The UK’s Cyber Crossroads
In 2025, the UK’s digital backbone is under siege.
The DSIT Cyber Security Breaches Survey reports that 43% of UK businesses and 30% of charities faced a cyber breach in the past year.
For boards, the real concern is the normalisation of breach. When almost half of the market reports incidents annually – and with phishing driving more than 85% of those incidents – security can no longer be measured by avoidance. It has to be measured by resilience.
Ransomware incidence remains low at 1%, yet that is double the rate of last year. That means around 19,000 UK businesses suffered ransomware attacks. The headlines only capture the big names. Behind the scenes, thousands of firms faced disruption and cost.
Why “Global” Is Not Enough
Cybersecurity providers like to call themselves global. It sounds impressive, but boards know better. When the breach is local, response must be local.
- UK organisations face specific regulatory pressure. The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is moving through Parliament. It proposes fines of up to £100,000 a day for non-compliance.
- Threats are rising faster in the UK than in much of Europe. Surfshark’s Q2 2025 report logged 944,000 breached UK accounts in a single quarter, the highest in Northern Europe. For boards, that figure is not a background statistic — it represents a vast reservoir of stolen credentials feeding phishing and ransomware across supply chains.
- Incidents are closer to home than many boards want to admit. Hospitals, schools and critical services have all seen systems taken down in the past year.
Global branding cannot substitute for local accountability.
What UK Boards Should Demand
When boards ask about the “best cybersecurity companies in the UK,” they should demand clarity on five areas:
1. SOC Assurance
Not just a SOC, but validation that monitoring and detection are tested, audited and resilient.
2. Supply Chain Security
The weak link is rarely your own system. It is often a partner or vendor. Detection across the chain is now a board priority.
3. Emergency Response
Every provider claims to offer response. The real question is whether they can deliver in time, with full awareness of UK operational and regulatory realities.
4. Regulatory Understanding
Crisis is not the time to learn UK law. Providers must be fluent in the UK regulatory environment and able to prove compliance support.
5. Simplified Cyber Stacks
Complexity does not protect. The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 highlights that many UK organisations are being breached repeatedly, with medium-sized firms especially vulnerable to multiple incidents in a single year. The NCSC has warned that sprawling IT estates create blind spots attackers exploit. Boards need partners who simplify without weakening defence.
Local Advantage Creates Global Trust
UK and Europe presence positions ENHALO at the intersection of global reach and local trust.
- Proximity: In a breach, response speed is everything. Access to decision-makers and regulatory knowledge makes the difference.
- Policy Fluency: From GDPR to the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, ENHALO understands and applies evolving UK legislation.
- Global Coverage: We serve boards in the UK, Europe, Africa and beyond. Local delivery, global context.
Real-World Lessons
The British Library cyberattack is one of many reminders. The Rhysida ransomware group leaked 600GB of stolen data in late 2023. Recovery costs are estimated between £6 million and £7 million. The disruption lasted for months.
For every British Library, there are dozens of businesses that never hit the headlines. The lesson is the same: resilience is not about brand size. It is about the ability to turn up when it matters.
Redefining “Best”
In 2025, the best cybersecurity companies in the UK are not the ones with the largest budgets or the most global offices. They are the ones that combine local accountability with global capability.
Boards are not asking who shouts the loudest. They are asking who will pick up the phone at two in the morning, and who will still be there when the breach response turns into recovery.
That is the future of cybersecurity in the UK. That is ENHALO.
