According to a UK Gov survey, 50% of small businesses, 70% of medium businesses, 74% of big businesses, and between 32% and 66% of charities experienced some form of cybersecurity breach or attack in the last 12 months.
Given the high incidence rates, we analysed data from 979,407 people across the UK for 12 months, ending November 2024, to understand how cybersecurity issues have affected them and their businesses. This is what we discovered by evaluating their responses and assessing other related cybersecurity statistics for the region over the same time period.
Bonus Material: Download Cybersecurity Statistics UK 2024
Index
- What do COVID-19 cybersecurity statistics reveal?
- What were the most notable cybercrimes In the UK?
- 31.6% respondents’ companies have been hit by ransomware attacks
- 24.7% of respondents’ future investments in technology were affected
- Phishing attacks behind 21.7% of cybercrimes
- What is the current state & future outlook of the UK’s cybersecurity sector?
- 20.5% of respondents work in the energy sector
- Respondents over 65 most engaged at 28.6%
- Female respondents affected just 2.2% more than men
- About the data
What Do COVID-19 Cybersecurity Statistics Reveal?
The COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 led to a notable rise in cybersecurity threats in the UK, mainly due to rapid digital transformation and remote work.
As employees swapped secure work setups and networks for personal devices and less secure home networks, phishing attacks became one of the most commonplace threats. By 2021, 85% of large UK firms reported phishing attempts as attackers exploited employees’ lack of cybersecurity. The prevalence of ransomware also grew, affecting sectors with sensitive data, such as healthcare, as seen with multiple NHS breaches.
The urgency to adopt remote work setups contributed to vulnerabilities, with 72% of large firms experiencing a decline in active user monitoring. New vulnerabilities were also exposed, as many employees switched to remote communication platforms. During the first month of the pandemic alone, half a million Zoom user accounts were compromised and sold on a dark web forum.
Business email compromise incidents, where attackers impersonate executives or suppliers to defraud organizations, also rose sharply during this period. This tactic saw increased success due to dispersed workforces relying on digital communication without traditional verification methods. The financial impact of these breaches averaged £13,400 for affected medium-to-large businesses, reflecting the rising costs associated with pandemic-era cyber threats.
Overall, the pandemic led to 44% of adults feeling more vulnerable about cybercrime, highlighting the need for increased security measures and training across the board.
What Were The Most Notable Cybercrimes In The UK?
Post-pandemic, the UK has faced several more high-profile cybercrimes, highlighting the persistent threats that impact both individuals and organizations.
Notable incidents include the cyberattack on NHS 111 services in 2022, which disrupted patient referrals and led to a backlog of thousands of appointments. This attack once again highlighted the vulnerabilities in these essential public service systems and reinforced the importance of robust cybersecurity measures in healthcare.
In 2023, the UK’s education sector was hit by significant cyberattacks targeting universities and schools. 34% of schools and colleges in England were affected by attacks that compromised sensitive student data and caused major operational disruptions. In 20% of cases, immediate recovery was impossible, with 4% requiring a full term to recover. In these attacks, cybercriminals leveraged ransomware to lock systems, demanding payments in exchange for releasing data.
Transport for London (TfL) has been hit by cyberattacks, too, with one of the most recent targeting names, addresses, contact details and bank details of over 5,000 customers and employees. This attack has cost several million pounds, with exact figures not yet released, and it follows several other breaches suffered by the local government body.
Additionally, 2023 saw a major rise in online shopping scams that cost UK consumers £1,587 per case and £2.3 billion pounds overall, with fraudsters exploiting e-commerce platforms to trick users into fake purchases and steal financial information.
These incidents illustrate the range and complexity of cyber threats facing the UK, with malicious actors targeting both public infrastructure and individual consumers on an ongoing basis.
What Cyber Attacks Has Your Company Suffered From?
31.6% respondents’ companies have been hit by ransomware attacks
Ransomware has been making waves for the last few years, and our data shows that it is the most common form of attack. The graph below outlines what type of attacks UK companies suffer the most from:
Already high in numbers, by Q2 of 2024, ransomware attacks increased by 24%, predominantly affecting the UK, US, and Canada. Our respondents have also been hard hit, with the highest engagement rates (31.6%) recorded for those whose companies have suffered from ransomware attacks.
DDoS attacks weren’t far behind, at 24.6%. These attacks have also surged in the last year, with Russian hacktivists targeting authority sites hard. Interestingly, despite 70% of SMEs reporting some form of breach or attack in the last 12 months, only 28.7% of respondents’ companies had suffered from these, followed by phishing attacks at 15.2% and malware at just 5.9%.
Perhaps due to an increased focus on cybersecurity training, social engineering attacks only registered 1.6% engagement and insider threats 1.3%. Despite being on the rise, zero-day exploits barely registered at 1%. However, as these attacks usually number hundreds, not thousands, it’s understandable why they garner such low engagement.
How Did The Data Breach Impact You?
24.7% of respondents’ future investments in technology were affected
Data breaches have significant ripple effects, not just financially but in reputation, trust, innovation, and advancement. Here’s how our respondents were affected:
At 24.7%, nearly a quarter of those surveyed had their future investments in technology affected by a data breach. This means that either investments were halted, delayed, or scrapped altogether due to a breach. For businesses, this has the potential to impact growth and profits, which leads to the second-highest impact – significant financial loss.
In the UK, the average cost of a data breach now sits around $4.53 million, and of our respondents, 21.5% have been impacted. Other losses included customer trust, with 15.6% of those surveyed affected and 0.8% suffering from reputation damage, while 15.3% were most affected by insurance claims related to a breach.
Regulatory compliance (2.8%) and crisis management (0.7%) had the lowest engagement levels, and these impacts relate more to action or investment that was required prior to a breach rather than a typical business loss.
What Caused Your Cybersecurity Breach?
Phishing attacks behind 21.7% of cybercrimes
For C-suite executives, some causes of cyber attacks are more prevalent than others. Here’s what our respondents rated as the most common causes:
With senior-level corporate executives increasingly targeted by sophisticated cyberattacks on their corporate and home office environments, our data surveyed the causes behind these attacks. Topping the list were C-suite executives who said their breach was caused by phishing (21.7%). As these individuals hold influential roles, they are prime targets for cybercriminals who exploit email impersonation to pose as high-level executives. By doing so, attackers can deceive employees or partners, manipulate financial transactions, and extract sensitive information, often with minimal suspicion.
Despite being a very common cause of breaches, weak passwords came in with the second highest engagement at 16%, while malware followed at 14.7% and software vulnerability at 13.8%. Interestingly, a lack of training, which correlates with the high engagement levels for weak passwords, scored 13.2%, insider threats 4.9%, and social engineering 2.8%, highlighting the need for ongoing education at every level and reaffirming why 68% of breaches involve a human element.
A third-party vendor was the cause for 6.3%, while data misconfiguration scored 5.4%, and unpatched systems 1.3%. All these causes relate more to IT systems and staff, so it’s positive to note these feature low on the list.
Download Cybersecurity Statistics UK 2024
What Is The Current State & Future Outlook Of The UK’s Cybersecurity Sector?
With monetary losses amounting to millions of pounds every month, there’s a growing urgency for enhanced digital protection measures in every business in the UK. To counter ongoing security threats, the UK’s cybersecurity sector continues to expand, generating an annual revenue of approximately £11.9 billion in 2024, up 13% from the previous year. This growth includes a workforce increase of 10%, with 58,005 full-time employees working in cybersecurity roles, highlighting increased investment in protective infrastructure and talent.
In addition to enforcing the GDPR, which requires businesses and organizations to implement robust data protection measures to secure personal data, the UK government has also bolstered cybersecurity investments and programs, such as the UK Cyber Cluster Collaboration (UKC3) and the Cyber Runway, supporting SMEs and start-ups to stay resilient against cyber threats.
Additionally, the transition from the original Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive to NIS2 marks a significant enhancement in Europe’s cybersecurity framework. NIS2 expands on the scope of the original directive to include a broader range of essential and important sectors, including health, digital infrastructure, and public administration, while enforcing stricter requirements on incident reporting and risk management. This update introduces unified minimum standards across the EU and increases accountability with penalties for non-compliance, encouraging member states to prioritize and streamline cybersecurity efforts across industries.
As cybersecurity ranks as a priority for 82% of UK businesses, this sector will likely see continued investment and strategic emphasis in the near future.
What Industry Are You In?
20.5% of respondents work in the energy sector
With 49% of UK businesses having experienced a cyber attack, our survey analyzed the industries our respondents were in:
Overall, energy topped the list, with 20.5% of our respondents working in this sector. Technology came in a close second, at 17.1%, followed by manufacturing (14%), government (12.8%) and education (9.4%). When we look at other studies with industries hardest hit by cyber attacks, we see that education ranks the highest, tech comes in 6th, manufacturing 9th, and government in 10th, highlighting how often these sectors are hit.
In the UK, the NHS has consistently been hit by cybersecurity attacks, with the 2017 WannaCry breach costing a total of £92 million being the first of many that followed. However, of our respondents, only 9% work in the healthcare industry, followed by 6.4% in finance and 5.7% in transportation, both of which are also subject to regular attacks. Retail and telecommunications came in last, with 4.9% and 0.2%, respectively, which is notable as these industries are also on the top 10 of those hardest hit, with retail at number seven and telecommunications in the 9th spot with manufacturing.
Demographics
To better understand our respondents, our data also examined the demographics of our sample group, with age and gender revealing interesting insights about the 979,407 people in the UK we surveyed.
Age
Respondents over 65 most engaged at 28.6%
Our data revealed that those over 65s were the most engaged, while those between 25-34 were the least. Let’s take a closer look:
Age Distribution
It’s estimated that every 40 seconds, an older person becomes a victim of an online scam. Considering this, it makes sense that those over 65 years old were the most engaged on the topic of cybersecurity. At 28.6%, this age group was top of the list, followed by the second oldest demographic (55-64 years old) at 25.1%.
As the age groups got younger, the engagement levels dropped. However, what’s interesting is that the first true ‘digital native’ group under the age of 25 had higher engagement levels (12.5%) than the age group above them (25-34). This correlates with previous findings that put this age group at high risk of cybercrime, with the demographic 84% more likely to be the victims of online fraud than their slightly older counterparts.
Gender
Female respondents affected just 2.2% more than men
Our survey showed that women are only marginally more affected by cybersecurity attacks than men. The graph below showcases the gender split:
Gender Distribution
UK studies show that women, girls and marginalized groups are at higher risk of cyber violence and cyberattacks. However, of the 979,407 people we surveyed, the gap between males and females was very slim, with women garnering 51.1% engagement and men 48.9%. This is likely due to our sample group comprising of C-suite executives, online platform users who are less likely to be marginalized, and in higher age groups.
With such high instances of cybercrime sweeping the UK, it’s evident that businesses and individuals need to take every possible step to mitigate attacks. From increasing cyber awareness to ensuring NIS2 compliance, there are numerous ways of doing so, and as attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, implementing proactive cybersecurity measures is essential for protecting customers, businesses, and bottom lines.
About the Data
Our data was sourced from an independent sample of 979,407 people in the UK on X, Quora, Reddit, TikTok, and Threads. The engagement percentages estimate how many people in the location are participating, and the results are based on what people describe online. The questions were not posed to the people in the sample.
All responses are collected within a 95% confidence interval and 5% margin of error. The demographics are determined using many features, including name, location and self-disclosed description and privacy is preserved using k-anonymity and differential privacy.
