Cyber Crime Statistics and the Importance of Security

When it comes to cyber crime, the numbers are stark:

• It currently costs the world $9.2 trillion
• On average, it takes a threat actor 72 minutes to gain access to user data, and that number is going down
• About 20% of data breaches today are as a result of insiders
• As the world’s largest security company, Microsoft tracks 7,000 password attacks each second. That’s 600 million attacks a day
• The number of attackers (such as unique nation state actors and financial crime actors) Microsoft is tracking has gone from an average of 300 every day to 1,500 increase.

These were some of the eye-opening statistics Microsoft’s CVP of Security, Vasu Jakkal, underlined in her revelatory keynote address on day two of TiEcon 2025. TiEcon 2025, the world’s largest tech conference, and the biggest in its 32-year history, took place this May in the heart of Silicon Valley. The conference brought together 3,000-plus entrepreneurs, investors, and industry leaders from around the globe. With over 180 speakers and this year’s theme, ‘AiVerse’, the conference showcased the transformative power of innovation.

Security as a Foundation for AI

Under the leadership of TiE Silicon Valley President Anita Manwani, TiEcon continues to drive a culture of transformational change, fostering new ideas, connections, and opportunities for the next wave of global entrepreneurs. In keeping with the AiVerse theme, Jakkal underscored the importance of security as a foundation for AI. Because Microsoft has a $20 billion security business that processes 84 trillion signals every day, it is uniquely positioned to observe emerging threats such as wallet abuse, word prompt injections, and large language model (LLM) poisoning.

Agentic AI and Security

Other highlights from the keynote included:

• How agentic AI can bolster security: Agentic AI, designed to autonomously make decisions and accomplish given goals with minimal human supervision, is already addressing challenges in healthcare, education, transportation, and security. In the near future, both individuals and organisations could have agentic AI in the form of unique, interactive personas.
• As such agents become digital colleagues and thought partners, the question to ask is: what risk can their prevalence pose to us? This is where critical security considerations come in. The questions to ask are:
  • What is your identity strategy?
  • What permissions do such agents have?
  • How are you protecting your data?
  • Do you have the right data leakage policies
  • If agents are working across teams, companies, or homes, what are the privacy considerations?
• As agents become pervasive, human defences will need to scale at the speed and scale of AI. Which is why we need to think about agents for security, and AI for security in general.

Microsoft’s Security Initiatives

In 2023, Microsoft began focusing on security-focused AI by launching the GPT-4-based Security Co-Pilot. It takes open source models, grounds them on the trillions of security signals and data in its repository, and refines them on security skills. The result is faster and more accurate threat prevention. Additionally, Microsoft launched the Secure Future Initiative, a multi-year cybersecurity effort that shapes how it designs, builds, tests, and operates products and services to meet security standards.

Conclusion

In conclusion, security is a critical aspect of the AiVerse, and Microsoft is taking significant steps to address the challenges posed by cyber crime and the increasing use of AI. By focusing on security-focused AI and launching initiatives such as the Secure Future Initiative, Microsoft is well-positioned to lead the way in securing the future of AI. As Vasu Jakkal shared, "Security is a team sport. It deeply matters and turbocharges our product flywheel of defence, because we use all these learnings from security to build better products."

Related Articles

For more information on the topic, you can refer to the article on Satya Nadella’s discussion on what makes a generational company in the AI age.

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Published On Jun 7, 2025 at 09:52 AM IST