British companies have lost as much as £64bn to cyber-attacks in the past three years, fresh analysis has revealed.
In recent weeks prominent attacks against the IT systems of major retailers M&S, Co-op and Harrods have highlighted how dangerous hackers can be, but they are by no means isolated incidents.
In the last three years, over half of UK companies (53%) have suffered some form of cyber-attack or data breach, according to figures from cybersecurity provider ESET.
The losses include direct costs, such as ransom payouts, stolen or lost funds, legal and regulatory costs, disruption to operations and higher insurance premiums.
Attacks also come with indirect costs including the loss of clients, reputational damage, reduced competitive advantage due to IP loss and increased cybersecurity budgets post-attack.
“With growing public scrutiny on data protection and cybersecurity preparedness, businesses that fail to take proactive measures risk financial losses and long-term damage to trust and credibility,” said Jake Moore, global cybersecurity advisor at ESET.
“Cyber resilience is no longer optional – it’s essential for safeguarding business continuity and maintaining customer confidence in an increasingly digital world.”
Moore called for a “coordinated effort between the private sector, government, and cybersecurity experts is essential to securing the UK’s digital economy”.
Ransomware attacks have been a major challenge for businesses for some time, however, ESET has warned the rise of AI exacerbates this danger by putting powerful tools into the hands of bad actors.
Though many major generative AI companies implement safeguards to prevent misuse – such as the generation of harmful code – a recent experiment from Tenable Research found reasonable concern over the safeguards found in open source models such as DeepSeek.
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