FORTINET REPORT REVEALS CONTINUED RISE IN DATA LOSS DESPITE SMARTER DATA SECURITY PRACTICES AND RECORD CYBERSECURITY SPENDING

BUDGETS FOR DATA SECURITY ROSE AT 72% OF ORGANISATIONS LAST YEAR, YET 41% OF ORGANISATIONS STILL LOST MILLIONS TO INSIDER-DRIVEN DATA INCIDENTS

- 

The 2025 Data Security Report from Fortinet and Cybersecurity Insiders shows that many security leaders are moving beyond a purely tech-driven mindset and adopting a more programmatic approach to protecting sensitive data. Budget trends are positive, with organisations reporting increased funding for insider risk and data protection last year, reflecting success in making the case for investment.

However, despite adopting smarter strategies and allocating stronger budgets, data loss continues to rise. Seventy-seven percent of organisations reported at least one insider-related incident in the past 18 months, and 58% reported six or more. The question is, why?

The gap is in the tools. While most organisations rely on some form of data loss prevention (DLP), many of these legacy solutions were built for simpler, perimeter-driven environments. Most lack visibility into how employees actually interact with data—especially in SaaS and generative AI tools—and they miss the context that separates accidents from actual risk.

In today's distributed, cloud-heavy enterprises, those limitations make traditional DLP tools poorly suited for the job.

Spending more, securing less. why?

According to the report, 72% of organisations boosted their budgets to address insider risk and data protection last year, with more than a quarter reporting significant increases. Many also added tools and programmatic initiatives to close gaps. However, nearly half still suffered substantial financial losses, often in the millions of dollars per incident. So, despite these aggressive changes, the problem continues to worsen. The issue isn't investment. It's reliance on tools that weren't built for today's risks.