75% of UK business leaders who believe ransomware payments should be banned admit they would still pay a ransom if it were the only way to save their organisation, even if a ban was extended to the private sector and civil or criminal penalties applied.

Almost all UK respondents (98%) stated that cyber readiness and recovery will be a top spending priority.

Three-quarters (or 75%) of UK organisations have conducted security reviews in response to threats in the last 12 months.

In real-world situations within the private sector, if a ransom payment ban were to take hold, only 10% of UK business leaders said they would comply if they were attacked.

94% of UK business leaders support limiting ransom payments for public entities.

For the third year running, cyber is identified as the leading cause of downtime and data loss in the UK.

99% of UK business leaders support limiting ransom payments for private organisations.

A third (33%) of UK business leaders believe that a ban would decrease the prevalence of ransomware attacks by reducing the incentive for attackers.

71% of UK organisations experienced a cyber attack in the past year.

9 in 10 UK organisations tested elements of their recovery capabilities in the last 12 months, which is a significant increase from previous years.

More than a third (34%) of UK business leaders who support a proposed ransom payment ban believe it would lead to increased government support and intervention to safeguard cyber resilience.

96% of surveyed UK business leaders from companies with revenues of £100 million+ believe that ransomware payments should be banned across both public and private sectors.

72% of UK organisations believe AI will strengthen security in the years ahead

In real-world situations within the private sector, if a ransom payment ban were to take hold, 15% of UK business leaders said they would be neither likely nor unlikely to comply with such a ban.

55% of consumers in the UK don't feel adequately protected in the sharing economy (including vacation rentals and other travel-focused gig economy services).

46% of UK HR leaders reported that security concerns directly triggered their HR software purchases last year.

Nearly half (45%) of UK HR professionals are worried about privacy risks related to AI-powered HR tools, which is the highest percentage among all countries surveyed.

75% of UK HR leaders consider security a critical feature when researching and implementing HR software.

In the U.K., 58.1% of surveyed IT/security professionals reported being pressured to keep a breach confidential, even when they believed it should be reported to authorities.

In the U.K., 64%. of IT/security professionals highlighted the importance of reducing their cyberattack surface by disabling unnecessary tools or applications.