This report examines how AI is reshaping the digital footprint of organizations across ANZ and the security and data-protection challenges that come with it. It also discusses how attackers are abusing trusted cloud platforms to push malware into local organizations, and explores how the current patterns of data policy violations should serve as a call to action for organizations handling sensitive data.
Shadow AI is losing ground: Staff using personal AI accounts and sending potentially sensitive work-related data in prompts, has been a major AI security challenge in recent years. In the last twelve months, organizations in ANZ have made significant ground in curbing this Shadow AI vector, with usage rates of organization-managed AI tools more than doubling over the period, leading to a drop in personal applications’ usage. But as employees refine their preferences in terms of AI usage, and continue to explore new AI tools and applications, the amount of users bouncing between personal and enterprise accounts almost doubled as well, highlighting the need for organizations to implement frictionless processes for employees to submit new AI tools and applications for review and approval, and steer them away from creating personal accounts.
