With the rise of AI chatbots such as DeepSeek, organizations face a growing challenge: how do you balance innovative technology with robust data protection? While AI promises to boost productivity and streamline workflows, it can also invite new risks. Sensitive data—whether it’s customer payment information or proprietary research—may inadvertently end up in the prompts or outputs of AI models.

This year's report offers a look at what changed, what stayed the same, and where you can find a little hope in the quest for effective secrets management. While other reports focus on code repositories, Nightfall detects secrets across numerous mission critical SaaS apps and endpoints, giving a more comprehensive picture of leakage trends throughout the development lifecycle. We found secrets in ticketing apps, messaging and collaboration tools, cloud workspaces, and yes, code repositories.