- Businesses encouraged to sign Cyber Resilience Pledge to
strengthen defences against fast-evolving AI-enabled
threats
- New figures show UK cyber security sector revenue has risen
11% to £14.7 billion, with firms up 20% to 2,603
- Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to continue through
Parliament following the King's
Speech, demonstrating the government's long-term
commitment to strengthen Britain's foundations and build a more
resilient country
Businesses across the UK are being urged to strengthen their
cyber defences, as the
government takes action to protect the
economy and essential services people rely on every day
from fast-evolving cyber threats.
As part of a wider push to shore up the UK's cyber defences,
ministers are urging organisations across the economy
to boost their resilience by signing up to
a Cyber Resilience
Pledge.
The pledge, launching later this year, sets out 3 concrete
actions organisations can take to improve their cyber
security:
- making cyber security a board-level responsibility
- signing up to the National Cyber Security Centre's free Early
Warning Service
- require Cyber
Essentials certification across their supply chains –
the UK government-backed cyber security standard that blocks
the most common cyber threats.
Together, these steps help businesses reduce risk,
protect customers and build confidence across the wider
economy.
Ministers have written directly to some of the UK's leading
companies inviting them to sign up to the Cyber Resilience
Pledge, and organisations are now encouraged to review
the requirements and commit. The government is backing this shift
with £90 million towards improving cyber resilience across the
economy.
The push comes as the Cyber Security and
Resilience Bill will continue its passage through
Parliament following the King's Speech, demonstrating the
government's long-term commitment to protect critical national
infrastructure, support economic growth and reduce the risk of
disruption to essential services such as energy, water,
healthcare and data centres.
New figures published
today also show the strength of the UK's
cyber security sector, which grew 11% last year to £14.7
billion, with the number of firms rising by 20% to
2,603 – underlining the UK's position as a global cyber
security leader and a fast‑growing engine of the economy.
The sector created 2,300 jobs in the past year
alone, reflecting rising demand for British
cyber expertise as businesses and public services
invest in stronger protection against increasingly sophisticated
threats, including those enabled by AI.
Ministers have warned that the threats businesses face in
cyber space are changing, and the way they respond must change
with it. A new generation of AI models is lowering the barrier
for cyber criminals, enabling them to find vulnerabilities and
carry out attacks at a speed and scale that would have been
impossible even a year ago. Recent figures show 43% of UK
businesses experienced a cyber breach or attack in the past year,
underlining the urgency of action.
The importance of taking action has been highlighted by recent
research by the AI Security Institute, looking at frontier models
like Mythos and GPT
5.5. Ministers are warning that traditional cyber protections
alone are no longer enough. As AI accelerates the pace and scale
of cyber attacks, organisations must now invest in smarter,
more resilient systems that can limit the impact of breaches and
keep ahead of attackers – rather than constantly reacting after
the damage is done.
The UK is not standing still in response to this threat. We have
built the AI Security Institute,
the most advanced capability of any government in the world for
understanding frontier AI systems. This ensures that your
government can have an independently verified, robust assessment
of current capabilities.
More broadly, the National Cyber Security Centre, part of GCHQ,
is world-leading in defending the UK online, and continues to
publish practical guidance every business can
use.
Cyber Security Minister Baroness Lloyd said:
Cyber security is now fundamental to economic growth, job
creation and the resilience of the services people rely on every
day.
The UK has a world‑class cyber sector that is creating
skilled jobs and protecting our economy – and government is doing
more by investing in its own defences, legislating to
require more of essential services and setting clear national
standards.
As threats evolve, businesses of all sizes need to step up and
take practical action now. The Cyber Resilience Pledge is a clear
call for companies to strengthen their defences, protect their
customers and play their part in keeping the UK secure and
competitive.
CEOs are urged to harness the expertise and innovation
of UK cyber startups, building partnerships that drive the
development and adoption of advanced solutions, such as
memory-safe systems that are significantly less vulnerable, to
keep our economy ahead of adversaries.
Cyber security for AI is itself also an emerging growth area,
with the number of UK firms offering cyber security products or
services for AI up 68% in 2025 compared to the previous year –
reinforcing the UK's position as both a leader in innovation and
a responder to new threats.
