(MENAFN) The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) disclosed in its latest Annual Review that it tackled 204 “nationally significant” cyberattacks in the year ending August 2025, more than doubling the 89 incidents recorded the previous year. This equates to an alarming average of four major cyber incidents every week.

Out of 429 cyber incidents managed throughout the year, 18 were deemed “highly significant,” indicating they had the potential to cause severe disruptions to critical services or inflict long-term harm to national interests. This marks nearly a 50% increase from last year and continues a trend of rising cyber threats for the third consecutive year.

A considerable portion of these attacks were executed by Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups—highly skilled, often state-backed or criminally organized actors.

NCSC Chief Executive Richard Horne emphasized the gravity of the situation: “cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience.”

He further warned, “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.”

Horne urged immediate action, stating, “The best way to defend against these attacks is for organizations to make themselves as hard a target as possible. That demands urgency from every business leader: hesitation is a vulnerability, and the future of their business depends on the action they take today. The time to act is now.”

In response, the UK government has directly reached out to the CEOs and chairs of major companies, including all FTSE 350 firms, demanding that cyber resilience be prioritized at the highest levels of management.

The NCSC reaffirmed its commitment to operating “around the clock” to combat these threats and enhance the nation’s cybersecurity defenses.

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