Thales

49 STATS3 REPORTS

All Statistics

Nearly two-thirds (64%) of respondents ranked cloud security among their top five security priorities.

CloudSecurity priorities

17% of respondents identified cloud security as their number one priority.

CloudSecurity priorities

55% of respondents report cloud environments are more complex to secure than on-premises infrastructure. This represents a 4-percentage-point increase from last year.

Cloud

57% of organisations use five or more encryption key managers.

CloudToolsEncryption

Enterprises now use an average of 85 SaaS applications, contributing to security tool sprawl.

CloudSaaSEnterpriseToolsTool sprawl

Four of the top five most targeted assets in reported attacks are cloud-based.

Cloud

Over half (52%) of respondents are prioritising AI security investments over other security needs.

CloudAIInvestment

68% of respondents reported a rise in access-based attacks.

Cloud

61% of organisations use five or more tools for data discovery, monitoring, or classification.

CloudTools

85% of organisations say at least 40% of their cloud data is sensitive.

CloudCloud dataSensitive data

Over half of cloud data is now classified as sensitive.

CloudCloud dataSensitive data

Only 66% of organisations have implemented multifactor authentication (MFA)

CloudMFA

The average number of public cloud providers per organisation has risen to 2.1.

Cloud

Of those prioritizing AI security, nearly half are turning to new or emerging startups.

AISecurity tools

Malware remains the top attack type, holding this position since 2021.

Malware

Of those prioritizing AI security, over two-thirds have acquired tools from their cloud providers.

AISecurity tools

Half (50%) of organizations are assessing their encryption strategies in response to quantum risks.

Quantum computing

Security for generative AI has quickly risen as a top spending priority, securing the second spot in ranked-choice voting, just behind cloud security.

AIGen AIBudgetInvestment

In 2021, 56% of surveyed enterprises reported experiencing a breach. That figure has dropped to 45% in 2025.

Breach

57% of organizations view lack of trustworthiness as a major concern regarding AI adoption.

AI

Only one-third of organizations are placing their trust in telecom or cloud providers to manage the transition to PQC.

Quantum computing

A third of respondents indicate that GenAI is either being integrated or is actively transforming their operations.

AIGen AI

61% identified key distribution vulnerabilities as a major quantum-related threat.

Quantum computing

73% of respondents report investing in AI-specific security tools, using either new budgets or reallocating existing resources.

AISecurity tools

Nearly 70% of organizations identify AI’s fast-moving ecosystem, particularly in generative AI, as the top GenAI-related security risk.

AIGen AICyber risk

64% of organizations view lack of integrity as a major concern regarding AI adoption.

AI

Of those prioritizing AI security, three in five (60%) are leveraging established security vendors.

AISecurity tools

58% highlighted the “harvest now, decrypt later” (HNDL) threat as a major quantum-related threat.

Quantum computing

Nation-state actors are second most concerning threat actors.

Threat group

60% identified future decryption of today’s data and future encryption compromise as major concerns among quantum computing security threats.

Quantum computing

Phishing has risen to second place of most popular attack types.

Phishing

Human error, while still significant, has dropped to third place of most concerning threat actors.

Human error

The top quantum-related threat, cited by 63% of respondents, is future encryption compromise (the risk that quantum computers could break current or future encryption).

Quantum computing

The percentage of respondents reporting a breach within the last 12 months has fallen from 23% in 2021 to just 14% in 2025.

Breach

Ransomware has dropped to third place of most popular attack types.

Ransomware

When it comes to the most concerning threat actors, external sources dominate with hacktivists holding the top spot.

Threat group

60% (three out of five) of organizations are actively prototyping or evaluating post-quantum cryptography (PQC) solutions or prototyping new ciphers.

Quantum computing

Human error, while still significant, has dropped to third place of most concerning threat actors.

Human error

In the Retail sector, bad bots made up 59% of their traffic.

BotAutomated traffic

Malicious bots now account for 37% of all internet traffic, a significant increase from 32% in 2023.

Malicious botsAutomated traffic

Financial services, healthcare, and e-commerce are the most affected sectors by sophisticated bot attacks targeting APIs

APIBot attackBot

Computing & IT accounted for 17% of all ATO incidents.

ATO

Telecoms and ISPs accounted for 18% of all ATO incidents.

ATO

In the Travel sector, bad bots made up 41% of their traffic in 2024. There was a decline in advanced bot attacks targeting the travel industry (41% in 2024, down from 61% in 2023) and a sharp increase in simple bot attacks (52% in 2024, up from 34% in 2023).

BotAutomated traffic

The travel sector topped the list for bot attacks overall, accounting for 27% of all bot attacks in 2024, up from 21% in 2023.

Bot attack

44% of advanced bot traffic targeted APIs.

BotAPIs

ByteSpider Bot was responsible for 54% of all AI-enabled attacks. Other significant contributors include AppleBot at 26%, ClaudeBot at 13%, and ChatGPT User Bot at 6%.

ByteSpider BotAI attack

The financial services sector was the most targeted industry for account takeover (ATO) attacks, accounting for 22% of all incidents.

ATO

Automated traffic surpassed human activity, accounting for 51% of all web traffic. This is the first time in a decade that automated traffic has exceeded human activity. This occurred in 2024.

Automated trafficBot