Tag: Cyber Attacks

Security-Stop Press : Worst Data Breaches of 2025 Show Cyber Attacks Are About Disruption

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The most serious cyber incidents of 2025 showed a clear move away from data theft towards operational disruption and economic damage.

Globally, attackers exploited trusted platforms and supply chains, with US federal systems breached repeatedly and the Clop group stealing sensitive data by abusing an unknown flaw in Oracle E Business. More than one billion records were also accessed from Salesforce environments after hackers compromised connected third party platforms rather than Salesforce itself.

In the UK, disruption had immediate consequences. Cyber attacks on Marks & Spencer and Co-op exposed customer data and knocked systems offline, with Co-op later confirming all 6.5 million members were affected. The Cyber Monitoring Centre estimated the retail attacks caused up to £440 million in economic damage.

The most severe UK case involved Jaguar Land Rover, where a cyberattack halted production for months and destabilised its supply chain, prompting a £1.5 billion government guarantee to protect jobs and suppliers.

For businesses, the lesson from 2025 is that resilience is critical. Guidance from the National Cyber Security Centre emphasises patching, limiting third party access, tested backups, and rehearsed incident response, because fast recovery is now the key defence against disruptive attacks.

News : Government to CEOs: “Print Backups Of Cyber Plans”

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The UK government has written to chief executives across the country urging them to keep physical, offline copies of their cyber contingency and business continuity plans, as the number of severe cyber attacks continues to rise.

Why The Government Is Acting Now

The move follows a sharp increase in what officials call “nationally significant” cyber incidents. In its latest annual review, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported handling 429 cyber incidents over the past year, of which 204 were classed as nationally significant, more than double the previous year’s total of 89. Eighteen of those were categorised as “highly significant”, marking a 50 per cent rise.

These figures highlight a growing problem for UK organisations. Attacks on major companies have recently disrupted production lines, logistics operations, and supply chains. The government says this shows how cyber threats now pose not only a security risk but also a direct threat to jobs and the wider economy.

Cyber Resilience Should Be A Board Level Priority

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Business Secretary Peter Kyle, Security Minister Dan Jarvis, and the heads of both the NCSC and the National Crime Agency have jointly signed letters to business leaders, including all FTSE 350 companies. The message is that cyber resilience must become a board-level priority, and organisations must be ready to operate without IT systems for extended periods if necessary.

What The Letter Tells CEOs To Do

The letter from the government essentially makes three key points/recommendations to company leaders, which are:

1. It says they should treat cyber resilience as a governance issue and align with the government’s new Cyber Governance Code of Practice.

2. It recommends that all organisations sign up to the NCSC’s Early Warning service, which alerts firms to potential vulnerabilities or active threats.

3. It advises implementing the Cyber Essentials scheme, both within their own operations and throughout their supply chains.

Crucially, the letter also stresses the importance of keeping copies of critical plans “accessible offline or in hard copy”, including details of how to communicate and coordinate during an IT failure. This is actually part of a wider government effort to embed what the NCSC calls “resilience engineering”, which can basically be described as an approach that focuses on anticipating, absorbing, recovering from, and adapting to cyber attacks.

The Logic Behind Paper Copies

Although it may sound strange in what is increasingly a digital world, the advice to hold printed plans is intended to be a practical response to one of the key realities of modern cyber incidents. For example, when ransomware or destructive malware locks or wipes digital systems, even backups stored in the cloud can become inaccessible. In those situations, an organisation needs something it can rely on immediately, i.e., contact lists, instructions, and decision trees that are available without power, network access, or authentication.

The NCSC’s annual review explains that organisations should have “plans for how they would continue to operate without their IT, and rebuild that IT at pace, were an attack to get through.” Storing that information offline ensures that teams can still coordinate a response even if email, messaging, or identity systems have been taken down.

From Prevention To Resilience

The government’s letter reflects a wider change in strategy from simply preventing attacks to building the ability to withstand them. For example, the NCSC now encourages what it calls resilience engineering, i.e., designing systems and processes that can recover quickly after disruption.

That includes maintaining immutable backups that cannot be encrypted or tampered with, segmenting networks to prevent attacks spreading, testing recovery procedures, and running scenario exercises that simulate complete loss of IT. This approach assumes that no organisation can be completely immune to attack, so readiness and rapid recovery become essential.

Warnings From The NCSC

In its latest report, the NCSC said cyber security had become “a matter of business survival and national resilience.” The agency noted that half the incidents it managed in the past year met the top three severity categories, which cover impacts to government, essential services, or large sections of the public and economy.

The NCSC is urging organisations to make themselves as hard a target as possible, warning that hesitation in improving resilience leaves them exposed. It is also promoting its Cyber Action Toolkit for smaller firms, which provides simple step-by-step measures to improve security and response capabilities.

Support From The Security Industry

Cybersecurity professionals appear to have broadly supported the government’s message, saying it reflects lessons learned from recent incidents where businesses lost access to key systems for weeks. Industry experts have described the advice as practical rather than symbolic, noting that while printed plans may seem old-fashioned, they can be vital when digital tools fail.

The concept of treating cyber security like health and safety, something every employee understands as part of everyday working life, has gained traction in recent years. The government’s call reinforces this by urging boards to build resilience into core operations rather than treating it as an optional add-on.

Preparation

For larger companies, the message essentially means that cyber risk must now be reported and discussed at board level, with directors accountable for ensuring readiness. That includes confirming who would take charge in an emergency, how to communicate without email, and where physical copies of key documents are stored.

For smaller firms, the focus is more on preparation. For example, the NCSC’s free services, including the Early Warning system and Cyber Essentials certification, are designed to reduce the burden of building basic protection. Having physical backup plans does not replace digital defences, but it ensures that even in the worst-case scenario, there is a clear process for keeping the business running.

The government also highlights the benefits of requiring suppliers to meet similar standards, as supply chain weaknesses can often be exploited by attackers. Making resilience part of procurement policies helps reduce the risk of disruption spreading between organisations.

The Advantage of Offline Contingency Plans

A key advantage of offline contingency plans is that they allow teams to act immediately when systems go down. For example, staff can access emergency contacts, escalate issues, and follow recovery steps without waiting for IT access to return. In critical industries, such as healthcare, manufacturing, and logistics, those minutes or hours can make the difference between a temporary disruption and a complete operational shutdown.

Organisations that follow the NCSC’s guidance can also expect tangible benefits. The agency notes that companies meeting Cyber Essentials standards are significantly less likely to make cyber insurance claims. Better planning also tends to reduce recovery times and financial losses.

Challenges And Concerns

Although there is broad support for the government’s recommendations, there are (inevitably) some practical and logistical challenges. For example, paper copies need to be updated regularly to reflect new systems and staff changes, and they must be stored securely to prevent sensitive information from being accessed or lost. Some companies have also expressed concern about the administrative burden of maintaining both digital and physical documentation.

Others question whether a focus on manual fallbacks could distract from investment in prevention. However, security experts argue that resilience and defence are complementary, i.e., both are necessary, and neither alone is sufficient.

For small and medium-sized enterprises, limited resources remain a concern. Even with free government tools, implementing and maintaining robust resilience measures can take time and expertise. Nonetheless, the government’s stance is that preparedness is no longer optional, given the rising frequency and severity of attacks.

The Bigger Picture

Ministers have said that further steps will follow, including continued promotion of the Cyber Governance Code of Practice and potential new requirements under the forthcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.

The letters sent this month highlight a clear change in tone, to one where cyber resilience is no longer being treated as an IT issue, but as a matter of national and economic security. For UK businesses, the message is simply that if the screens go dark, the organisation should still be able to function, and that begins with having the right plans on paper.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The government’s intervention could be said to mark a notable moment in how cyber risk is now being framed, i.e., as a question of continuity and national resilience rather than purely technical defence. The decision to write directly to company chiefs shows the extent to which cyber attacks have moved from the IT department to the boardroom, becoming an operational, financial, and reputational issue that demands visible leadership. The emphasis on hardcopy plans might appear unusual in a digital economy, yet it underlines an uncomfortable truth, which is that digital systems are not invincible and that planning for their failure is now a core part of responsible management.

For UK businesses, this change could prove both challenging and beneficial. For example, it requires time, training, and discipline to maintain offline contingency plans and rehearse manual processes, but it also forces a clearer understanding of dependencies and critical operations. Those already investing in resilience may find themselves better protected from both financial losses and prolonged service disruption. Smaller firms, meanwhile, stand to gain from the free support and practical guidance now being promoted by the NCSC, which aims to bring consistent standards across the economy.

The wider implications reach beyond business. For government and regulators, the campaign is part of a long-term effort to build systemic strength in the face of increasingly complex attacks. For insurers and investors, it offers a signal that resilience planning is becoming a measurable component of good governance. For the public, it reinforces the expectation that essential services, from food distribution to healthcare, should be able to keep operating even when technology fails.

The government’s advice accepts that no cyber defence is perfect, but that preparedness can dramatically limit the impact. By putting resilience on paper as well as on screen, the UK’s leadership is attempting to bridge the gap between digital ambition and practical survivability. If businesses take that message seriously, the result may be a more stable and dependable digital economy, and one that can withstand not just the next attack, but the inevitable disruptions still to come.

News : ICO : Students Behind Most School Insider Attacks

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Over half of all insider cyber attacks in UK schools are now being carried out by students, according to new findings from the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Alert

A new alert issued by the UK’s data protection regulator has highlighted a “worrying trend” in school cyber breaches, with children as young as seven found to be responsible for serious personal data breaches. The ICO’s analysis of 215 insider cyber incidents reported by education settings between January 2022 and August 2024 found that 57 per cent were caused by students, often exploiting weak security practices and misconfigured systems to gain access.

What’s Happening?

The new findings focus on what the ICO terms the “insider threat”, i.e. a cyber security breach originating from someone inside an organisation, rather than from external attackers. According to the ICO, it seems that in schools and colleges, that threat increasingly means the students themselves.

Logging In Rather Than Hacking In

While traditional hacking is often associated with remote cyber criminals, many of the breaches reported to the ICO involved students who were already inside the school network, whether physically or via a shared device. In most cases, these students didn’t need to ‘hack in’. Instead, they simply logged in using staff credentials they had guessed, found written down, or seen used in shared spaces. For example, the ICO’s investigation found that 30 per cent of the insider breaches involved students using stolen or guessed login details. Of those, 97 per cent were directly attributed to students.

Examples

Examples released by the ICO include Year 11 pupils using freely available hacking tools to access a secondary school’s student records database. In another case, a college student used a staff login to view, amend, or delete personal data belonging to more than 9,000 individuals, including students, applicants and staff. The data accessed included names, home addresses, school records, health data, safeguarding notes and emergency contact details.

Who And Why?

According to the National Crime Agency (NCA), around 1 in 5 children aged 10 to 16 have engaged in some form of illegal online activity. Many young people involved in school-based cyber breaches are tech-savvy teenagers, often motivated by curiosity, dares, rivalry or a desire to test their skills.

Heather Toomey, Principal Cyber Specialist at the ICO, warned: “What starts out as a dare, a challenge, a bit of fun in a school setting can ultimately lead to children taking part in damaging attacks on organisations or critical infrastructure.”

The ICO’s own report found that a number of student attackers were already members of online hacking forums, with some describing their interest in IT or cyber security as a motivation.

There are also concerns that peer pressure and notoriety may be playing a role. Also, with hacking tools readily available online and a growing culture of ‘cyber experimentation’ among teenagers, the barrier to entry has dropped significantly. In one shocking example, the youngest child referred to the NCA’s Cyber Choices programme (a diversion scheme for young people at risk of cyber crime) was just seven years old!

How Poor Cyber Practices Are Making Things Worse

While students are behind a growing number of these attacks, the ICO says that weak school security practices are often to blame for giving them the opportunity. For example, of the incidents it analysed:

– 23 per cent were due to poor data protection practices, such as staff leaving devices unattended or students being allowed to use staff machines.

– 20 per cent were caused by staff sending data to personal devices.

– 17 per cent were the result of incorrect system access rights, such as misconfigured permissions on platforms like SharePoint.

– Only 5 per cent involved more technically advanced attacks aimed at bypassing security or network controls.

This appears to paint a picture of education settings where basic cyber hygiene is not being consistently enforced, and where curiosity-driven students often find it all too easy to gain access.

In many cases looked at by the ICO, passwords were left written down or reused across multiple systems (password sharing). Also, systems were often inadequately segregated, with students able to access staff portals or administrative databases. Another issue was devices being left unlocked or unattended, giving unauthorised users the chance to view or export sensitive data.

Real-World Impacts

Although students may have been doing this for fun, the fallout from such incidents can be really serious. For example, breaches involving children’s personal data may trigger safeguarding risks, parental complaints, and mandatory reporting to regulators like the ICO and Action Fraud. They can also cause disruption to school operations and damage trust in digital education tools.

A breach involving sensitive pastoral care records or health data could lead to emotional distress for pupils and families. Although the ICO has not confirmed whether any of the reported incidents have resulted in enforcement action, it has made it clear that schools need to raise their game security-wise.

More broadly, the findings raise concerns that early, unchecked behaviour at school could lay the groundwork for more serious criminal activity later on. For example, children who get away with low-level school hacking may be more likely to go on to commit cyber crime in adulthood. In recent years, UK-based teenagers have been arrested in connection with high-profile attacks on major organisations including TfL, M&S and MGM Casinos.

What Can Be Done?

The ICO is urging schools to recognise the insider threat as a real and growing risk, and to take a more proactive approach to cyber security. That includes tightening access controls, improving staff training, and removing unnecessary opportunities for student access to staff systems.

“It’s important that we understand the next generation’s interests and motivations in the online world,” said Heather Toomey. “Schools must act to reduce these risks and ensure children remain on the right side of the law.”

The regulator recommends that GDPR and cyber training be refreshed regularly, especially for staff who handle sensitive pupil data. Schools are also encouraged to report breaches to the ICO promptly so that they can receive tailored guidance and support.

For parents, the message is to talk regularly with children about what they do online and how their actions may have legal and ethical consequences. The NCA’s Cyber Choices programme provides online resources for parents, educators, and young people to help channel cyber skills in positive directions.

It’s also worth noting that Ofsted and the Department for Education have both included cyber security and digital safeguarding as part of broader school leadership responsibilities, particularly for academy trusts and local authority-maintained schools managing large datasets across multiple sites.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The scale of these incidents appears to show deeper vulnerabilities in how education settings are managing access, accountability and digital safety. For example, although students may be the ones exploiting the gaps, it seems that the failures often begin with poor digital discipline among staff, misconfigured systems, and weak enforcement of policies that should be basic practice by now. This is, therefore, not just a safeguarding issue but a clear organisational risk, one that could just as easily apply to businesses that underestimate their own internal threat landscape.

For UK companies, especially those working with younger audiences or educational institutions, there’s a broader lesson here. If school systems with limited budgets and complex user bases are proving this easy to exploit, similar risks may be lurking within corporate networks where insider access is also widespread and often poorly monitored. With teenagers already engaging in low-level attacks on schools, and some progressing to more serious breaches in the private sector, early prevention and education have to be part of a wider national cyber strategy.

The ICO’s focus on education, awareness and remediation (rather than punishment) is also notable here. It suggests a recognition that many of these cases are not driven by malice, but by gaps in understanding, supervision and technical control. That said, the legal and reputational consequences of these breaches remain significant, and the longer schools delay action, the harder it will be to rebuild trust.

This appears to be an issue in which everyone has a role to play for prevention. For example, for schools, this means reviewing device access, credential management, and staff training as a matter of urgency. For parents, it means having clearer conversations with children about digital responsibility. Also, for policymakers and industry, it means recognising that today’s teenage hobbyist could become tomorrow’s insider threat, unless there are effective interventions, better systems and stronger support in place to redirect those skills.

Tech News : Wales Has Put A SOC In It

Posted on by Paul Stradling

The UK’s first national security operations centre (SOC) known as CymruSOC, has launched in Wales to protect the country’s local authorities and fire and rescue services from cyber-attacks.

SOC 

The Welsh government has announced that the new SOC service will be managed by Cardiff-based firm Socura, with the intention of ensuring key organisations can continue offering critical services without disruption due to cyber-attacks. Also, the SOC service is intended to safeguard the data of the majority of the Welsh population, as well as 60,000 employees across the public sector.

The Issue 

The Wales First Minister, Vaughan Gething, recently outlined the reasons behind the introduction of CymruSOC, saying that the pandemic showed how important the digital side of peoples’ lives has become. Also, the fact that it is now “central” to the way people in Wales learn, work, access public services, and conduct business i.e., there’s now a reliance on digital), has also led to a “stark increase in the risk of cyber-attacks which are becoming ever more common and sophisticated.”  

24/7 Monitoring 

The Socura SOC team will monitor for potential threats such as phishing and ransomware from its 24/7 remote SOC. Also, the Welsh government says that in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Centre, CymruSOC will share threat intelligence information to ensure they are aware of emerging risks.

‘Defend As One’ Approach 

First Minister Vaughan Gething has also highlighted how CymruSOC (this new national security operations centre), a first-of-its-kind solution with social partnership at its heart, will “take a ‘defend as one’ approach”. Mr Gething views CymruSOC as being “a vital part” of the Cyber Action Plan for Wales, which was launched only one year ago, and which Mr Gething describes as “making good progress to protect public services and strengthen cyber resilience and preparedness.” 

Incidents 

Recent incidents which may have helped speed along the setting up of SOC include a reported hack on the Welsh government’s iShare Connect portal earlier this year, and Harlech Community Council (North Wales) being scammed last November by online fraudsters to the tune of £9,000 (the equivalent of 10 per cent of its annual budget.

A Boost In Defences 

Andy Kays, the CEO of Cardiff-based firm Socura, which is managing CymruSOC, has noted that by sharing a SOC and threat intel across all Welsh local authorities, “even the smallest Welsh town will now have the expertise and defences of a large modern enterprise organisation.”

Also, Mr Kays highlighted the importance of boosting the cyber-defences of and protecting the data held by local councils by making the point that a local council is where people “register a birth, apply for schools, housing, and marriage licences” and it is this that makes them “a prized target for financially motivated cybercriminal groups as well as nation state actors seeking to cause disruption to critical infrastructure.” 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

Considering the importance of public sector services such as fire and rescue, plus the fact that the wealth of data and sometimes outdated and underfunded systems of councils and other public sector institutions often make them a softer target for cyber criminals, this is a timely development for Wales. Also, for businesses operating within Wales, this development offers substantial benefits that extend well beyond the immediate protection of public services.

Firstly, the centralised security operations centre, managed by (private) Cardiff-based firm Socura, should help ensure that even the smallest of local councils can enjoy the cyber-defences typically reserved for large enterprises. This is not just a boost for the public sector but also fortifies the security landscape in which Welsh businesses operate. By boosting the cyber-defences of local authorities, businesses that interact with or rely on them for services can expect a more secure and reliable digital environment. This integration of robust cybersecurity measures means that businesses can operate with a greater assurance of continuity, (hopefully) free from the disruptions of potential cyber-attacks on critical public infrastructure.

The ‘defend as one’ approach advocated by CymruSOC emphasises collaborative security, which may be a crucial advantage for businesses. For example, the shared threat intelligence and resources may ensure that emerging cyber threats are identified and mitigated swiftly, not just within the public sector but potentially within the private sector as well.

Also, the focus on safeguarding data across public sector entities could indirectly benefit businesses. With public services handling sensitive information more securely, businesses interacting with these services or handling similar data can align their practices with these enhanced standards, thus improving their overall data protection strategies. This alignment not only helps in compliance with regulatory requirements but also builds trust with customers and partners who are increasingly concerned about data security.

The establishment of CymruSOC, therefore, appears to be a forward-thinking initiative that promises not just to fortify the digital framework of Wales’s public sector, but also for businesses and other entities that interact with them, all of which could help foster growth and innovation in Wales in an increasingly digital business landscape.

Security Stop Press : 2023’s Most Notable Cyber Attacks

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Cyber Security News has compiled a top 10 most notable cyber-attacks of 2023 list, serving as a reminder to businesses that advancements in technology, increased connectivity, and the more sophisticated tactics used by threat actors mean that cyber-attacks are evolving at a rapid pace.

Top of its list is the MOVEit Mass Attack launched by a Russian hacking group which used the MOVEit file transfer software to extort an estimated $75-100 million from 2,667 organisations. The others in the list include Cisco IOS XE attacks, the US government hacked via Microsoft 365, the Citrix Bleed attack, Okta’s customer support data breach, the Western Digital cyber-attack, and the MGM Resorts breach. The list also includes the Royal Ransomware attack over the city of Dallas, the GoAnywhere attacks, and the 3CX software supply chain attack.

Businesses should, therefore, make sure that they are well protected for 2024 from a wide range of common cyber-attack methods, including malware, phishing, distributed denial of Service (DDoS), man-in-the-Middle (MitM), and many more.

Security Stop Press : Unsecured Printers A Cause Of Cyber Attacks For SMBs

Posted on by Paul Stradling

Research from Sharp shows that unsecured printers have been the cause of cyber-attacks for one-fifth of European SMBs, and for one half of public sector organisations.

Despite the office printer being an under the radar weak spot for cyber-attacks like phishing, malware, and computer viruses, fewer than a quarter of UK SMBs report educating their employees about either scanner or printer security.
Sharp reports that the most common printer vulnerabilities which lead to the attacks are the use of default passwords, unsecured network connections, and outdated firmware.

The advice to SMBs is to keep software for scanners and printers updated, regularly back up data, and to encourage a consistent security policy across teams working from multiple locations.

Tech News : Cyber Attacks Burn Out Security Experts

Posted on by Paul Stradling

A new survey from CyberArk has revealed that increased workloads caused by a surge in cyber threats and attacks has led to 59 per cent of UK senior cyber security professionals facing burnout.

Cyber Crime Levels High 

The results of the survey highlight the growing workload pressure on cyber security professionals because in just the past 12 months alone, a staggering 80 per cent of UK organisations have experienced a ransomware attack, a 10 per cent increase on last year. Also, almost half of those affected (47 per cent) have opted to pay the ransom (at least twice) to enable recovery.

Workload And Other Challenges 

In order to protect businesses from growing threat levels, cyber security teams have, therefore, been required to work long hours whilst facing the challenges caused by the limited budgets and resources that are the result of economic pressures, as well as the challenges of a skills gap and global shortage of cybersecurity professionals. For example, a recent ISC2 report shows that there was a 3.4 million global shortage of cyber security professionals last year, compared with a total cyber workforce of 4.7 million.

Other Supporting Research 

Other research that supports the plight of under-pressure cyber security workers includes a Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) survey that found almost a quarter of security practitioners work more than 48 hours per week, and Gartner research (2023) highlighting how high levels of stress could see nearly half of security leaders switching careers by 2025.

Taking A Break Or Leaving The Profession 

Consequently, even though cyber security professionals need to be performing at their absolute best, instead they are experiencing burnout (according to the CyberArk survey), and are choosing to either take a break from work to concentrate on their wellbeing or leaving the professions, thereby adding to the lack of security professionals in businesses, increasing the vulnerability of those businesses to cyber-attacks.

More Than Two-Thirds Of Senior Decision Makers Affected

CyberArk’s survey shows, for example, that 66 per cent of C-level executives (senior cyber defence decision makers in businesses) feel that they are experiencing burnout, which raises concerns about their ability to deal with the increasing and evolving threats effectively.

For example, as David Higgins, senior director, of the field technology office at CyberArk puts it: “Burnout is alarming in that context, because it impairs the ability to defend their organisation. One wrong decision or missed signal can open the door to reputational and monetary damage for an organisation.” 

What Does This Mean For Your Business? 

The findings from CyberArk paint a stark picture for UK businesses, showing the front-line against cybercrime is wearing thin. The apparent burnout epidemic among cybersecurity professionals is not only a health crisis but a strategic business vulnerability. When these specialists are overworked and stressed, their capacity to guard against cyber threats is compromised, and as a result, the risk to business operations, sensitive data, and company finances escalates.

UK companies should, therefore, take immediate steps to prioritise the well-being of their security teams. This means cultivating an environment where work-life balance is possible and supported by management. It also includes re-evaluating workloads to ensure they are sustainable and providing access to mental health resources. These measures may help in maintaining a vigilant and capable cybersecurity workforce.

Equally critical is addressing the shortage of cybersecurity professionals through targeted talent development and diversified recruitment strategies. Training programs and professional development opportunities can be powerful incentives for both recruitment and retention, and recruits that can grow with the company.

C-level executives (cyber security decision-makers) experiencing burnout themselves need to set the right tone for the organisation’s work culture, for example by openly acknowledging the issue and advocating for sufficient resources. This could (in some measure) help bring the change that reinforces the company’s defence against cyber threats.

Preventing cybersecurity burnout, therefore, is more than a human resources issue and is an essential investment in a business’s operational security. As cyber threats increase, it is clear that protecting the protectors through a compassionate and comprehensive approach to workforce management is not just beneficial but necessary for sustaining business integrity in the digital age.