As businesses face more complex challenges including evolving regulations, a hybrid workforce, and technological advancements, they need to not only understand the changing risk landscape but also have robust risk management programs in place. 

To help, we’ve compiled a list of statistics that underscore the importance of risk management. You’ll learn more about what the top risks are according to executives, the rising costs of insider risk, the increased exposure to third-party risk, and more. 

Risk management statistics

The statistic below will provide more insight into the risk landscape as well as different types of risk management, including third-party and insider risk. 

Risk landscape statistics

The risk landscape is constantly evolving. See what risks are top-of-mind for risk executives and how their risk exposure has changed over time. 

1. The top global risks in 2025, according to a survey of nearly 3,000 leaders in 60+ countries:

• Cyber Attack or Data Breach
• Business Interruption
• Economic Slowdown or Slow Recovery
• Regulatory or Legislative Changes
• Increasing Competition (Aon’s 2025 Global Risk Management Survey)

2. 37% of enterprise risk managers said information security/cyber risk was a primary concern for this year. (Forrester’s Business Risk Survey, 2025)

3. Cyber risk tops the global agenda again, remaining the number one current and future risk for the third time. (Aon’s 2025 Global Risk Management Survey)

4. Cyber espionage and warfare ranked as the fifth most severe global risk over the short term (2 years) and ninth over the long term (10 years).  (World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025)

5. 80% of enterprise risk management (ERM) decision-makers say volatility is either increasing (44%) or staying the same (36%). (Forrester’s Business Risk Survey, 2025)

6. Nearly 3 in 4 ERM decision-makers say that the number of discrete, critical risk events their organization has experienced has either increased (28%) or stayed the same (46%). (Forrester’s Business Risk Survey, 2025)

7. Nearly 75% of enterprises experienced at least one critical risk event in the past year, and cyberattacks and IT failures account for most critical events globally. (Forrester's The State Of Enterprise Risk Management, 2025)

8. Firms without board-level ERM visibility were 20% more likely to suffer six or more critical events. (Forrester's The State Of Enterprise Risk Management, 2025)

9. ERM decision-makers ranked the top five enterprise risks they face today as:

• Information security/cyber risk
• Financial risk
• AI risk
• Data governance risk
• Operational risk (Forrester’s Business Risk Survey, 2025)

10. 44% of executives rank AI and data regulations in the top 3 factors driving them to rethink their company’s short-term strategy, with 18% ranking it #1. (PwC’s May 2025 Pulse Survey)

11. 61% of senior finance leaders agree that the volume and complexity of corporate risks have changed “mostly” or “extensively” over the last five years. (AICPA and NC State University’s The State of Risk Oversight 2025)

12. A majority of respondents (52%) anticipate an “unsettled” global outlook over the next two years—meaning some instability and moderate risk of global catastrophes. The outlook is even bleaker in the long term, with 45% expecting upheavals and elevated risk of global catastrophes over the next ten years. (World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025)

Small business risk statistics

Small businesses continue to face disproportionate cybersecurity risk, driven by limited resources, increasing regulatory pressure, and the growing use of AI by attackers.

13. The top three biggest cyber risks for small businesses in 2025 are:

• The inability to protect customer or internal data from breaches (37%)
• Regulatory or legislative changes around cyber security and data (37%)
• Any event where company data is potentially compromised (36%). (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

14. More than half of small businesses (59%) experienced a cyber attack in the last 12 months, and a third of those said they had faced a regulatory fine as a result of a data breach that was substantial enough to impact the financial health of their business. (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

15. For small businesses, the after-effects of a cyber attack can be severe and long-lasting.  Among affected small businesses in the past 12 months:

• 33% faced fines that damaged their financial health
• 30% experienced reduced business performance
• 29% reported higher customer notification costs, amd
• 29% had challenges acquiring new clients. (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

16. Over half of small businesses (57%) said they had experienced a cyber attack due to AI vulnerabilities. (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

17. The top three emerging AI-driven threats in the next five years are social engineering attacks (60%), AI malware and phishing attacks (60%) and AI taking control of their company’s data (60%). (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

18. The most common way SMEs are taking action to protect themselves against AI threats over the next three years is ensuring insurance policies include AI risks (37%). (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

Risk management program statistics

Many organizations have a risk management program in place. Check out the statistics below to understand what challenges risk professionals are facing and what outcomes they’re focused on.

19. Only 11% of senior finance leaders view their organization’s risk management process as “mostly” or "extensively" a strategic tool that delivers competitive advantage. (AICPA and NC State University’s The State of Risk Oversight 2025)

20. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of executives believe that their organization’s risk management process provides no or minimal competitive advantage. (AICPA and NC State University’s The State of Risk Oversight 2025)

21. Just 35% of financial leaders report having comprehensive ERM processes in place, and only 32% rate their organization’s overall risk oversight as “mature” or “robust.” (AICPA and NC State University’s The State of Risk Oversight 2025)

22. Most ERM budgets are only increasing by 1–4%, barely keeping up with inflation. Only 4% of firms expect a greater than 10% increase. (Forrester's The State Of Enterprise Risk Management, 2025)

23. Only 37% of risk decision-makers reported identifying emerging risks as their primary measure of success. (Forrester's The State Of Enterprise Risk Management, 2025)

24. Nearly half (48%) of organizations have centralized risk and resilience structures, but only 26% have strong collaboration and a holistic, cross-functional view of risks. (2025 KPMG Risk and Resilience Survey)

25. More than two-thirds of organizations face moderate to strong barriers when managing risks, including lack of integrated risk insights and siloed communication. (2025 KPMG Risk and Resilience Survey)

26. In the risk function, 42% of respondents across industries say their use of IT and GRC systems “needs improvement.” 15% say it is absent or lagging. (McKinsey’s 2025 Global GRC Benchmarking Survey)

Risk response statistics 

A key part of risk management is responding to risks. Learn what processes and plans organizations have in place. 

27. 68% of organizations are using specialized technology, AI, or advanced analytics to manage risks. (2025 KPMG Risk and Resilience Survey)

28. Nearly all small businesses that have experienced an attack (96%) believe better awareness

or understanding of cyber attacks and procedures is key to better response times for future breaches. (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

29. Almost all SMEs (94%) are expecting to increase cyber security and data protection investments in the next 12 months, updating employee cyber training (70%) and hiring additional staff to increase cyber resilience (60%). (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

30. Compliance also plays an important part in preventing attacks, as 81% of organizations are actively adapting to meet increasing cyber security regulatory requirements. Companies that experienced a cyber attack in the past year were more likely (87%) to report adapting to regulations than those who didn’t experience an attack (72%).  (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

31. 4 out of 5 organizations have processes in place to assess the risk of AI model evasion attacks, and half use internal risk assessment teams to do so. A further 38% use automated risk assessment tools, while 34% rely on third-party security audits. (IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025)

32. Only 27% of executives note that their ERM process would assist in identifying and managing a significant risk event that would impact their organization’s reputation and brand. (AICPA and NC State University’s The State of Risk Oversight 2025)

33. 65% of executives believe significant changes are warranted in their organization’s approach to business continuity planning and crisis management somewhat, mostly, or extensively. (AICPA and NC State University’s The State of Risk Oversight 2025)

Third-party risk management statistics

Nearly every company does business with — or uses the products of — a third party that has suffered a data breach. Learn more about the importance of third-party risk management.

34. 43% of enterprise risk managers said cyber attack or data breach was the most common third-party risk event in the past year. (Forrester’s Business Risk Survey, 2025)

35. 88% of small businesses do risk assessments at least once a quarter to determine the cyber security risks of their suppliers and partners. (Hiscox’s Cyber Readiness Report 2025)

36. There was a 22 percentage-point increase in the share of organizations that have visibility into their tier-two suppliers, reversing several years of declining visibility. (McKinsey Survey of Global Supply Chain Leaders, 2025)

37. Creating deep, multi-tier visibility into complex global supply chains remains difficult however: while 95% of organizations now have visibility into at least tier-one supplier risks, that visibility extends into the tier two or beyond for only 42% of them. (McKinsey Survey of Global Supply Chain Leaders, 2025)

38. 73% of institutions have two or fewer full-time employees managing vendor risk, even though more than half oversee 300+ vendors. (Ncontracts 2025 Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

39. Two-thirds of financial institutions feel pressure to enhance TPRM programs, with auditors and regulators often pushing for improvements. (Ncontracts 2025 Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

40. Nearly half of financial institutions experienced a third-party cyber event last year, and AI ranks as the second-biggest TPRM risk heading into 2025. (Ncontracts 2025 Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

41. 85% of financial institutions see moderate to high value from their TPRM programs, benefitting from improved cybersecurity, cost savings, and stronger vendor oversight. (Ncontracts 2025 Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

42. More than half of respondents (57%) cite operational risk as a top consideration when monitoring subcontractors—up from 40% in the previous survey. (2025 EY Global Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

43. While financial impact remains the most common criterion for defining a critical third party (43%), it is closely followed by criticality of the business process or function (39%). (2025 EY Global Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

44. After operational and financial,  cybersecurity, privacy, and regulatory risks rounded out the top five concerns about third parties that executives cited. (2025 EY Global Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

45. Notably, business continuity and resilience saw the largest increase in importance when monitoring third parties, rising from 14% in 2023 to 23% in 2025. (2025 EY Global Third-Party Risk Management Survey)

Insider risk management statistics

As the cost of insider risk grows, more organizations are investing in insider risk management. Learn how organizations are dealing with insider risk.  

46. The most common business driver for building insider risk programs is regulatory compliance (53%). (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

47. 81% of organizations now have or plan to implement an insider risk management program, reflecting growing recognition of insider threats as a critical component of cybersecurity strategy. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

48. Organizations are making insider risk a budget priority, allocating an average of 16.5% of their IT security budgets to insider risk management—double the percentage from the year before. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

49. Funding gaps remain a challenge, as 45% of organizations say their insider risk management programs are still inadequately funded. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

50. Insider incidents remain widespread, with organizations reporting 7,868 insider-related incidents in this year’s report. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

51. High incident frequency persists across many organizations, with 57% reporting they experience more than 21 insider incidents per year. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

52. Containment times are improving, with the average time to contain an insider breach now 81 days. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

53. Faster containment significantly lowers breach costs, with incidents contained within 31 days costing an average of $10.6 million, compared to $18.7 million for those taking longer than 91 days. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

54. Human error remains the dominant insider risk, as mistaken or negligent insiders account for 4,321 incidents, averaging 13.5 incidents per organization, with costs reaching $676,517 per incident. (2025 Ponemon Insider Threat Report)

How to create a risk management plan

A risk management plan can help you identify, assess, and mitigate risks. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to create one.

1. Define the purpose.

Clearly state the purpose of your risk management plan. This purpose should include defining how risks associated with your business or a specific project will be identified, analyzed, and managed and outlining how these activities will be performed, documented, and monitored.

2. Assign roles and responsibilities.

Next, assign roles and responsibilities to key stakeholders. For example, you may assign one or multiple risk owners to be responsible for determining which risks require mitigation and contingency plans, creating those, and performing a cost benefit analysis for each proposed strategy. They may also be responsible for monitoring and updating the status of the risk throughout the risk management lifecycle.

3. Define the risk identification process. 

Now it’s time to define the risk management process, starting with how you identify risks. List the factors that you’ll consider, like environmental factors and organizational culture, as well as any methods you’ll use, like a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. 

4. Define the risk assessment and analysis process. 

Explain how you’ll assess the likelihood and impact of each identified risk and use a risk matrix or scoring methodology to assign quantitative or qualitative values to these factors. This will help prioritize risks based on their significance. Risk = Likelihood x Impact.

5. Define the risk response planning process.

Outline the strategies you’ll select from when deciding how to respond to each identified risk. The main outcomes are accept, avoid, mitigate,transfer, and resolve. Also, it’s important to include next steps once a risk response strategy has been selected. For example, if you opt to accept a major risk then a course of action should be outlined in the event that the risk does materialize in order to minimize its impact.

6. Define the risk monitoring and reporting process.

Finally, establish a system for ongoing risk monitoring. This should detail who is responsible for tracking existing and new risks, assessing any changes in likelihood or impact, evaluating the effectiveness of the risk response strategy, and adapting it if it isn’t. 

You should also develop a reporting structure to keep management informed of important changes to the status of risks or any changes in the organization’s risk profile.

7. Review and update the plan and risk tracker regularly.

New risks will emerge, and existing risks will evolve over time so it’s crucial that you periodically review and update your risk management plan and tracking documents to account for changes in your business environment and industry. 

How Secureframe can help you strengthen risk management in 2026 and beyond

Secureframe makes it easy to build and maintain robust risk management processes. With our all-in-one GRC solution, you can:

• Monitor risks 24/7: Get complete visibility into critical security and privacy issues with continuous monitoring across your tech stack. 
• Track risks in a single platform: Easily maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date risk register as you introduce new products and services, your tech environment changes, or to incorporate findings from internal or external audits. 
• Assign risk owners: Assign risk owners and set up notification reminders to review and update risks on a regular basis ensure accountability. 
• Link risks to controls and view history: By linking risks to controls, you can more easily coordinate risk management strategies with compliance requirements. Close any gaps in your risk management program and demonstrate the steps you’ve taken to strengthen your security and privacy posture over time. 
• Get complete visibility into your risk management program with real-time dashboards: Dashboards provide a comprehensive view of your organization's risks, allowing you to visually monitor your progress over time and effectively communicate the health of your risk management program to executives, auditors, and other stakeholders.

Learn more about how Secureframe can help you build a strong risk management program by scheduling a demo today.