In today’s digital landscape, the assumption that connecting a system solves security issues is proving to be misleading. This misconception is a significant factor in the stagnation of Zero Trust frameworks. Recent findings from the Cyber360: Defending the Digital Battlespace report provide concrete data on this matter. The study, which surveyed 500 security leaders from government, defense, and critical sectors in the U.S. and UK, discovered that 84% of government IT leaders acknowledge that transferring sensitive data across networks increases their cyber risk. Alarmingly, over half of these leaders, 53%, still depend on manual processes for data movement in 2026, despite the rapid pace of operations fueled by AI.
The Rising Threat Landscape
The Cyber360 report highlights the escalating threat volume that outpaces existing controls. In 2025, national security organizations faced an average of 137 cyberattack attempts weekly, an increase from 127 the previous year. U.S. agencies experienced a 25% surge in weekly incidents. This pattern is mirrored in the enterprise sector, as Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report indicates a doubling of third-party breach involvement to 30% of all incidents. Additionally, IBM’s 2025 Cost of a Data Breach Report estimates that breaches across multiple environments cost an average of $5.05 million, significantly higher than those confined to on-premises environments.
The boundaries between IT and operational technology (OT), tenants, and partner environments represent critical vulnerabilities. As data crosses these boundaries, it transforms from a routing issue to a trust challenge. The necessity for validation, filtering, and policy enforcement causes a slowdown in modern architectural systems.
Challenges in Data Integrity and Identity Management
The Cyber360 data underscores the concentration of vulnerabilities in outdated infrastructure and manual processes. A staggering 78% of respondents identified these factors as primary sources of cyber vulnerability, linking them specifically to analog systems. Additionally, 49% of participants reported that ensuring data integrity and preventing tampering during transfers across classified networks posed their greatest challenge. Managing identity and authentication across domains was cited by 45% as their main access difficulty.
These issues illustrate the attack surface that adversaries have been exploiting for years. The enterprise data reflects a similar narrative. According to Dragos’ 2025 OT Cybersecurity Report, 75% of OT attacks originate from IT breaches, with the traditional IT/OT air gap effectively disappearing as 70% of OT systems connect to IT networks.
Cross-Domain Technologies: A Solution
Contrary to the belief that speed and security are mutually exclusive, cross-domain technologies offer a solution. They eliminate the need to choose between fast data movement and secure transfers by enforcing trust at data boundaries. This approach enables systems to function cohesively, rather than as isolated units susceptible to attacks. The Cyber360 research suggests a layered architectural model combining Zero Trust, Data-Centric Security, and Cross Domain Solutions. This integration facilitates secure data sharing at near-real-time speeds across various boundaries, including classified and operational environments.
The principle extends beyond defense sectors to enterprise programs and critical infrastructure, where data must move seamlessly across IT, OT, and cloud environments without compromising integrity.
Ultimately, the presumption that data is inherently trusted upon crossing boundaries is a vulnerability that attackers frequently exploit. The boundary itself represents the attack surface, and the movement of data is where policies can falter. With over half of national security organizations still relying on manual data processes, the gap between operational speed and control is not just a bottleneck but a significant vulnerability.
Everfox specializes in securing data access, transfer, and movement across environments at the speed demanded by missions. For further insights into secure collaboration and data movement, refer to our comprehensive guide.
