UK Cybersecurity Statistics 2026

Whats happening in the UK cybersecurity landscape in 2026?

We review over 300 statistics from almost separate sources to give you the latest data.

And the TLDR? 93% of British businesses reported a critical cyber incident in the last 12 months. From corner shops to FTSE 100 companies, NHS trusts and fintech startups, every organisation operating in the UK is at risk.

Note: We plan on updating this list as new sources of data come out.

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Here is what the latest cybersecurity statistics reveals about the state of cybersecurity in Britain today.

UK Cyber Security Statistics For 2026 at a glance

Ransomware in the UK

Ransomware remains one of the most significant threats to UK organisations. In 2025, the United Kingdom experienced 76 ransomware incidents, accounting for 1.6% of all global attacks. The US and UK together represent over 70% of ransomware attacks globally.

Ransomware Payment Trends

• Only 17% of UK organisations hit by ransomware in the past year paid the ransom
• This represents a significant decline from 27% in 2024 and 44% in 2023
• 24% of UK organisations now have a formal policy never to pay a ransom, double the figure from 2023
• UK organisations are now more than three times more likely to recover from backups than pay the ransom

UK Cyber Recovery Capabilities

• 57% of UK organisations recovered from backups when hit by ransomware
• 72% of UK organisations have air-gapped backups
• 59% of UK organisations have immutable backups
• 9 in 10 UK organisations tested elements of their recovery capabilities in the last 12 months

Ransom Payment Ban Debate

• 99% of UK business leaders support limiting ransom payments for private organisations
• 94% support limiting ransom payments for public entities
• However, 75% of UK business leaders who support a ban admit they would still pay a ransom if it were the only way to save their organisation
• Only 10% of UK business leaders in the private sector said they would comply with a ban if attacked

Financial Impact of Cyber Incidents in the UK

The financial toll of cyber incidents on UK businesses is substantial.

Direct Costs

• £197 million was paid out to UK businesses to help them recover from cyber incidents in 2024
• This represents a 230% year-on-year increase, amounting to £138 million more than in 2023
• 98% of organisations reported spending between $1 and $5 million to recover from cyber incidents, with an average recovery cost per incident being $2.5 million
• The average cost of a cyber attack for UK businesses with 50 or more employees was £5,001
• The average cost of a cyber attack for a small UK business was £3,398

Fraud Losses

• UK fraud leaders reported losing the equivalent of 7.4% of revenue to fraud, totalling £88 billion
• This represents an increase from 5.7% in 2024
• 21% of fraud victims report average losses of £500,000 per attack
• UK SMEs are incurring annual losses amounting to £3.4 billion due to inadequate cybersecurity measures

UK SME Cyber Security Statistics

Small and medium-sized enterprises form the backbone of the UK economy, accounting for 99.8% of the UK's business population and generating 25% of GDP. Yet they remain particularly vulnerable to cyber threats.

Attack Frequency

• More than a third (35%) of UK SMEs experienced a cyber incident in 2024 alone
• 28% of UK SMEs suffered between one and five attempted attacks
• 6% of UK SMEs were targeted up to 10 times in a year
• 28% of UK SMEs say that a single attack could put them out of business

Security Gaps

• 32% of UK SMEs have no cybersecurity protections in place at all
• More than half (52%) of UK SME employees have received no cybersecurity training
• More than a third of UK SMEs (38%) invest less than £100 a year in cybersecurity
• 60% of UK SMEs allow employees to use their own IT equipment when working from home

Remote Work Risks

• More than two-thirds (64%) of UK SMEs have staff working from home or other off-site locations regularly
• 19% of UK remote workers are being targeted by cyber criminals
• 15% of UK SME employees have been banned from working from home due to the risk of falling victim to a cyber attack

UK Email Security Statistics

Email remains a critical vulnerability for UK organisations, with 52% of all organisational communication flowing through the inbox.

Incident Rates

• 83% of UK IT leaders report suffering at least one email-related security incident
• Nearly half (49%) of UK IT leaders report being hit by an email-related security incident in the past 12 months alone
• On average, over a third (36%) of all security incidents reported by IT leaders are email-driven

Sector-Specific Findings

• 92% of Government bodies in the UK reported an email-related breach
• 87% of UK IT leaders in the finance sector report exposure to email-related incidents
• 85% of UK IT leaders in the legal sector report exposure to email-related incidents
• 75% of UK IT leaders in the tech sector faced inbox breaches
• 56% of Government bodies in the UK reported a breach in the past year alone

Defence Measures

• 47% cited employee security awareness training as the most common defence
• 46% cited email filtering
• 41% cited multi-factor authentication (MFA)
• 38% cited AI-driven threat detection

Financial Services Sector

The financial services sector faces unique cybersecurity challenges and heightened regulatory scrutiny.

Incident Response

• 99% of UK finance leaders surveyed have experienced payments-related cyber incidents in the past two years
• The average response time to ransomware attacks among financial institutions is 6.71 hours
• It takes financial organisations nearly 16 hours to respond to supply chain attacks on average

Budget and Investment

• 63% of financial services firms will increase cyber security investment over the next year
• Nearly all (94%) UK finance leaders plan to increase cyber investment over the next year
• More than half (51%) of UK finance leaders are preparing a significant uplift in cyber investment next year
• More than a fifth of financial organisations will be boosting budgets by up to 10%

Concerns and Challenges

• 44% of financial institutions cited complying with cyber security regulations as the single most pressing challenge
• 42% of surveyed UK CFOs identified 'cybersecurity threats' as the operational risk they were most concerned about over the next 12-24 months
• 37% of UK CFOs surveyed cite cybersecurity and data privacy concerns as a significant barrier to automation
• 89% of financial organisations expressed concern about AI-powered phishing attacks

Cyber Insurance Trends

There was a 17% increase in the number of cyber insurance policies taken out by UK businesses in 2024 compared to the previous year

• Malware and ransomware accounted for 51% of all cyber insurance claims in 2024, up from 32% in 2023
• UK cyber claims in 2024 decreased by 20% compared to the spike seen in 2023
• Despite the 20% decrease, claims remained approximately one-third higher than the totals recorded for 2020, 2021, and 2022
• Ransomware claims in 2024 declined by 31% compared to 2023
• Extortion (including ransomware) was the primary cause of cyber losses, accounting for 28% of claims
• Data breaches accounted for 17% of claims

UK Fraud Statistics

Fraud continues to plague UK organisations and consumers:

Business Fraud

• 93% of UK companies experienced vendor fraud in 2024
• 42% of companies experienced at least two successful fraud attacks
• Nearly 88% of UK businesses identified cyber fraud as a significant driver of payment fraud
• 48% of respondents identify cyber attacks as their biggest hurdle in fraud prevention
• 44% of executives claim they are "very confident" in their teams' abilities to detect fraud
• 94% of businesses increased their investment in fraud prevention technologies last year

Consumer Fraud

• Scam victimisation in the UK rose from 24% to 45%
• 5% of targeted UK consumers fell victim to fraud, a decrease from 6% reported late last year
• The suspected digital fraud rate in the UK dropped to 1.8% in H1 2025, down from 3.3% in H1 2023
• Only 5% of scams are reported to authorities in the UK
• Exposure to mobile scams is highest in the US (51%) and UK (49%)

Romance Scams

• Romance scam reports in the UK were up 20% year-on-year in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024
• One in 10 (12%) UK adults have been targeted, or know someone who has been targeted, by a romance scam
• The average amount lost to a romance scam in 2024 was £8,000, up from just under £5,800 in 2023
• For romance scam victims aged 61 and over, the average loss increases to £19,000
• Men account for 60% of romance scam reports in terms of volume

AI and Emerging Threats

Artificial intelligence presents both opportunities and challenges for UK cybersecurity:

AI Concerns

• Concern about AI compromising security increased from 61% in 2024 to 81% in 2025 (a 20 percentage point increase)
• 33% of UK consumers have no trust at all in generative AI, while 50% report that it makes them anxious
• 48% of UK consumers express concern about the risk of fraud or identity theft related to AI in banking
• Nearly half (45%) of UK HR professionals are worried about privacy risks related to AI-powered HR tools

AI Adoption

• 72% of UK organisations believe AI will strengthen security in the years ahead
• 69% of workers in the UK are very confident using AI tools
• 30% of respondents in the UK had AI tools provided by their IT team
• 32% of respondents in the UK and US received explicit encouragement to use AI in the workplace
• The UK, Ireland and Europe region reported 60% productivity gains after adopting AI

AI in Security

• 22% of financial organisations increasingly use AI for threat intelligence
• 33% of financial organisations increasingly use AI for automated incident response
• 38% of UK IT leaders cited AI-driven threat detection as the most common defence against email-related incidents

Cybersecurity Budgets and Investment

UK organisations are significantly ramping up their security investments.

Budget Growth

• UK organisations are significantly increasing their cybersecurity budgets, with an average predicted rise of 31% in the next 12 months
• This is more than double the 15% that analysts had forecast
• 74% of UK organisations intend to increase their cybersecurity spending over the next 12 months
• Three-quarters of UK organisations anticipate their cybersecurity budgets will grow

Budget Adequacy

• 71% of UK organisations feel their current cybersecurity budgets are adequate for ensuring cyber safety
• 18% of UK organisations believe their cybersecurity budgets are nearly sufficient
• 8% of UK organisations report that they do not have enough funding to cover their cybersecurity needs
• Despite the increase in budgets, nearly half of UK cybersecurity leaders (47%) struggle to engage at the board level

Regulatory Compliance

UK organisations face increasing regulatory pressure.

DORA Compliance

• 43% of the UK financial services industry will miss the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) deadline
• 92% of UK senior security decision makers felt positive about their organisation's preparedness ahead of the DORA deadline
• 88% of UK senior security professionals believe that DORA will be beneficial
• 78% of UK senior security decision makers reallocated budget from other business areas to meet DORA compliance requirements
• 66% of UK CISOs believe that DORA will significantly increase cybersecurity costs in the long term

CISO Wellbeing

• 79% of UK CISOs report that the implementation of regulations has had an impact on their mental health
• 58% of UK CISOs report that regulations put enhanced pressure on their wellness
• 77% of UK CISOs feel that their IT budget is not completely reflected by their board's objectives to meet regulatory requirements

ICO Enforcement

• There were 62 instances of enforcement action against 47 organisations by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) in 2024
• 32 of these actions related to breaches of the UK GDPR
• Fines for breaches of PECR exceeded those for UK GDPR violations, with roughly £1.6m compared to around £1.1m

Recovery and Resilience

Building cyber resilience has become a top priority for UK organisations:

Recovery Challenges

• In 2025, not a single CISO reported being able to recover from a cyber incident within a day
• 19% of CISOs indicated that recovery efforts extended as long as two weeks
• 57% of CISOs reported that their organisations took more than 4.5 days on average for full remediation and recovery
• UK organisations are 11% less likely to have tested their recovery plans within the last month compared to other countries
• UK organisations are 21% less likely to have a dedicated environment in which to recover compared to other countries

Resilience Initiatives

• 83% of CISOs reported that Cyber Resilience was more critical for their organisation than traditional cybersecurity measures
• 72% of CISOs agreed that their role has evolved to include leading their organisation's ability to recover continuity following a cyberattack
• 67% of CISOs stated they are the primary executive responsible for ensuring Cyber Resilience within their organisation
• 61% of UK organisations have created defined runbooks, roles, and processes for incident responses, ahead of the global average of 41%
• 65% of UK organisations have an inventory of business-critical systems and dependencies, ahead of the global average of 50%

Workplace Security and Employee Behaviour

Employee behaviour and workplace monitoring present ongoing challenges:

Shadow IT

• 31-34% of UK employees reported that they have downloaded apps without IT approval
• 63% of employees in the UK say they frequently use IT policy workarounds to "get the job done"
• 67% of IT leaders in the UK admit that employee mistakes in outbound emails result in more significant data loss than malicious inbound attacks

Workplace Monitoring

• 85% of employers in the UK admit to using online employee monitoring techniques
• 51% of UK bosses don't trust their employees to work without online surveillance
• Over half of Brits would quit if they knew they were being surveilled
• 42% of Brits believe it is unethical for employers to monitor online communications
• 79% of Brits believe the Government should better regulate the use of workplace surveillance technology

Breach Disclosure Concerns

• In the UK, 58.1% of surveyed IT/security professionals reported being pressured to keep a breach confidential, even when they believed it should be reported to authorities

Phishing and Social Engineering

Phishing remains a primary attack vector:

• 70% of UK firms have experienced phishing attempts
• 89% of financial organisations expressed concern about AI-powered phishing attacks
• 42% of UK IT leaders cited external threats (such as phishing, spoofing, and spam) as their biggest email security challenge
• 43% of UK IT leaders cite managing external threats (such as phishing and spoofing) as their top security challenge

Cloud Security and Digital Transformation

As organisations continue their digital transformation journeys:

• 98% of organisations in the UK and Ireland are considering cloud moves
• Hybrid cloud adoption has jumped to 68% in the UK and Ireland, an increase from 58% in 2022
• 71% of organisations in the UK and Ireland report that outdated on-prem technology is actively holding them back
• 54% of IT leaders in the UK and Ireland lack complete visibility into their cloud spend
• 35% of financial organisations view cloud security as a high challenge
• Only one-third (33%) of cloud projects in the UK and Ireland deliver on every goal

The State of Cyber Attacks in the UK

The scale of cyber threats facing UK organisations has reached unprecedented levels. According to recent data, 93% of UK businesses have experienced a business-critical cyber incident, with only 7% reporting never having experienced such an event. This is notably worse than the global average of 14%.

The pace of attacks is accelerating. In the past 18 months alone, 57% of business-critical incidents occurred in the UK. The National Cyber Security Centre reports that nationally significant incidents represented 48% (204) of all incidents between September 2024 and August 2025, a dramatic increase from 89 incidents the previous year. Among these, 4% (18) were categorised as highly significant in nature.

Cyber attacks have become the leading cause of downtime and data loss in the UK for the third consecutive year. Successful reported cyberattacks on UK utility companies surged by 586% from 2022 to 2023, highlighting the growing threat to critical infrastructure.

Looking Ahead Into 2026

The UK cybersecurity landscape continues to evolve rapidly. Key trends to watch include for 2026:

• 45% of UK IT leaders said stronger security and encryption standards will have the biggest impact by 2030
• 41% said AI-driven automation will have the biggest impact by 2030
• 37% of UK respondents believe hardware security keys and device-bound passkeys are the most secure authentication methods, up from 17% in 2024
• 27% of UK security and IT professionals reported that their company is actively encouraging employees to shift logins to passkeys
• 87% of UK IT leaders expect email to remain Britain's primary business channel for at least the next five years

Sources: This article compiles statistics from multiple industry reports including the National Cyber Security Centre Annual Review 2025, Databarracks Data Health Check 2025, Marsh UK Cyber Insurance Claims Trend Report 2024, Vodafone Securing Success Report, Bridewell Financial Services Report 2025, Exclaimer UK Business Email Report 2025, and various other industry publications.

Get the full list here https://www.cybersecstats.com/database/