Cost of Employee Data Loss Errors Soars

Insider risk security incidents now cost organisations an average of US$19.5M annually, a 12% increase over the previous year.   

Everyday employee negligence – not malicious intent - has long been the root cause of most data theft.  Last year it accounted for more than half of the total losses.   

Increasingly complex digital environments are leading to more misjudgements, process gaps, and unmanaged workflows.   

Shadow AI is also accelerating the data losses. As AI is increasingly adopted across the workforce, visibility and governance are failing to keep pace.  Organisations are left in the dark about how routine productivity behaviours expose sensitive data.  

92% of organisations surveyed by the Ponemon Institute acknowledged that generative AI has fundamentally changed how employees access and share information.  Most (73%) said they worried that unauthorised AI use is creating invisible data exfiltration paths, but only 18% had fully integrated AI governance into their insider risk programs.  

As a result, exposure is growing faster than control. 

A Managed File Transfer solution is a key bulwark against unauthorised data movement.  At Generic Systems Australia, we have decades of experience assisting Australian and New Zealand organisations to quickly and affordably deploy the world’s most effective MFT solution, GoAnywhere MFT. 

If you’d like to chat about how we could assist your organisation in preventing costly data loss errors by employees, let us know.   

Source: The data in this article is from Ponemon Institute’s Cost of Insider Risks 2026 Report.