IBM finds 92% of companies hit by AI security breaches lacked basic access controls
Quick Answer
IBM's 2026 Cost of a Data Breach Report reveals that 92% of companies affected by AI security breaches lacked basic access controls.
Quick Take
The average cost of AI-related incidents is $5.33 million, significantly higher than the $4.70 million for non-AI breaches.
Key Points
- 92% of companies with AI incidents had inadequate access controls.
- Compromised APIs and misconfigured cloud services are common entry points.
- AI-related breaches cost an average of $5.33 million.
- Global average cost of data breaches rose 12% to $4.99 million.
- Costs increase to $6.04 million when attackers use AI.
📖 Reader Mode
~1 min readIn nearly every AI security incident, the affected company lacked access controls for its AI systems. That's the finding of IBM's Cost of a Data Breach Report 2026, based on research by the Ponemon Institute across 602 companies. Among firms that experienced an AI-related incident, 92 percent had inadequate access controls in place.
The problem rarely starts with the model itself: In about one in five affected companies, the entry point was a compromised API, a connected application, or a misconfigured cloud service. Whether a company runs an open-source or proprietary model made almost no difference.
IBM traces the gaps back to basic oversights that don't require sophisticated attackers to exploit. Incidents involving AI cost an average of $5.33 million, compared to $4.70 million for those without an AI component. The global average across all data breaches rose 12 percent to $4.99 million. When attackers themselves used AI, costs jumped to $6.04 million. Without AI, they came in at $5.03 million.
— Originally published at the-decoder.com
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