UK Cyber Attacks Jump 26% Year-on-Year as Ransomware Activity Doubles Globally

UK organisations are facing an accelerating threat landscape, with attack volumes rising 26% year-on-year and global ransomware victims nearly doubling, signalling that threat actors are becoming more capable and prolific. The convergence of generative AI-powered attack tooling with ransomware-as-a-service models is lowering the barrier for cybercriminals, enabling higher-volume and more targeted campaigns. Many organisations remain reactive rather than proactive, lacking the detection maturity and resilience controls needed to withstand this pace of attacks. This matters because ransomware incidents carry compounding costs — operational downtime, regulatory fines, reputational damage, and recovery expenses — all of which are avoidable with adequate preparation.