AI adoption outpaces governance, heightens privacy risk

Technology and security executives across Australia and New Zealand warn that rapid AI adoption is fundamentally reshaping data privacy risk, as ungoverned AI tools and autonomous agents create vast new attack surfaces and expose critical gaps in identity and access controls, reports Security Brief Australia.

In statements for Data Privacy Day, leaders from Qualys, CyberArk, and SailPoint emphasized that privacy can no longer be treated as a narrow compliance issue but must address accountability in environments where humans and machines share decision-making. Qualys' Sam Salehi noted that "shadow AI" use by employees, dropping sensitive data into unapproved tools, creates an "unobserved risk surface" that traditional security cannot govern. CyberArk's Thomas Fikentscher highlighted the "responsibility gap" as AI systems make autonomous decisions, urging organizations to secure AI agents as highly privileged identities with least-privilege access and continuous monitoring.

SailPoint's Gary Savarino pointed to a "widening governance gap," where 82% of businesses use AI agents but fewer than half have adequate controls, allowing attackers to exploit over-privileged identities rather than technical vulnerabilities.