A survey of 600 security chiefs reports almost all of them saw an insider incident involving an AI agent this year, and most now worry about their own liability
A Trellix survey of 600 CISOs at companies of more than 1,000 employees in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, reported by Help Net Security on October 14, says 95% of the companies reported an AI agent or autonomous system linked to an insider incident in the past twelve months. Among the 587 that reported an incident, 43% were attributed to accidental or careless action, 29% to deliberate abuse and 28% to AI or autonomous systems. 78% include AI agents and machine identities in their definition of insider risk; 92% say their accountability for insider incidents grew this year and 69% worry about their own liability; 74% say their board does not clearly understand the risk; 63% lack sufficient visibility into how employees use AI tools; and detection takes about seven hours with response about eight more. The account read names no report and no research firm and gives the survey no date; the Business Wire release of the same research, titled “Mind of the CISO: The New Insider”, conducted by Vanson Bourne and distributed on October 13, puts the accountability figure at 91% rather than 92%. Trellix's own report page could not be opened here.