Perforce Report Identifies Gap Between Data Security Confidence and Reality

Perforce Software announced in a press release the findings of its 2026 State of Data Compliance and Security Report, which highlights a gap between enterprise confidence in data protection and actual outcomes. The report, based on responses from over 500 leaders at billion-dollar companies, shows that 98 percent of respondents feel confident in safeguarding sensitive data, yet 34 percent have faced breaches or theft and 43 percent have experienced audit failures.

The report reveals that while nearly all organizations have data masking mandates, 84 percent still allow compliance exceptions. Data breaches and audit failures remain major concerns, cited by 77 and 74 percent of participants respectively. Confidence also appears inflated in AI environments: 98 percent of respondents trust their ability to protect sensitive data used in AI workflows, but 68 percent are concerned about data leaks and 62 percent about compromised training data.

Enterprises are increasing investments in AI data protection, with 80 percent planning to fund tools for securing information used in AI and machine learning model training in 2026 and 2027. Data quality was named the top barrier to effective protection by 51 percent of respondents. The study also notes that platforms such as Databricks and Snowflake rank among the top sources requiring data masking due to their central role in powering AI innovation.

The report is part of a broader Perforce Delphix initiative examining how large enterprises manage and protect data amid growing AI adoption. Additional research focused on AI data privacy and synthetic data will follow later in the year.