UK's Cyber Risk "Widely Underestimated": Why Your Organisation Needs to Act Now

fahd.zafar • December 6, 2024

The head of GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Richard Horne, has issued a stark warning about the UK's cybersecurity landscape. In his first major speech, he highlighted a "clearly widening gap between the exposure and threat we face, and the defences that are in place to protect us."


At Altiatech, we've been at the forefront of addressing these exact challenges since 2013. The NCSC's latest findings align with what we're seeing across our client base, particularly in three critical areas:

  1. Growing Sophistication of Threats: The NCSC reports that hostile activity in UK cyberspace has increased in "frequency, sophistication and intensity." With state actors like Russia and China becoming increasingly aggressive, organisations need robust security frameworks more than ever.

  2. Real-World Impact: Recent attacks on organisations like Synnovis and the British Library demonstrate how cyber incidents can disrupt essential services and access to knowledge. These aren't just technical problems – they have real human costs and business implications.

  3. Rising Incident Numbers: The NCSC handled 430 incidents this year, up from 371 the previous year. More concerningly, 347 of these involved data exfiltration, while ransomware continues to be the most pervasive threat to UK organisations.


How Altiatech Can Help


Through our altIAM division and partnership with Microsoft, we offer comprehensive solutions to address these growing threats:

  • Zero Trust Architecture Implementation
  • Identity and Access Management
  • Privileged Access Management
  • Multi-Cloud Security
  • 24/7 Security Monitoring

As Mr. Horne emphasises, cybersecurity shouldn't be viewed as a "necessary evil" but as a business investment and catalyst for innovation. Our team of experts can help you transform your security posture while enabling growth and innovation.


Take Action Today


Don't wait for an incident to occur.
Contact our team to arrange a security assessment and ensure your organisation is prepared for the evolving threat landscape.

Email: innovate@altiatech.com
Phone:
+44 (0)330 332 5482

Stay secure,
The Altiatech Team



Read the
NCSC Annual Review 2024 here

October 31, 2025
Zero trust has become one of the most discussed concepts in cybersecurity, yet widespread misconceptions make it difficult for organisations to understand what it actually involves. Vendor marketing hasn't helped, with many claiming their products deliver "zero trust" when in reality, it's neither a product nor a simple switch you can flip.  This guide cuts through the confusion to explain what zero trust genuinely means and when your organisation should consider adopting it.
October 30, 2025
A critical vulnerability in Chromium's Blink rendering engine remains unpatched despite being disclosed to Google over two months ago, leaving billions of users vulnerable to browser crashes and system freezes.
October 30, 2025
Microsoft's Azure cloud platform experienced a significant global outage on Wednesday, taking down major websites including Heathrow Airport, NatWest, Minecraft, and numerous retailers across several hours before services were restored.
By fahd.zafar October 28, 2025
AI-powered browsers with agentic capabilities are introducing a fundamental security vulnerability that experts believe may never be fully resolved: prompt injection attacks.
October 28, 2025
The National Cyber Security Centre has taken the extraordinary step of co-signing a ministerial letter to chief executives and chairs of Britain's leading businesses, including all FTSE 350 companies. The message is unambiguous: cyber security is no longer just an IT concern—it's a matter of business survival.
October 24, 2025
Microsoft published an unscheduled security patch on Friday addressing a severe vulnerability in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), creating weekend work for system administrators.
October 24, 2025
Alaska Airlines experienced its second mystery IT outage in three months, grounding its entire fleet for eight hours and cancelling over 360 flights. The incident raises uncomfortable questions about disaster recovery planning in critical infrastructure.
By fahd.zafar October 24, 2025
Amazon has revealed the shocking cause behind one of history's most devastating cloud outages: a simple race condition in DynamoDB's DNS management system brought down AWS services globally for an entire day, with damage estimates potentially reaching hundreds of billions of dollars.
By fahd.zafar October 21, 2025
When Amazon Web Services' US-EAST-1 region went down on 20th October, it didn't just affect services in Northern Virginia—it brought down websites and critical services across the globe, from European banks to UK government agencies. The incident has exposed a fundamental vulnerability in modern cloud infrastructure that no amount of redundancy planning can fully address.
By fahd.zafar October 20, 2025
The numbers are stark and deeply concerning. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) handled a record 204 nationally significant cyber attacks in the year to September 2025—an average of four every single week. This represents a dramatic increase from 89 incidents in the previous year, more than doubling in just 12 months.  For British businesses, this isn't abstract threat intelligence—it's a clear warning that the cyber threat landscape has fundamentally changed, and urgent action is required.