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Cloud security remains the most important concern for enterprises worldwide, but more than half of businesses are concerned with keeping their AI investments secure.
As cloud adoption continues to rise and AI is integrated ever more deeply into business processes, keeping those systems secure is now the most front-of-mind concern for enterprises worldwide.
According to technology and cyber security firm Thales’ 2025 Cloud Security Study, while cloud security is the key concern for IT leaders, 52 per cent of respondents to a survey conducted by S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research are now prioritising investments into AI security over all other concerns.
“The accelerating shift to cloud and AI is forcing enterprises to rethink how they manage risk at scale,” Sebastien Cano, senior vice president of cyber security products at Thales, said in a statement.
“With over half of cloud data now classified as sensitive, and yet only a small fraction fully encrypted, it’s clear that security strategies haven’t kept pace with adoption. To remain resilient and competitive, organisations must embed strong data protection into the core of their digital infrastructure.”
Sixty-four per cent of respondents ranked cloud security in their top five concerns, with 17 per cent saying it was the number one priority for their organisation.
Thales’ study also found that there are two cloud providers per organisation, though most enterprises also continue to maintain on-premises infrastructure. Fifty-five per cent of respondents said that securing the cloud was more of a challenge, a 4 per cent rise year on year, and software-as-a-service (SaaS) usage has surged to 85 SaaS applications per enterprise, making ongoing security even more of a challenge.
Sixty-one per cent of respondents report using five or more tools for data discovery alone, while 57 per cent use at least five encryption key managers.
With so many companies dependent on cloud infrastructure, it’s no surprise four out of the five most maliciously targeted assets are in the cloud. Sixty-eight per cent of respondents reported a rise in access-based attacks using stolen credentials. Eighty-five per cent of organisations consider at least 40 per cent of data stored in the cloud to be sensitive, though, worryingly, only 66 per cent of organisations have implemented multifactor authentication.
Perhaps more worryingly, human error continues to be a key factor in cloud security incidents.
“A rising number of respondents report challenges in securing their cloud assets, an issue that is further amplified by the demands of AI projects that often operate in the cloud and require access to large volumes of sensitive data,” Eric Hanselman, chief analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research, said.
“Compounding this issue, four of the top five targeted assets in reported attacks are cloud-based. In this environment, strengthening cloud security and streamlining operations are essential steps toward enhancing overall security effectiveness and resilience.”
You can read the full report here.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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