Over the past year, the UK has been hit by a record 204 nationally significant cyber attacks, according to the NCSC – that’s roughly four major incidents every week. These aren’t minor phishing emails. We’re talking about attacks that can disrupt hospitals, retailers, rail networks, and financial services.

At the same time, new government-commissioned research has tried to answer a tough question:

What is all of this actually costing the UK – not just per breach, but across the whole economy?

The answer: eye-watering amounts.

• • The average cost of a significant cyber attack on a UK business is estimated at ~£195,000.
• • Scaled across the economy, that’s around £14.7 billion a year, or 0.5% of UK GDP.
• • Intellectual property (IP) and knowledge-asset theft alone is estimated to cost between £1 billion and £8.5 billion a year.
• • Fraud linked to data breaches costs an estimated £755 million a year, affecting around 437,000 people.

So when the NCSC says “cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience”, the data backs that up.

Four major cyber attacks a week: what does that actually mean?

The NCSC’s Annual Review paints a picture of a threat level that’s accelerating, not stabilising:

• • 204 nationally significant cyber attacks handled in 12 months (up from 89 the year before).
• • 18 “highly significant” incidents – those that can hit essential services or cause serious national-level disruption.
• • A big chunk of this activity is driven by Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors – hostile states or highly capable criminal gangs.

Now, put that next to the economic modelling:

• • On average, 43% of UK businesses report a cyber breach or attack each year, equivalent to more than 600,000 organisations.
• • The sectors with the highest average cost per attack are some of the UK’s crown jewels: information, management, entertainment, manufacturing, and financial services – all with average incident costs over £300,000.

So we’ve got two overlapping realities:

1. Depth of impact – when they land, they reach far beyond IT budgets into productivity, public services, consumer trust and GDP.

2. Frequency – serious attacks are happening all the time, not as “once in a generation” events.

It’s not just “IT downtime” – it’s the whole economy

What’s really useful about the new research is that it stops treating cyber as a narrow, technical cost and starts looking at the wider ripple effects.

1. Sector-specific costings – where it hurts most

Data shows that an “average” attack isn’t evenly felt:

• • High-value sectors like information, management, entertainment, manufacturing and finance carry the biggest average losses.
• • When you translate this across the UK, the £14.7 billion annual cost is roughly comparable to wiping out half a percent of GDP every year.

This dovetails directly with the NCSC’s message: many of the “nationally significant” incidents are hitting exactly the sectors that keep the country running and competitive.

2. IP and knowledge theft – the slow-burn killer

Research from Alma Economics focused on intellectual property and knowledge assets – the stuff that actually differentiates a business: designs, algorithms, trade secrets, R&D.

They estimate £1–8.5 billion lost in 2024 from cyber-enabled IP and knowledge theft in the private sector.

For big firms, that’s terrible but often survivable. For SMEs, the case studies are brutal:

• • In extreme cases, IP theft can be existential – for example, when a competitor uses stolen IP to rush a rival product to market, undercut prices, and outspend you on marketing.
• • It’s not just “we had a breach” – it’s “we lost our edge.”

Tie that back to the NCSC data about APTs and highly capable criminal groups: these aren’t just smash-and-grab operations, they’re often strategic, targeted, and commercially motivated.

3. Fraud from data breaches – people, not just systems

In their researched, Frontier Economics looked at the link between organisational data breaches and individual fraud. Their modelling suggests:

• • Around 437,000 people became fraud victims in 2023 because their data was involved in a breach.
• • That’s about 11% of all fraud victims in England and Wales.
• • These fraud incidents linked to breaches are estimated to account for about £755 million a year – roughly 8% of the total cost of fraud.

So when the NCSC warns about rising “nationally significant” incidents, there’s a very human dimension behind that: hundreds of thousands of people dealing with stolen identities, emptied accounts, and long-running financial fallout.

When cyber attacks hit everyday life

One of the most interesting parts of the research is the modelling of consumer impact. It looks at hypothetical but realistic scenarios across sectors like finance, healthcare, culture and real estate.

A few examples:

• • Online banking:
  – A 3-day outage could cost between £5.5m and £231m in consumer impact – and is expected around once every four years.

• • Healthcare:
  • – A major hospital attack is estimated at £11.14m per incident, happening about three times a year.
    • – GP practices are estimated to be hit 37 times a year, with smaller but still significant per-incident costs.

• • Streaming, ticketing, culture & libraries:
  • – A one-day outage of online ticketing: £0.6m to £161m.
    • – One day without video streaming: £2.8m to £197m.
      • – Multi-day disruptions to museums, galleries, and libraries all add up – not just financially, but in terms of social value and day-to-day life.

Put that next to the NCSC’s four major attacks a week, and you start to see why they’re pressing boards to treat cyber as a resilience issue, not just an IT line item.

Railways, ransomware and real-world disruption

KPMG also modelled a systemic cyber incident on Great Britain’s rail network. The scenario is hypothetical – and assessed as low probability – but the potential impact is sobering:

• • Around £1.8 billion total economic cost for one week of disruption.
• • £123m in direct financial damage to Network Rail.
• • £281.3m cost to passengers in delays.
• • Up to £1.397 billion hit to gross value added – about 2.8% of weekly GDP and 0.05% of annual GDP.

Now line that up with the NCSC’s observation that many incidents require cross-government coordination and can disrupt critical national infrastructure. Rail is just one network. The same kind of systemic risk is present in energy, water, logistics, and health.

So what is government actually doing about it?

The blog wouldn’t be complete without looking at the policy and practical responses that sit alongside these stats.

A refreshed National Cyber Strategy

The government is working on a refresh of the National Cyber Strategy, with a clear aim:

• • Treat cyber as a national security and economic resilience issue.
• • Work in partnership with businesses, regulators, law enforcement, devolved governments and the public.
• • Keep the UK positioned as a “leading responsible cyber power” within alliances like NATO.

This aligns closely with the NCSC’s push to make cyber a Board-level responsibility, especially for major companies and critical sectors.

New laws and regulatory tightening

The Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill is designed to:

• Modernise the outdated 2018 NIS regulations.
• Raise the bar for essential services (water, energy, healthcare, transport) and digital services.
• Reduce the likelihood that a single vulnerability in a critical provider can cascade into national-level disruption.

Given the NCSC’s findings – four major attacks per week, more APT activity, and rising “highly significant” incidents – this is less about red tape and more about baseline safety standards for the country’s digital backbone.

Practical help for organisations – not just theory

Both the government and NCSC are trying to address a common problem: lots of organisations know cyber matters but don’t know where to start.

A few key building blocks:

• • Cyber Essentials:
  A baseline set of five technical controls that dramatically reduce exposure to common attacks.

• – Tens of thousands of certificates have been issued, and organisations with these controls in place make far fewer insurance claims.
• – For smaller organisations, Cyber Essentials certification even includes automatic cyber liability insurance, which is a big nudge to get the basics right.

• • New Cyber Action Toolkit (NCSC):
  A practical starter kit for small organisations and sole traders to put in foundational controls without needing a CISO and a big security budget.

• • Cyber Governance Code of Practice & Training:
  Aimed squarely at boards and directors, clarifying what “good” cyber governance looks like and helping leaders bridge the gap between technical risk and business impact.

• • Secure-by-design codes of practice for apps, software, AI and connected products, plus new product security legislation – acknowledging that we can’t bolt security on at the end anymore.

Offensive and international action

On top of the defensive measures:

• • The National Cyber Force runs offensive cyber operations against hostile states, terrorists and serious organised crime groups.
• • A new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command will bring together cyber, information and electromagnetic capabilities for faster and more coordinated responses.
• • Internationally, initiatives like the Pall Mall Process and closer EU–UK security dialogue on cyber issues reflect one key truth: this is a global problem, not a domestic one.

What does all this mean for businesses and leaders?

If you’re a business leader, board member, or senior manager, these two sets of documents – the government’s economic impact research and the NCSC Annual Review – are basically telling the same story from different angles:

• • Cyber risk is now systemic – it hits supply chains, infrastructure, consumers, and national security.
• • The numbers are big enough to matter at board and investor level – billions in annual losses, measurable slices of GDP, and serious reputational and operational consequences.
• • The threat is getting worse, not better – more nationally significant incidents, more APT activity, and more high-impact scenarios.

But the message isn’t just doom and gloom. It’s also very clear on the solution:

Organisations that get the basics right, invest in governance and resilience, and treat cyber as a core business risk rather than a compliance box, are far better placed to survive and thrive.

For many, that means:

• • Making Cyber Essentials-level controls non-negotiable.
• • Giving cyber a permanent seat at the board table, backed by proper metrics.
• • Stress-testing business continuity plans not just for power cuts or pandemics, but for sustained digital outages and data breaches.
• • Recognising that protecting IP, data and customer trust is now fundamental to long-term competitiveness.

Closing thought

The UK’s latest data on cyber attacks makes one thing crystal clear:

Cyber security is no longer a technical side quest. It’s part of how we protect jobs, public services, economic growth and national security.

The NCSC’s four major attacks a week are the visible tip of the iceberg. The government’s new research shows the submerged mass: billions in lost output, innovation, and consumer confidence.

If you’re leading an organisation in the UK in 2025, treating cyber as optional is no longer an option.

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