UK NCSC Reports 429 cyberattacks in a year, with nationally significant cases more than doubling

The UK’s NCSC handled 429 cyberattacks from Sept 2024–Aug 2025, including 204 nationally significant cases, over double the previous year’s total.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported a record surge in major cyberattacks, responding to 429 incidents from September 2024 to August 2025, including 204 deemed “nationally significant”, more than double the previous year’s total of 89.

Of the 204 major UK cyber incidents, 18 were rated “highly significant,” severely affecting government, key services, or the economy. In response, the government will urge top business leaders to strengthen cybersecurity measures.

“In its latest Annual Review, the UK’s cyber agency, a part of GCHQ, has revealed that the cyber threats facing the UK continue to escalate. The NCSC dealt with 204 ‘nationally significant’ cyber attacks against the UK in the 12 months to August 2025 – a sharp rise from 89 in the previous year.” reads the British Agency. “Of a total of 429 incidents handled, 18 were categorised as ‘highly significant’, meaning that they had the potential to have a serious impact on essential services. This marks an almost 50% increase on incidents of this second-highest level categorisation compared with the previous year, and an increase for the third year running.”

In response to rising cyber threats, the UK government urged FTSE 350 leaders to make cyber resilience a Board-level priority. The NCSC highlights its commitment to countering threats, strengthening defenses, and protecting national security, the economy, and critical infrastructure from significant cyber incidents.

Highly significant incidents pose severe risks, requiring cross-government coordination to prevent national disruption. The NCSC launched the Cyber Action Toolkit to help small organisations implement essential security measures and urges adoption of Cyber Essentials, which provides protection guidance and includes automatic cyber insurance for UK firms under £20m turnover.

“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.” Dr Richard Horne, Chief Executive of the NCSC, said.

“The best way to defend against these attacks is for organisations 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.”

Recently, the British government warned that attacks on UK businesses are growing more frequent and sophisticated. Cyber attacks such as the one that hit Jaguar Land Rover could have dramatic impacts on the British economy.

The UK government has announced a support package of £1.5 billion ($2 billion) for Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in response to the disruptive cyberattack that recently hit the company.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, cybersecurity)