Most IT pros say they’re prepared for exploits despite only 25% trusting data

Only 25% of security and IT professionals trust the data going into their security tools, according to a survey to be presented at Black Hat USA 2025 in Las Vegas this week.

Axonius Field CISO Liz Morton will present the sponsored session “A Little Less Conversation, A Little More Action” on Aug. 6, revealing insights from Axonius’ report “The Trust Factor: How Trusted Data Drives Smarter Vulnerability and Exposure Management.”

A survey of 500 security and IT leaders in the U.S. found that while 90% feel prepared to take immediate action to resolve detected vulnerabilities and exposures, three-quarters expressed a lack of trust regarding the data leveraged by their security tools.

This “trust gap” can impede vulnerability and exposure management, making tool integration more difficult and slowing adoption of automation and AI tools to help remediate vulnerabilities, Axonius said.

“Effective exposure management depends on reliable, trustworthy data. No amount of automation or AI integration can make up for a broken data foundation. Until that gap is addressed, the risk of a serious breach only grows,” Axonius Chief Product Strategies Ryan Knisley said in a statement.

Survey respondents cited inconsistent (36%), incomplete (34%) and inaccurate (33%) data as sources for the “trust gap,” which lead 29% to report struggling with vulnerability prioritization and risk assessment and 27% to face challenges integrating their data across security tools.

These challenges can lead to delays, as demonstrated by the fact that 81% of respondents said their organization takes more than 24 hours to fix critical vulnerabilities. Additionally, less than 30% of respondents said they conducted vulnerability and exposure assessments at least once a week.

AI and automation present promising solutions to speed up detection and remediation of vulnerabilities and exposures, but poor data management can hinder their adoption, said Axonius.

Integration issues (38%) and data privacy or security concerns (36%) were cited as the most common challenges when it comes to incorporating AI and automation into an organization’s vulnerability and exposure management systems.

“The CISOs we talk to are investing heavily in automation and AI, but it is unclear how many of these projects will actually deliver on their promise. The reason is simple: AI algorithms are only as good as the data they’re fed. A single, credible view of all assets and their exposures is critical for organizations to train accurate, predictive, and up-to-date models,” Andrew Braunberg, principal analyst at Omdia, said in a statement.

Axonius concluded that a strong data foundation is needed to convert confidence into action when it comes to vulnerability and exposure management. Breaking down data silos to enable integration with AI and automation tools can streamline the process with capabilities like automated patching, vulnerability scanning and prioritization of vulnerabilities.