Cyber security isn’t just about AI. For UK organisations, some of the biggest risks are still the familiar ones — they’re just becoming harder to manage.
Artificial intelligence has understandably attracted a lot of attention in cyber security.
Attackers are using AI to create more convincing phishing emails, improve social engineering, automate reconnaissance and develop malicious code more quickly. At the same time, organisations are rapidly adopting AI themselves, creating new questions around data, privacy, governance and security.
But it would be a mistake to think that AI is now the cyber security problem.
For most organisations, the reality is much broader.
Security teams are dealing with an expanding attack surface, increasingly complex IT environments, reliance on third parties and cloud services, growing amounts of sensitive data, and a shortage of people with the time and expertise to manage it all.
So, what should organisations be paying attention to?
Here are five areas that deserve serious consideration.
1. Ransomware: It’s about keeping the business running
Ransomware has been around for years, but it remains one of the most serious threats facing organisations.
The reason is simple: a successful ransomware attack can stop a business from operating.
And today’s attacks aren’t necessarily limited to encrypting files. Criminal groups may steal sensitive information first, compromise administrator accounts, target backups and then use the threat of data publication to increase the pressure on the victim.
ENISA continues to identify ransomware as the most impactful cyber threat in the EU.
For organisations, this raises some practical questions:
- Which systems would stop the business if they became unavailable?
- Where is our most important and sensitive data?
- Could an attacker reach our backups?
- How quickly could we restore critical services?
- Do we know who would make the key decisions during an incident?
Good ransomware protection therefore isn’t just about buying another security product.
It is about prevention, detection, containment and recovery working together.
The aim should be to reduce the likelihood of ransomware getting a foothold in the first place, whilst making sure the organisation can recover if it does.
2. Data & Identity: Do you know where your senstive data resides – and, who has access to it?
This sounds like a straightforward question.
In practice, it often isn’t.
Most organisations have information spread across Microsoft 365, cloud platforms, SaaS applications, file shares, databases, laptops, mobile devices, backups and third-party systems.
Some of that information will be highly sensitive. Some will be subject to regulatory requirements. Some will simply be commercially valuable.
And then there is the question of access.
Employees, contractors, suppliers, applications and service accounts may all have different levels of access to different systems.
The more complicated this becomes, the harder it is to spot unnecessary access or understand the potential impact of a compromised account.
This is why data discovery and identity management are becoming increasingly important parts of cyber security.
Organisations should be able to answer basic questions such as:
Where is our sensitive information? Who has access to it? Is that access still necessary? Is information being retained unnecessarily? Is it exposed outside the organisation?
You can’t properly protect information if you don’t know where it is.
3. Third-Party Risk: Security doesn’t stop at the company boundary
Most organisations rely on other organisations.
That might include technology suppliers, managed service providers, cloud providers, consultants, contractors, sister companies or strategic partners.
These relationships are essential to running a modern business, but they also introduce another layer of cyber risk.
An attacker doesn’t always need to break directly into your organisation. Sometimes it can be easier to compromise a supplier that already has trusted access.
Verizon’s 2025 Data Breach Investigations Report found third-party involvement in 30% of breaches, twice the previous year’s figure.
This is why supplier assurance is becoming much more than an annual questionnaire.
Organisations should consider:
- What access does each supplier have?
- What information do they handle?
- How important are they to business operations?
- What security standards do they operate to?
- How quickly would they tell us about an incident?
- What happens if that supplier becomes unavailable?
Not every supplier will require the same level of scrutiny. A sensible approach is to understand which relationships represent the greatest risk and focus effort accordingly.
For many organisations, this is also an area where specialist partners can provide valuable support.
4. AI: Two new problems security teams need to consider
AI deserves its place on the cyber security agenda, but perhaps not for the reasons that make the headlines.
The immediate concern is how AI is helping attackers improve existing techniques.
Phishing messages can be more convincing. Fake conversations can be more believable. Reconnaissance can be automated. Malicious code can be produced more quickly.
But there are also risks created by our own use of AI.
Shadow AI and Data
Employees are already using generative AI tools to summarise documents, analyse information, write content and help with everyday tasks.
The problem arises when organisations don’t know what information is being put into those systems.
For example, an employee might paste customer information, commercially sensitive material or internal documents into an AI service without realising the potential implications.
This doesn’t necessarily mean organisations should ban AI.
Instead, they need sensible AI data governance.
That means understanding which AI tools are being used, what data can be shared, what controls are required and how employees can use AI safely.
AI Agents
A second, emerging concern is the rise of AI agents.
Unlike a chatbot that simply provides an answer, an AI agent can potentially access systems, use tools and carry out tasks on a user’s behalf.
That raises an important security question:
What happens if an AI agent has more access than it should — or is manipulated into doing something it shouldn’t?
As organisations give AI greater access to business systems, areas such as permissions, monitoring, audit trails, data protection and human oversight will become increasingly important.
AI is not something businesses necessarily need to fear.
But it is something they need to understand and govern.
5. Complexity: The security problem sitting behind all others
Perhaps the biggest challenge for IT and security teams isn’t any single threat.
It’s the sheer complexity of modern IT.
An organisation may have separate tools for:
- Endpoint security
- Email protection
- Identity
- Vulnerability management
- Cloud security
- Backups
- Data protection
- Security monitoring
- Compliance
- Incident response
Then add the suppliers, consultants and managed services supporting those technologies.
The result can be a lot of security capability — but not necessarily a clear picture of the organisation’s overall risk.
Who is joining the dots?
Who knows that a particular vulnerability affects a critical system?
Who knows that the same system contains sensitive information?
Who knows whether a privileged account is being misused?
And who is looking at the alerts when the internal IT team has gone home?
This is particularly challenging for smaller and mid-sized organisations, where the security team may be one person — or where cyber security sits alongside many other IT responsibilities.
The answer isn’t always to buy another security product.
Sometimes the better approach is to bring the right expertise and capabilities together.
There is no single product that solves cyber security
Organisations need a combination of people, processes and technology, and that combination will look different depending on the size and nature of the business.
For some organisations, that might mean strengthening ransomware protection and recovery.
For others, the priority may be understanding where sensitive data is held, improving supplier assurance or getting better visibility of security events.
For organisations adopting AI, governance and data protection may need to move quickly up the agenda.
This is where a network of trusted technology and cyber security specialists can be particularly useful.
Rather than expecting an organisation to become an expert in every aspect of cyber security, the right partners can bring together complementary capabilities to address specific risks.
That might include:
Managed Cyber Security for SMEs
Providing ongoing monitoring, detection and response for organisations that don’t have the resources to operate a large security function themselves.
Prevention-First Ransomware Protection
Combining preventative controls, detection, containment and recovery measures to reduce the risk and potential impact of ransomware.
AI Data Governance
Helping organisations understand and manage how AI is being used, particularly where sensitive or regulated information is involved.
Data Discovery
Identifying sensitive and commercially valuable information across cloud services, SaaS applications, endpoints, file systems and other environments.
Cyber Risk & Advisory
Helping boards and management teams understand their most important cyber risks and decide where investment and effort will make the greatest difference.
Third-Party Security
Helping organisations assess suppliers and partners based on the access, information and business dependency they represent.
Cyber Security Is a Team Sport
The days when cyber security could be treated as something that happened entirely inside the IT department are long gone.
Organisations depend on suppliers, cloud platforms, partners, employees and increasingly AI.
That means cyber security has become an ecosystem issue.
The good news is that organisations don’t have to tackle every part of it alone.
When you need to address the risks that matter most.
The starting point shouldn’t be “What product do we need?”
It should be:
“What are our biggest risks, what are we doing about them today, and where are the gaps?”
From there, the right combination of people, technology and services can be put in place.
Because effective cyber security isn’t about having the biggest security stack.
It’s about understanding your risks, protecting what matters, and being prepared when something goes wrong.
