place. Even more concerning, a mere 17% claim technical governance frameworks exist, with just 17% confident in AI oversight across data security controls. In a world where AI workflows increasingly interact with sensitive data, 83% lack the guardrails needed to govern it.
• Visible compliance hides costly inefficiencies. For every $1 invested in compliance activities organizations can see, an additional $2.33 is burned in hidden costs—including stalled innovation, missed opportunities, audit fatigue, and delayed security modernization. That’s billions lost annually to compliance drag, not improved resilience.
• Breach frequency is outpacing defense budgets. Companies working with 5,000+ supply chain partners reported 10+ breaches per year and are spending an average of $3 million+ annually in litigation costs alone. Those experiencing 10+ full ecosystem breaches report $3 million+ annually in litigation costs, not including breach response, fines, or reputational damage
Organizations that achieve unified visibility—across third-party ecosystems, AI usage, and compliance risk posture—will outperform, out-innovate, and out-defend the rest.
Kiteworks enables this advantage through secure content collaboration, AI-aware governance, and transparency across extended partner networks. By eliminating blind spots and hidden compliance waste, businesses gain proactive breach detection, stronger regulatory outcomes, and the freedom to innovate without compromising sensitive data.
Welcome to another _secpro!
We’re done with social engineering for now, but if you’d like to find out how the adversary moves in the age of AI then make sure to check out the articles link in this introduction: here, here, here, here, and here.
If you want more, you know what you need to do: sign up to the premium and get access to everything we have on offer. Click the link above to visit our Substack and sign up there!
Cheers!
Austin Miller
Editor-in-Chief
HUMAN’s Guide to Adopting Agentic Commerce
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What happens when machines become your buyers? HUMAN’s Guide to Adopting Agentic Commerce in 2025 explores how merchants can build readiness for this new agent-driven economy.
At its center is AgenticTrust, HUMAN’s trust-layer technology that classifies and governs AI agents in real time. We’re inviting cybersecurity and AI influencers to engage their audiences with this critical question: How do we build trust when the customer is no longer human?
The world is entering the era of Agentic Commerce. A new era where autonomous AI a