The Hidden Risk Inside Your Most Important Workflows: New Study Exposes Security Weak Points

Ponemon Institute Study Sponsored by Mattermost Shows 64% of Organizations Experience Mission-Critical Failures, Highlighting Need for Secure Collaboration Platforms

PALO ALTO, Calif., July 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Mattermost, the secure collaboration platform for mission-critical work, today announced the release of "Optimizing What Matters Most: The State of Mission-Critical Work," a comprehensive research study conducted independently by the Ponemon Institute. The study reveals alarming vulnerabilities in how organizations protect their most critical operations, with 64% of organizations experiencing an average of six mission-critical workflow disruptions or failures in the past year.

The research exposes a dangerous disconnect between the importance of mission-critical workflows — the tasks, systems or processes within an organization that are essential for its operations and survival — and how well they're protected. Only 47% of respondents understand the risk profile of their mission-critical workflows, while just 52% feel confident in their privacy and security measures.

The study also found dedicated teams drive better outcomes; organizations with dedicated mission-critical workflow teams report 10% fewer disruptions and are nearly twice the process efficiency (57% vs 36%). These "high performers" are also more likely to adopt purpose-built mission-critical collaboration tools and measure the costs of disruptions to improve future execution.

The Security Gap in Mission-Critical Collaboration

Despite working in the highly sensitive sectors of defense, government, and critical infrastructure, most organizations lack effective protection for the very workflows that keep their operations running.

• Reliability at Risk: Only 47% of respondents feel confident in their risk management
• The High Cost of Failure: Every minute of mission-critical downtime costs exponentially more than prevention, with hidden costs including reputation damage and competitive disadvantage
• Leadership and Expertise Gaps: Business units are running mission-critical security without IT expertise, with only 16% of CISOs and 10% of CIOs owning critical workflow security
• The Security Gap: Cyberattacks are the #1 threat to mission-critical operations, yet only 52% are confident in workflow security and strong security posture is the #1 prevention factor
• The AI Paradox: 51% have adopted AI for mission-critical operations, but top risks include data leakage/theft (53% of adopters) and automation potential versus security complexity

Workflow Failures Are the New Normal

Cyberattacks are now the leading cause of critical workflow disruptions, cited by 50% of respondents. The fallout is severe:

• 62% report data leakage of high-value information assets
• 58% suffer data center downtime
• Average cost per outage? Over $1M per data center downtime incident, not counting reputational and strategic losses.

"This research confirms a silent crisis: too many mission-critical operations are run on legacy collaboration platforms, technology that was never intended for high-stakes, secure environments," said Ian Tien, CEO of Mattermost. "While 61% of organizations recognize a strong security posture is critical, too many are still relying on general enterprise tools that leave them vulnerable when the mission is on the line."

AI Adoption Brings Both Promise and Peril

With 51% of organizations adopting AI to automate critical tasks, 53% of adopters already report data leakage or theft as a major concern.

The Path Forward: Purpose-Built Solutions Matter

The research underscores the need for collaboration platforms specifically designed for mission-critical environments. The features organizations say they need most include:

• Data encryption (61%)
• Secure real-time communication (56%)
• Data loss prevention (56%)

However, most organizations remain critically underprepared with only 39% implementing risk mitigation strategies for their mission-critical collaboration tools, despite the escalating cost of failures.

About Mattermost

Mattermost is the leading collaborative workflow platform for defense, intelligence, security, and critical infrastructure. Trusted by the U.S. Department of Defense and Fortune 500s, our platform runs on-premises and in private clouds, delivering secure messaging, file sharing, workflow automation, audio/screenshare, and project management—all with full data and operational control. Mattermost powers high-stakes workflows across mission planning, real-time, real-world operations, DevSecOps, incident response, and cyber defense—enabling secure collaboration from tactical edge and DDIL environments to enterprise HQ. Teams operate across web, desktop, and mobile, with embedded interoperability for Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Microsoft 365.

 For AI-enabled organizations, Mattermost offers the Intelligent Mission Environment (IME)—a self-hosted, multi-user, multi-agent framework for AI-accelerated workflows with sovereign and global models. Built on an open core and shaped by 4,000+ contributors, Mattermost is co-developed with leading security experts to meet the world's most demanding operational needs. Learn more at mattermost.com

About Ponemon Institute

Ponemon Institute is dedicated to independent research and education that advances responsible information and privacy management practices within business and government. The Institute conducts high quality, empirical studies on critical issues affecting the management and security of sensitive information about people and organizations.

Download the Full Report:
"Optimizing What Matters Most: The State of Mission-Critical Work" is available for download at https://mattermost.com/exclusive-report-the-state-of-mission-critical-work/.

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SOURCE Mattermost