UAE Firms Lose $2.88M A Year To Insider Security Incidents: Trellix

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Organisations in the UAE are losing an average of $2.88 million annually from insider-related cybersecurity incidents, with artificial intelligence systems emerging as a significant new source of risk, according to research by Trellix.

The study, titled Mind of the CISO: The New Insider, found that among organisations that experienced an insider incident in the past 12 months, 47% reported data loss or exposure of sensitive information, 39% suffered operational disruption or downtime, and 50% reported reputational damage or a loss of customer trust.

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While employee mistakes remain the biggest contributor, the research highlights the growing role of autonomous technologies. Accidental or negligent actions by employees and other trusted users accounted for 43% of insider-related incidents, while malicious human actions were responsible for 28%. AI-driven or autonomous systems accounted for the remaining 29%, underscoring the risks associated with rapidly expanding use of AI tools.

The findings point to a changing threat landscape for chief information security officers (CISOs), who are increasingly being asked to oversee both human and machine-based risks.

“When AI agents operate inside your trusted boundary at machine speed, the resilient organisations will be the ones governing them like the privileged identities they are, while simultaneously building an agentic SOC to respond at the speed of the threat, not a human workflow,” said David Soto, Chief Information Security Officer at Trellix.

The survey found that 88% of UAE CISOs believe their responsibility for managing insider risk has increased over the past year, while 70% are concerned about personal liability if an insider-related security incident occurs. At the same time, 85% said senior executives or board members do not have a clear understanding of insider risk and its potential business impact.

The research also suggests many organisations are struggling to keep pace with AI adoption. Three-quarters of respondents said they lack sufficient visibility into how employees use AI tools, while 73% said their organisations are not fully prepared to manage risks associated with AI and autonomous systems.

Speed of response remains another challenge. UAE organisations take an average of 6.1 hours to detect an insider-related incident and a further eight hours to respond, creating a window in which threats can escalate.

“Across the UAE, the question we hear most from customers is not whether to trust AI - it is how to verify what it is actually doing,” said Vibin Shaju, Vice-President, EMEA Solutions Engineering at Trellix.“For CISOs, that means being able to trace the actions of both people and AI agents, understand them in context, and contain harmful activity before it becomes a wider business problem.”

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