Insider Risk
We've curated 96 cybersecurity statistics about Insider risk to help you understand how employee behaviors and unintentional mistakes are becoming critical threats in 2025. Explore how organizations are adapting their practices to mitigate these risks effectively.
Showing 1-20 of 96 results
80% of organizations report shadow AI (employees connecting AI tools without security or IT review).
12% of organizations maintain direct user-to-server administrative pathways, meaning a single compromised employee device can provide immediate access to high-value systems.
17% of Nordic CISOs cited insiders & human error as their primary concern.
Shadow AI is now the third most common non-malicious insider action detected in Verizon's data loss prevention (DLP) dataset in 2025
13% of employees say they’ve sold or know someone who has sold company login details – often under the belief it’s harmless
Over a third of employees commonly source their own agentic AI tools when options are unavailable or restrictive.
45% of organizations classify AI copilots and generative AI tools as insider risk.
74% of organizations rank negligent insiders as their top concern, surpassing compromised accounts (65%) and malicious insiders (59%).
90% of organizations experienced at least one insider incident in the past 12 months.
Negligence drove the highest losses, with costs reaching $10.3 million annually – a 17% year-over-year increase.
64% increased insider risk budgets in 2025, yet 45% still view funding as insufficient.
70% expect insider risk budgets to rise again in 2026, with 28% anticipating increases of 10% or more.
92% of organizations say generative AI has fundamentally changed how employees access and share information
Identity management and behavioral intelligence delivered the largest breach cost savings, reducing insider risk costs by $6.1 million and $5.1 million per year, respectively.
Insider incidents contained within 30 days cost $14.2 million annually, compared with $21.9 million when containment exceeds 90 days.
Organizations with established insider risk programs prevented at least seven insider incidents per year, avoiding approximately $8.2 million in breach-related costs.
Only 19% of organizations classify AI agents as equivalent to human insiders.
73% worry unauthorized AI use is creating invisible data exfiltration paths.
Just 18% have fully integrated AI governance into their insider risk programs.
Insider risk containment represents the largest cost driver at $247,587 per incident, far exceeding escalation costs of $39,728.