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Top 5 cyber risks for 2026
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The UK’s digital environment is becoming increasingly complex as public and private sector organisations continue large‑scale cloud adoption, digitisation of services, and reliance on IT supply chains.
At the same time, an evolving regulatory landscape means UK businesses must strengthen their digital operational resilience. Entering 2026, there are several key cyber trends which organisations should keep a close eye on.
Top 5 risks
- The regulatory evolution
- Dependency on supply chains
- Legacy system vulnerabilities
- Organised cybercrime groups
- Synthetic Identity Fraud
The regulatory evolution
UK regulators, as well as the NCSC, continue to highlight the increasing volume and sophistication of criminal cyber activity targeting organisations across sectors with high‑value data or essential service delivery. Recent reporting that organisations faced an average of 1,968 cyberattacks per week in 2025 underscores the operational pressure created by financially motivated threat groups and the continued upward trend in attack frequency.
Alongside this rising threat environment, the UK is entering a period of significant regulatory change. The Cyber Security and Resilience (Network and Information Systems) Bill, introduced in late 2025 and progressing through Parliament in early 2026, represents a major update to the UK’s cyber regulatory framework. The Bill expands the scope of the existing NIS Regulations to cover managed service providers, data centres, and additional digital services, while introducing tougher incident‑reporting obligations and strengthened enforcement powers, including higher penalties for non‑compliance.
For UK organisations, this combination of heightened criminal activity and tightening regulatory demands increases the importance of robust incident response planning, continuous resilience testing, and establishing strong, measurable security baselines across all technology and supplier environments.
Dependency on supply chains
The UK economy relies heavily on complex supply chains, including significant outsourcing for IT, cloud services, manufacturing, and logistics. Threat intelligence predicts that third‑party breaches could account for around 30% of all cyber incidents in 2026, as supply‑chain ecosystems expand and become more interdependent.
The UK experienced a sharp escalation in cyber‑attacks in 2025, including major incidents across critical sectors, highlighting the increasing systemic risk posed by digital supply chains.
This is a particular concern for UK businesses subject to NIS2‑aligned standards, where regulatory expectations increasingly require documented supplier assurance, continuous monitoring, and evidence of governance over critical third‑party services.
Legacy system vulnerabilities
Many UK organisations continue to rely on legacy systems and ageing infrastructure that were never designed to withstand today’s cyber threat landscape. Outdated operating systems, unsupported applications, and older hardware often lack modern security features and cannot be patched effectively, creating persistent weaknesses that cybercriminals actively exploit. These systems also tend to be deeply embedded into operational processes, making them difficult to upgrade or replace without significant cost or interruption.
For UK organisations maintaining legacy systems without appropriate compensating controls could be costly. Prioritising remediation of high‑risk older systems and adopting phased modernisation plans are therefore essential to reduce exposure and maintain operational resilience.
Organised cybercrime groups
In 2026, organised cybercrime groups continue to refine their operations, treating ransomware, fraud, data theft, and extortion as mature commercial ecosystems.
Reports highlight a 53% year‑over‑year increase in victims subject to ransomware extortion.
This elevates the importance of backup integrity, response planning, and up‑to‑date resilience testing across corporate environments.
Synthetic Identity Fraud, Deepfake Enabled Scams, and Social Engineering
Deepfake and synthetic‑identity fraud have become more prominent in the UK due to the digitalisation of financial services and remote verification processes.
Threat intelligence warns that voice‑based impersonation attacks using highly realistic cloning techniques are becoming more structured, with fraudsters imitating executives, finance teams, or IT helpdesks to manipulate staff.
Given the UK’s reliance on digital identity systems, organisations must place greater emphasis on staff training, multi‑channel verification procedures, and investment in emerging fraud‑detection technologies.
Conclusion
As we move through 2026, UK organisations will face an evolving threat landscape shaped by rising criminal sophistication and supply‑chain dependencies. While many risks mirror global trends, the UK’s regulatory environment and concentration of high‑value industries heighten the need for strong governance and operational resilience.
By implementing rigorous supplier‑risk controls, strengthening identity management, enhancing incident response planning, and training employees to recognise emerging fraud techniques, organisations can materially reduce their exposure and better protect their operations in an increasingly volatile digital environment.
Daniel Lewsley
Associate Director,
Cyber Technology & Solutions