{"id":243086,"date":"2026-07-14T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/employees-drive-rising-cybersecurity-risk-as-shadow-ai-and\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T10:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T14:10:08","slug":"employees-drive-rising-cybersecurity-risk-as-shadow-ai-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/14\/employees-drive-rising-cybersecurity-risk-as-shadow-ai-and\/","title":{"rendered":"Employees Drive Rising Cybersecurity Risk As Shadow AI and"},"content":{"rendered":"

Employees Drive Rising Cybersecurity Risk As Shadow AI and<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2026\/07\/14\/3326924\/0\/en\/employees-drive-rising-cybersecurity-risk-as-shadow-ai-and-unsafe-work-habits-surge-watchguard-global-survey-finds.html<\/a><\/p>\n

Publish Date: 2026-07-14 09:00:00<\/a><\/p>\n

Source Domain: www.globenewswire.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Author: <\/a><\/p>\n

Using an unordered list, summarize the following article with between 4 and 8 key points.
\nSEATTLE, July 14, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — New research from\u00a0WatchGuard\u00ae Technologies,\u00a0a global leader in unified cybersecurity for\u202fmanaged service providers\u202f(MSPs), reveals that employee behavior is creating significant and often unseen cybersecurity risk for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).\u00a0 According to the\u00a0\u201c2026 Cybersecurity Hygiene Report,\u201d\u202f64% of employees admit to using unauthorized AI tools for work, contributing to a rapidly expanding shadow AI problem that most organizations lack visibility to manage.\u00a0\u00a0 At the same time, common workplace habits continue to amplify risk. 76% of employees reuse passwords, 70% use public Wi-Fi for work, and 50% access corporate resources without VPN protection, exposing organizations to credential theft, data interception, and\u00a0unauthorized access.\u00a0\u00a0 “Organizations are investing in security tools, but many still lack visibility into how employees actually work,\u201d said Marc Laliberte, Director of Security Operations at WatchGuard.\u00a0\u201cEveryday behaviors, from AI usage to password practices,\u00a0create\u00a0risk that traditional controls aren\u2019t designed to address.\u201d\u00a0 Visibility Gaps Expand as AI Adoption Accelerates\u00a0 Consumer AI tools have ushered in a fast-growing category of security risk that most organizations have yet to address with a\u202fformal\u202fgovernance posture.\u202fAs outlined in the report, less than 30% of respondents believe their organization\u202fmaintains\u202fan accurate\u202finventory of software in use, and\u202fnearly 40%\u202fsaid their\u202fcompany is\u202foperating\u202fwithout full visibility into the applications\u202fits\u202femployees\u202fuse.\u202f\u00a0 This lack of governance, including\u202forganizational guidance on\u202fapproved tooling\u00a0and\u202fwhat\u202finformation\u202fcan be\u202ftransmitted externally,\u202fcreates a dangerous blind spot for IT and cybersecurity teams.\u202f\u00a0 Widespread\u00a0Unsafe Work Habits Remain Unchecked\u00a0 Beyond shadow AI, widespread\u00a0employee\u00a0behaviors continue\u00a0to\u202fundermine organizational\u202fsecurity protocols\u202fand\u202fcreate opportunities for hackers, including:\u202f\u00a0 76% of employees admit to reusing passwords across multiple accounts,\u202fmeaning a single compromised\u202fcredential\u202fleaves an organization\u202fsusceptible to\u202faccount takeover, lateral movement, and\u202fsubstantial data exfiltration\u202facross\u00a0multiple\u202fsystems,\u202fplatforms,\u00a0and applications.\u202fMoreover, 30%\u202fof respondents\u202fsaid they share their passwords with others.\u202f\u00a0 70% use\u202fpublic Wi-Fi for\u202fwork,\u00a0while\u00a050%\u202faccess\u00a0corporate resources without VPN protection. This\u202fsignificantly expands an\u202forganization\u2019s attack surface\u202fand\u202fincreases exposure\u202fto\u202fdata interception, credential theft,\u00a0and unauthorized network access through man-in-the-middle attacks and other threats targeting unsecured connections.\u202f\u00a0 55% use work devices for personal activities, introducing\u202fincreased risk for\u202fmalware infections, phishing attacks, and exposure to applications or websites that could bypass organizational security controls. The\u202fwidespread adoption of hybrid and remote work has blurred personal and professional boundaries,\u202fcreating new\u202fopportunities for attackers to compromise corporate data,\u00a0making it more difficult for security teams to mitigate risk effectively. \u00a0 MSPs Positioned to Address Growing Employee Risk\u00a0 Increasing productivity pressures, evolving work environments, and rapid technology adoption are driving risky behaviors across the workforce.\u00a0 This creates a clear opportunity for managed service providers (MSPs) to help SMBs address cybersecurity hygiene gaps before they lead to serious incidents.\u00a0 \u201cThese findings highlight a broader shift in cybersecurity risk. As organizations adopt\u00a0new technologies\u00a0and support distributed work, managing human behavior is becoming a core requirement,\u201d said Laliberte. \u201cFor MSPs, this is an opportunity to expand beyond technology into user risk visibility, policy governance, and continuous security awareness.\u201d\u00a0 To reduce exposure, WatchGuard recommends SMBs and MSP partners focus on six practical steps, including enforcing password managers and MFA, identifying\u00a0unauthorized\u00a0\u00a0shadow\u00a0technology use, establishing clear AI acceptable-use policies, extending protection beyond the office with VPN and zero trust approaches, and implementing continuous security training while tracking human-risk metrics alongside technical indicators. \u00a0 Access the complete findings of the\u00a0\u201c2026 Cybersecurity Hygiene Report.\u201d\u00a0 Methodology\u00a0 The findings are based on an independent online survey of 684\u202femployees working at SMB\u202fand midmarket\u202forganizations (50-500 employees) across the U.S., U.K., Germany, France,\u202fSpain, Australia, Mexico, and Brazil.\u202f\u202fThe survey was conducted in April 2026. All percentages reflect self-reported\u202femployee\u202fbehavior.\u202f\u00a0 About WatchGuard Technologies, Inc.\u00a0 WatchGuard Technologies is a global leader in unified cybersecurity,\u202fpurpose-built\u202ffor managed security providers (MSPs). For more than 30 years, WatchGuard has defined how MSPs deliver security at scale, continuously innovating to stay ahead of every major shift in the threat landscape.\u00a0 WatchGuard’s AI-powered Unified Security Platform delivers Zero Trust-aligned network, endpoint, identity, and cloud security in a single, integrated platform, enabling MSPs to reduce operational complexity, improve security outcomes, and grow their businesses more efficiently. Through capabilities such as Cloud Detection and Response\u00a0(CloudDR),\u00a0WatchGuard helps organizations\u00a0identify\u00a0and investigate Shadow IT and unauthorized AI application usage, providing greater visibility into emerging risks across cloud environments.\u00a0 Trusted by more than 25,000 MSPs protecting over\u202f1.5\u202fmillion\u202fcustomers\u202fworldwide, WatchGuard enables partners to deliver strong, measurable security outcomes for customers across the globe.\u202f\u202f\u00a0 Learn more at\u202fWatchGuard.com, follow WatchGuard on\u202fLinkedIn, or visit the\u202fWatchGuard CyberSecurity Hub\u202ffor real-time threat insights.\u00a0 WatchGuard is a registered trademark of WatchGuard Technologies, Inc. All other marks are property of their respective owners. <\/p>\n

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Employees Drive Rising Cybersecurity Risk As Shadow AI and https:\/\/www.globenewswire.com\/news-release\/2026\/07\/14\/3326924\/0\/en\/employees-drive-rising-cybersecurity-risk-as-shadow-ai-and-unsafe-work-habits-surge-watchguard-global-survey-finds.html Publish Date: 2026-07-14 09:00:00 Source…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243087,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ml.globenewswire.com\/Resource\/Download\/7b2f44d5-b0e3-45ec-979d-385b9ed22f26","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[26,24,32,25],"class_list":["post-243086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity","tag-ai","tag-cybersecurity","tag-malware","tag-phishing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243086"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243086\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243088,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243086\/revisions\/243088"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}