World Economic Forum leaders warn internal AI data leaks are the top security risk

What happened Global leaders at Davos flagged internal GenAI (generative AI) data leaks as the primary AI risk, overtaking earlier fears about external adversarial attacks, according to Forbes reporting from the World Economic Forum (Jan 22, 2026). That shift is now shaping boardroom priorities and enterprise budgeting.

Technical details Independent security teams published concrete evidence of offensive AI activity. Check Point Research released a Jan 20, 2026 analysis of "VoidLink," an early AI-generated malware framework. Zafran Labs disclosed the "ChainLeak" set of AI-framework vulnerabilities (Jan 20, 2026) that they say can expose sensitive training or inference data and, in some cases, enable cloud takeover. The reports show both novel AI-assisted payloads and supply-chain or exposure vectors tied to model integrations.

What’s next Corporate responses are emerging: Accenture announced a Bengaluru lab focused on physical AI and robotics security (Moneycontrol, Jan 23, 2026). Organizations should treat internal model inputs and connectors as high-risk assets, accelerate data governance, and add AI-specific detection for synthetic or malicious artifacts in model I/O.

Why It Matters

• Risk reprioritization: Boards and CISOs must treat models and connected data stores as high-risk crown jewels and align budgets and controls accordingly.
• Immediate remediation: Patch AI-framework flaws, segment model data stores, and enforce least-privilege on model connectors and API keys.
• Threat detection: Deploy hunt rules and ML-based detection to spot AI-generated payloads and anomalies across training, prompt, and inference flows.
• Operational changes: Integrate model monitoring, data lineage, and regular red-team AI simulations into standard security programs to validate controls.