Your biggest cyber threat is now sitting at the desk next to you

South Africa saw a 46% rise in insider cyber risk in 2026, outpacing the global average of 44%, according to Mimecast research. Economic stress, high employee churn, and a generational shift in attitudes toward data are driving the trend. Younger workers increasingly view company data — including customer lists, pricing sheets, and AI models — as personal career capital. AI models are highlighted as an emerging high-value espionage target, as stealing a trained model transfers years of competitive advantage in a single act. Four mitigation steps are recommended: treating insider risk as a board-level business risk, tightening the joiner-mover-leaver access lifecycle, rebuilding organizational trust, and classifying AI models as crown-jewel assets with monitored access controls.