Email Errors: Why Misdirected Emails Are Now a Top Data Concern (And How AI Can Help)

Something that has caused data loss or exposure for 96% of survey respondents — and “measureable business impact” such as incident-expenses or compliance violations for 95% — is something that should be addressed ASAP.

If one were to tell you that this threat was in the form of an email, you’d be forgiven for instinctively pointing to a usual suspect.

“When [information officers] hear ‘email threat,’ they imagine phishing attacks, credential harvesting or business email compromise, not an employee accidentally sending confidential data to the wrong ‘Tom,’” starts the 2025 State of Misdirected Email Prevention report from Abnormal, which highlights just how damaging this easily overlooked human mistake can be.

Misdirected email, whether caused by “human error, a technical mishap, or another accident,” may appear as innocent as an exclusive sales-alert message reaching an unintended recipient, but as Abnormal points out, some misdirected messages may contain “sensitive information such as customer or financial data, intellectual property, or confidential business discussions.”

More than half (53.6%) of those security and IT professionals surveyed said their organizations have spent much time, money, or effort on remedying a misdirected-email incident, with 49.3% having exposed or lost confidential data. The next biggest impacts felt were damage to customer relations (40.1%), lost revenue (39.7%), and damage to relationships with partners and vendors (39.4%).

 (Source: Abnormal)

The causes of these mistakes may be as simple as a typographical error or complex as “outdated or overly broad distribution lists,” but as for prevention solutions, most (68.5%) said the “automated blocking of email containing sensitive data sent to unintended recipients” would be the most beneficial capabilities, followed by pattern-identifying AI (57.3%), automated encryption (51.7%), and real-time review-and-correct reminders for users (51%).

“Nearly all (97%) survey participants agree that applying behavioral AI would significantly increase a solution’s ability to detect truly risky data movements before they take place,” the report says. “And it can do so while lightening the load on hardworking security teams and reinforcing safer communication habits across the organization.”

For more information about how to improve your email deliverability, download A Beginner’s Guide to Email Marketing by Mirabel’s Marketing Manager: