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• Businesses don't trust the accuracy of their AI/ML models, but it's due to poor data foundations, report claims
• Only one in three have implemented or optimized data observability programs
• Observability should be standard across the whole data lifecycle

New research from Ataccama has claimed a considerable proportion of businesses still don't trust the output of AI models - but this could simply be because their data isn't in order yet.

The study found two in five (42%) organizations don't trust their AI/ML model outputs, yet only three in five (58%) have implemented or optimised data observability programs.

Ataccama says this could be a problem, because traditional observability tools are not designed to monitor unstructured data, such as PDFs and images.

Don't trust AI? A lack of suitable data could be the problem

The report also revealed the ad-hoc approach that businesses often take, with observability often implemented reactively, resulting in fragmented governance and silos across the organization.

Ataccama defined an effective program as proactive, automated and embedded across the data lifecycle. More advanced observability could also include automated data quality checks and remediation workflows, which could ultimately prevent further issues upstream.

"They’ve invested in tools, but they haven’t operationalized trust. That means embedding observability into the full data lifecycle, from ingestion and pipeline execution to AI-driven consumption, so issues can surface and be resolved before they reach production," CPO Jay Limburn explained.

However, ongoing skills shortages and limited budgets are still presenting challenges along the way. Ataccama also noted that unstructured inputs continue to grow as a result of increased generative AI and RAG adoption, yet currently, fewer than one in three organizations feed unstructured data into their models.

The report goes on to explain: "The most mature programs are closing that gap by integrating observability directly into their data engineering and governance frameworks."

With proper observability in place, businesses can expect improved data reliability, faster decision-making and reduced operational risk.

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• Cyber Monitoring Centre says it is treating M&S and Co-op attacks as a single, combined event
• M&S was hit by a major cyberattack earlier in 2025, Co-op hit weeks after
• Cost of attacks could hit as high as £440 million, CMC estimates

The recent cyberattacks against Marks and Spencer (M&S) and the Co-op supermarket have been combined into a single incident by a major UK investigatory group.

The Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC), an independent, non-profit body established to categorize major cyber events by the insurance industry, has declared it is treating the two incidents as one event by the same attacker - Scattered Spider.

"Given that one threat actor claimed responsibility for both M&S and Co-op, the close timing, and the similar tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), CMC has assessed the incidents as a single combined cyber event," the CMC said.

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Combined attack

The CMC says it has categorized the attacks as a "Category 2 systemic event," and estimated the security breaches will have a total financial impact of between £270 million to £440 million ($363 million to $592 million) on the two firms.

It added the effects of the attacks had been classified as "narrow and deep", with "significant implications" not only for the two retailers, but their suppliers, partners and service providers as well.

This definition is opposed to “shallow and broad” events such as the 2024 CrowdStrike incident, which affected a large number of businesses across the economy, but the impact to any one company was much smaller.

"Although both of the targeted companies suffered business disruption, data loss, and costs for incident response and IT rebuild, business disruption drives the vast majority of the financial cost," the CMC added.

"Most of the estimated disruption cost is faced by the two companies, but our analysis seeks to estimate the wider cost to partners, suppliers and others."

Despite happening around the same time, the CMC has said the cyberattack on Harrods, another major British retailer, will not been included at this stage, citing a lack of adequate information available about the cause and impact.

M&S was apparently hit by the attack on April 22, revealing news of the incident several days later. The Co-op revealed news of its event on April 30, saying it had been forced to take down parts of its IT systems in an attempt to mitigate the effects.

M&S has forecast the attack could cost it around £300 million in lost operating profit in its financial year.

M&S has not confirmed whether it has paid a ransom to the hackers, but did admit some customer data was stolen in the attack. This did not include any passwords or card or payment details, but home addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth may have been affected.

Anyone concerned their data may have been taken, we recommend using a dark web monitoring service, or using a breach monitor such as Have I Been Pwned to check for potential exposures.

Via InfoSecurity

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The hype around generative AI (GenAI) is impossible to ignore in most industries, and cybersecurity is no exception. The potential for cybercriminals enhancing their attacks with AI looms large in industry discussions. At the same time, the security world is gripped by the promise of faster, smarter defenses, from AI-powered EDR to co-pilot-enabled SOC teams.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: none of it matters if your patching is months out of date, your cloud assets are misconfigured, or your employees freeze under pressure. The security fundamentals are still what really makes the difference in preventing a breach.

While security teams race to bolt on the latest GenAI tools, basic cyber hygiene is in danger of being overlooked.

So how can organizations ensure their cyber skills are up to the challenge in the age of AI?

GenAI is making the basics more urgent - not obsolete

It’s easy to assume that the widespread use of GenAI requires an entirely new approach to security and it’s undeniable that AI-assisted threats are evolving fast. But the real danger isn’t that GenAI changes the game, it’s the way it accelerates the same tactics that already work.

Attackers are primarily using GenAI to scale up familiar playbooks. Social engineering, reconnaissance, and privilege escalation aren’t new, they’re just happening faster and at greater volume.

In many cases, using AI tools can also be a security risk in and of itself. Immersive’s research found that 88% of users could fool a GenAI system into leaking sensitive information, with the machines being surprisingly vulnerable to human psychological tricks. As with any other software tool, misconfigurations and poor access controls also expose GenAI to greater exploitation.

Rather than replacing hygiene, GenAI makes it more essential. If anything, organizations need to double down on the fundamentals.

Cyber hygiene is still the frontline defense

The security landscape may be changing rapidly, but the fundamentals aren’t. Most breaches today still stem from issues that are entirely preventable: an unpatched server, a poorly configured firewall, an admin account with excessive privileges. These aren’t sophisticated zero-days that require experienced threat actors to exploit. They’re hygiene failures.

Yet too many organizations treat cyber hygiene as a legacy concern, something solved once they’ve rolled out the latest AI-powered tools. That mindset is dangerous because hygiene fundamentals aren’t something you graduate from; they’re the baseline that allows advanced defenses to function effectively.

If core defenses such as access permissions and configurations are weak, AI-powered tools are just watching the breach happen in high definition. Security starts with doing the basics well and doing them consistently.

Why poor training is the real weak link

If your security fundamentals are slipping, it’s worth asking: is the problem your tools, or your training?

For most organizations, it’s the latter. Legacy training still dominates, often reduced to short videos and multiple-choice quizzes that check boxes but fail to build capability.

The issue isn’t that people don’t care about security. It’s that they’ve been taught to memorize, not to respond. Training is too often generic, passive, and disconnected from the reality of a live incident. As a result, critical cyber hygiene habits like patch management or recognising phishing attempts fall apart in the moments they matter most.

These issues are intensified when a crisis rears its head. It’s no surprise that teams struggle to respond under pressure, because most have never been given the chance to prepare in a meaningful way.

If we want better outcomes, we need to stop blaming individuals and start fixing the systems that fail to prepare them. No amount of AI will compensate for a team that doesn’t know what to do when the alert goes off.

Drills build muscle memory and enforce hygiene

We wouldn’t expect someone to be ready to fight a fire or fly a plane just because they’d watched a video and taken a quiz, and the same is true for responding to a cyberattack.

This is where cyber drills come in. Unlike traditional training, drills place people in realistic, high-pressure scenarios where they must act, not just observe. They test judgment, coordination, and the ability to follow protocols under stress. Crucially, they reinforce both crisis handling and the importance of essential cyber hygiene through repetition and lived experience.

Cyber drills also expose weaknesses that would otherwise remain hidden. A playbook that looks perfect on paper might collapse under real-time pressure. A confident team might struggle when roles blur in the heat of an incident.

Real cyber readiness isn’t achieved through once-a-year compliance exercises, it’s built into the daily rhythm of how teams work, communicate, and make decisions. That requires more than technology. It takes culture.

Don’t bet everything on the shiniest tools

GenAI is continuing to change the security landscape in unpredictable ways, but it hasn’t changed the fundamentals. Most breaches still come down to human error and poor hygiene, regardless of the tools surrounding them.

Advanced tools won’t protect you if your team isn’t ready. True cyber resilience means training for the basics, testing under pressure, and building a culture where readiness is second nature.

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