The UK has faced a record 204 “nationally significant” cyber attacks in the past year – an average of four a week – according to the National Cyber Security Centre. The figure, revealed in the agency’s latest annual review, published today, compares with 89 over the previous year.

The NCSC, part of GCHQ, said 18 of the 429 incidents it handled were classed as “highly significant”, meaning they had the potential to seriously disrupt essential services. The number marks a near 50% rise and the third annual increase in this category. Many incidents involved advanced persistent threat actors linked to hostile states or capable criminal groups.

Dr Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC, said: “Cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience. With over half the incidents handled by the NCSC deemed to be nationally significant, and a 50% rise in highly significant attacks on last year, our collective exposure to serious impacts is growing at an alarming pace. The best way to defend against these attacks is for organisations to make themselves as hard a target as possible.”

The government has written to chief executives and chairs of large businesses, including all FTSE 350 companies, urging them to treat cyber resilience as a board-level priority. Nationally significant incidents are defined as those with the potential to affect the UK’s national security, economy or critical infrastructure.

To help smaller organisations, the NCSC has launched a new Cyber Action Toolkit to support the adoption of basic controls, alongside the Cyber Essentials certification scheme, which includes free cyber liability insurance for firms with turnover below £20m.

Commenting on the findings, David Ferbrache, managing director at Beyond Blue, said: "The cyber threat remains acute and fuelled by growing geo-political tensions. While we have seen improvements in cyber security across the UK, our dependency on digital infrastructure has grown as has the potential consequence of successful attacks. The NCSC leads its review with the strapline 'it’s time to act', but the real message is around the growing economic and national security implications of cyber attacks – as we saw only too clearly with Jaguar Land Rover."

While many boards, Ferbrache says, may be feeling "cyber fatigue" as the topic is pressed constantly by ministers, regulators and stakeholders, the reality is that the issue demands their attention more than ever.

"These are hard discussions, both to prepare organisations to deal with a major cyber incident, but also to provide clarity on how organisations can respond quickly and effectively if an incident is detected,” he added.


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