TLDR: The 2025 Thales Data Threat Report highlights generative AI (GenAI) as the foremost data security concern for nearly 70% of organizations globally. The report, based on a survey of over 3,100 IT and security professionals, indicates that the rapid adoption of GenAI is outpacing security readiness, leading to significant investments in AI-specific security tools. Concerns also extend to data integrity, trustworthiness, and emerging post-quantum cryptography risks.
A new report from Thales, the 2025 Data Threat Report, reveals that the rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is now the leading data security concern for a significant majority of organizations worldwide. The comprehensive study, conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research, surveyed over 3,100 IT and security professionals across 20 countries and 15 industries.
According to the findings, nearly 70% of global respondents, and over 65% in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, identified the fast-moving GenAI ecosystem as their primary security risk. This concern is closely followed by worries over data integrity (64% globally, 63% APAC) and trustworthiness (57% globally, 55% APAC). The report underscores a critical imbalance: while a third of surveyed organizations are already integrating GenAI or experiencing operational transformation from its use, security readiness is struggling to keep pace.
Eric Hanselman, chief analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research, commented on the urgency, stating, “Many enterprises are deploying GenAI faster than they can fully understand their application architectures, compounded by the rapid spread of SaaS tools embedding GenAI capabilities, adding layers of complexity and risk.” This rapid deployment without adequate understanding is inadvertently creating significant vulnerabilities.
In response to these escalating risks, 73% of organizations are actively investing in AI-specific security tools, with approximately 20% utilizing newly allocated budgets for these solutions. This indicates a growing recognition of the specialized security needs introduced by GenAI.
Beyond AI, the report also delves into other critical security landscapes. It notes a modest decline in reported data breaches, with 45% of enterprises experiencing a breach in 2025, down from 56% in 2021. Breaches within the last 12 months also saw a decrease, falling to 14% in 2025 from 23% in 2021. Malware continues to be the most prevalent threat since 2021, with phishing rising to the second spot, surpassing ransomware, which now ranks third. In terms of threat actors, hacktivists are considered the top concern, followed by nation-state adversaries, with human error moving to third place.
Also Read:
- Generative AI Fuels Surge in Sophisticated Phishing Campaigns
- Cybersecurity and AI Propel Software Spending to Sustained Double-Digit Growth Through 2029
The 2025 report further highlights increasing concerns around post-quantum security threats. The top risk identified is future encryption compromise (63% globally, 60% APAC), which refers to the potential for quantum computers to break current or future encryption algorithms. Other significant concerns include key distribution vulnerabilities (61% globally, 60% APAC) and the ‘harvest now, decrypt later’ threat (58% globally), where intercepted encrypted data could be decrypted in the future. In response, half of the surveyed organizations are reassessing their encryption strategies, and 60% are prototyping or evaluating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) solutions. However, only one-third are relying on telecom or cloud providers to manage this complex transition. Todd Moore, global vice president of data security products at Thales, emphasized the urgency: “The clock is ticking on post-quantum readiness, but deployment timelines are tight and falling behind could leave critical data exposed.”
