AI has moved from experiment to operating model, but its real value—and risk—comes down to your data. With 75% of knowledge workers already using AI tools, often without IT oversight, shadow AI is driving a costly wave of breaches that organisations can’t afford to ignore. This whitepaper cuts through the anxiety to show how Microsoft Purview gives you the discovery, classification, and policy controls to make AI safe and productive, turning data security from a blocker into an AI enabler.

Q1 2026 has been defined by speed. Storm-1175, a financially motivated affiliate of the Medusa ransomware-as-a-service operation, has emerged as the quarter’s most aggressive threat to Australian businesses, weaponising newly disclosed vulnerabilities in internet-facing systems and moving from initial breach to full ransomware deployment in as little as 24 hours.

The fourth quarter of 2025 demonstrated an escalating convergence of nation-state espionage, ransomware innovation, and supply-chain exploitation across the Asia–Pacific region. As geopolitical tensions intensify and digital dependencies deepen, threat actors have pivoted from opportunistic attacks to systematic campaigns targeting trust architectures—identities, cloud infrastructure, and third-party integrations that underpin modern enterprise operations.