Navigating the New Era of Cyber Risk: Our Commitment to Resilience and the Strategic Pillars of Modern Defense
In today’s rapidly digitalized world, cybersecurity is no longer merely a technical challenge; it is a profound and persistent systemic risk that impacts every organization, regardless of size or sector. The recent security incident we experienced, while regrettable, occurs within a global threat landscape characterized by unprecedented scale, speed, and sophistication.
To reassure our stakeholders, partners, and customers, we are sharing an overview of the escalating global challenges and detailing the advanced, data-driven security strategies we are implementing to not only recover quickly but to build long-term, verifiable cyber resilience.
David StaussThe Escalating Global Threat and Evolving Cost Landscape
Cyber incidents are rapidly accelerating worldwide, demonstrating a long-term upward trajectory. Between 2014 and 2023, the number of publicly disclosed cyber incidents grew at an average annual rate of 21 percent, a trend experts expect to continue. This challenge is intensified by two major dynamics: escalating complexity and volatile financial impact.
1. Rise in Sophistication and Frequency
Malicious or criminal attacks account for 51% of all organizational data breach root causes. The surge is driven primarily by the strategic use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by adversaries.
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- AI-Driven Attacks: Attackers are leveraging AI to enhance their methodologies, with 16% of breaches reportedly involving attackers using AI. Nearly 47% of organizations cite adversarial advances powered by Generative AI (GenAI) as their primary concern.
- Targeting Identities: Identity-based attacks—which target users’ digital footprints, credentials, and access—have become dominant, accounting for 60% of all Cisco Talos Incident Response cases in 2024. This focus is highly effective, as malicious actors use compromised valid accounts to facilitate major phases of their operations, including lateral movement and privilege escalation.
- Widespread Risk: Globally, organizations are facing intense pressure, with the frequency of cyber threats escalating swiftly.
2. The Dual Reality of Economic Costs
The global financial cost of a data breach had steadily risen, reaching an average of $4.88 million in 2024, reflecting a 10% annual increase.
However, the latest analysis reveals a critical inflection point: the global average cost of a data breach dropped for the first time in five years, falling 9% to USD 4.44 million. This decline is a powerful testament to the effectiveness of advanced security technologies when properly deployed.
Advanced Defense is the Differentiator:
The cost reduction is directly attributed to faster breach containment achieved through advanced defenses. Organizations leveraging security AI and automation extensively saw profound benefits:
- Organizations leveraging automation reduced average breach costs by 70%.
- High-level use of AI-driven and Machine Learning (ML)-driven insights reduced average breach costs to $3.85 million, compared to $4.9 million for organizations that used these technologies at a low level or not at all.
- Organizations with extensive AI and automation use were able to identify and contain a breach in 204 days, significantly faster than the 284 days reported by non-users.
Our strategy is anchored in embracing these technologies to accelerate detection, containment, and recovery.
Breach Notification TrackerOur Strategic Defense: The Five Pillars of Readiness
While the adoption of AI and automation is lowering costs for proactive organizations, the overall state of global preparedness remains flat. A majority of companies—70%—still operate in the lowest readiness categories (Formative and Beginner).
To move into the "Reinvention-Ready Zone", we are systematically enhancing our security posture across the five critical pillars defined in the 2025 Cybersecurity Readiness Index:
- Identity Intelligence (25% Weight): Given that identity-based attacks are highly effective, this pillar is fundamental. Our focus includes enforcing a robust identity security strategy with comprehensive identity visibility, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and AI detection to defend against compromised credentials and user digital footprints.
- Network Resilience (25% Weight): We are moving beyond partial implementation to prepare our networks for the AI era. This pillar emphasizes strong network segmentation and advanced anomaly detection systems to protect connectivity across complex cloud, on-premise, and edge environments.
- Machine Trustworthiness (20% Weight): This pillar focuses on implementing a Zero Trust security model to verify every user and device before granting network access. This acts as both the first and last line of defense, mitigating the expansive attack surface created by hybrid work and the Internet of Things (IoT) landscape.
- Cloud Reinforcement (15% Weight): Cloud environments present new complexities. We are prioritizing a unified, proactive security model enhanced by AI to secure critical cloud workloads, moving away from fragmented strategies. Cloud Reinforcement currently has the lowest reported maturity globally, at only 4% of companies reaching Mature status.
- AI Fortification (15% Weight): As the newest, specialized pillar, AI Fortification mandates the development of a robust AI security strategy. This includes securing the proper use of AI technologies and protecting the AI models themselves. Readiness in this area remains low globally, with only 7% of companies achieving Mature status.
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Addressing the AI Oversight Gap
While AI and automation are crucial defensive tools, their rapid adoption has created an "AI Oversight Gap". Attackers are exploiting this gap, necessitating immediate governance improvements.
- Shadow AI Risk: Security incidents involving unsanctioned or "shadow AI" accounted for 20% of breaches. These incidents are particularly costly, adding an average of $200,000 to the breach price tag.
- Governance Deficiencies: This risk is compounded by the lack of controls; 97% of organizations that reported an AI-related security incident lacked proper AI access controls.
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We recognize that AI security must be treated as foundational. We are prioritizing AI governance tools, developing AI-focused incident response plans, and ensuring strict approval procedures are in place for AI deployments to mitigate the risk of shadow AI and model compromise.
In Conclusion:
The current era demands a proactive, collaborative approach to cybersecurity. Our organization is committed to maintaining a state of readiness that surpasses the rising threat level by anchoring our strategy in these five pillars and leveraging the efficiency of AI and automation to enhance our defenses and protect our valued data assets.
