TL;DR – UK Cyber Threats Surge
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published its annual threat review, and the numbers are staggering but not surprising as we have seen a platora of high profile attacks this year, impacting manufacturing, retain and public sector! The report unveils:
📊 64% increase in cyber incidents reported to the NCSC over the past 12 months.
🧨 Ransomware up 25%, with critical sectors like healthcare and education hit hardest
🌍 State-backed actors from Russia, China, and Iran remain the top threat sources
🧱 Legacy infrastructure and supply chain gaps cited as key vulnerabilities
🧠 NCSC urges adoption of zero trust, AI-driven detection, and cross-sector collaboration
The NCSC Report
In a year defined by geopolitical tension, AI acceleration, and hybrid work fragmentation, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has issued a sobering update: cyber attacks aren’t just increasing they’re evolving too!
The latest stats show a 64% increase in reported incidents, with ransomware leading the charge.
The report details how attacks are not just random. They’re strategic, targeted, and often state-sponsored. Russia, China, and Iran continue to dominate the threat landscape, with tactics ranging from data theft to infrastructure sabotage.
Why This Matters for UK Organisations
Whether you’re a CIO in local government or a CTO in fintech,or CSO in a retail firm, the message is clear: cyber resilience is no longer a compliance checkbox it must be a strategic differentiator.
The sectors most affected – healthcare, retail, education, and public services all share a common vulnerability: Legacy infrastructure and fragmented supply chains.
This isn’t just about patching systems. It’s about rethinking and modernising infrastructure data centre and cloud architecture, identity access and above all accountability. This should be board level talk..
NCSC Guidance
The NCSC’s guidance to ever business is clear:
🔐 Adopt zero trust frameworks — treat every access request as hostile until proven otherwise
🧠 Deploy AI-driven threat detection — adapt faster than adversaries
🤝 Build cross-sector intelligence sharing — response is a team sport. This includes training. Not just IT but everyone..
This isn’t just about maintainance and patching systems. It’s about rethinking architecture, simplifying the number of vendors whilst increasing end to end protection, and makimg cyber security everybody’s responsibility and holding yourselves accountable.
From Reactive to Proactive: The Strategic Pivot
As someone who leads presales enablement and strategic advisory, I see this as a moment to shift the narrative. Cybersecurity isn’t the IT team’s problem – it’s a boardroom imperative.
Organisations that thrive will be those that:
- Embed cyber resilience into their value proposition
- Use compliance as a competitive advantage, not a burden
- Equip teams with diagnostic tools to self-assess risk posture and response readiness
- Train their people. Everyone. Every role.
In an age of digital interdependence, customers don’t just buy your product – they buy your ability to protect their data, their reputation, and their continuity. If you sell security services this is paramount. If you buy security services then ask yourself “how do they protect you and your reputation?”
Cybersecurity isn’t the IT team’s problem anymore. It’s a boardroom conversation. It’s a brand conversation. It’s a trust conversation.
Customers don’t just buy your product or services – they buy your reputation, and ability to protect their data, their reputation, and their continuity. They assume you are secure and can protect yourselves and their data!
Cyber resilience isn’t just technical. It’s emotional. It’s about confidence, clarity, and control.
Free NCSC training and assessment
There’s loads of free tools and training available at the NCSC website here.
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/cyber-governance-for-boards/training
Read the NCSC 2025 report
You can download NCSC Annual Review 2025 using the link below.
🔗 NCSC Annual Review 2025 (PDF)
It’s packed with insights on threat trends, sector vulnerabilities, and strategic recommendations for UK organisations.