A significant majority of IT and security professionals say their organisations experienced cyberattacks over the past year, with the frequency and impact of these incidents shaping risk management priorities across industries, according to a new report by Rubrik Zero Labs.
The study, titled “The State of Data Security in 2025: A Distributed Crisis,” surveyed more than 1,600 technology and security leaders in 10 countries. Of those, 90% reported at least one successful cyberattack in 2024, with nearly 20% saying they endured over two dozen such incidents in the year.
This aligns with the findings of the Allianz Risk Barometer 2025, which surveyed 3,778 respondents from 106 jurisdictions. The report confirmed cyber incidents as the top global business risk for the fourth year running. Thirty-eight percent of participants identified cyber threats – including data breaches, IT outages, and ransomware – as their most significant concern.
The most frequently cited vectors of attack included:
The consequences were multifaceted:
The expanding use of hybrid IT environments and artificial intelligence technologies has introduced new challenges in securing data.
The report found that 90% of participants manage hybrid cloud infrastructures, and around half now operate with cloud as the primary environment for their workloads.
Complexity in managing data across these systems was a key concern, with 35% identifying it as their most pressing issue. Additional pain points included a lack of centralized data oversight (30%) and insufficient visibility into cloud-hosted assets (29%).
Rubrik’s internal telemetry supported these findings. Of the 5.8 billion files analysed across cloud and SaaS environments, 36% of sensitive cloud-based data was considered high risk. This category primarily included personally identifiable information and proprietary business materials, such as source code and intellectual property.
“The persistence of ransomware attacks, coupled with the exploitation of hybrid cloud vulnerabilities, shows that threat actors are always one step ahead. Companies must take action and adopt an attacker’s mindset by identifying – and protecting – the most valuable data before it’s too late. The need for a data-centric security strategy that prioritises visibility, control, and quick recovery has never been more urgent,” said Joe Hladik, head of Rubrik Zero Labs.
Ransomware remained a dominant concern. Among those affected by such attacks, 86% acknowledged paying a ransom to retrieve their data.
Additionally, 74% revealed that their backup and recovery systems were partially compromised, while 35% described full breaches of these systems.
The widespread use of multiple cloud platforms – 92% of organisations use between two and five – has exposed gaps in identity and access management.
Many respondents (28%) reported insider threats linked to stolen credentials. Rubrik’s data further showed that 27% of high-risk files contained sensitive digital credentials, including usernames, API keys, and account numbers, highlighting vulnerabilities in access control frameworks.
