UK Cyber Crime & Data Exposure in 2025: Why Firevault Exists & Why Offline Matters Now

Cybercrime has become one of the most predictable business risks in the UK. The headlines highlight attacks on major retailers, hospitals or national infrastructure, but beneath the surface, the problem is much broader. Last year alone, 43% of UK businesses reported a breach or attack ⁵. More importantly, the latest 2025 government research shows that cyber incidents now affect the country’s economic stability, public safety, and everyday life ³⁴.

The scale is increasing. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) handled 204 significant or highly significant cyber incidents in the year to September 2025 roughly one every two days ³⁴. These incidents include attacks on essential services, major retailers like Marks & Spencer, and critical suppliers whose failure disrupts hospitals and emergency systems.

At the same time, fraud fuelled by stolen data has surged. This is now the UK’s most common crime, representing over 3.9 million fraud offences in the year to September 2024 ²⁸. New modelling commissioned by the UK Government shows a direct link between data breaches and fraud, quantifying long-term harm to individuals and businesses ²⁹.

This is the world Firevault was created for: a world where connected systems fail, where cyber criminals thrive on “always online” infrastructure, and where the safest data is the data attackers cannot reach.

1. The Cost of Cyber Crime in 2025

Government-commissioned research now puts the average cost of a significant cyber attack on a UK business at almost £195,000 ¹. Scaled up nationally, this amounts to £14.7 billion per year — around 0.5% of UK GDP ¹.

IBM reports that the global average cost of a data breach has risen to $4.44 million (~£3.5 million) ²⁶. UK-specific estimates based on this work show breach costs now averaging around £3.29 million across all sectors ²⁷.

For certain industries — manufacturing, financial services, information, and creative sectors — government modelling shows attack costs ranging from £309,000–£337,000 per incident ¹.

Meanwhile, Alma Economics estimates that intellectual property and knowledge-asset theft alone cost the UK between £1 billion and £8.5 billion in 2024, sometimes threatening the survival of SMEs when stolen IP is used to develop rival products ².

The UK Government’s position is clear: the economic impact of cyber attacks is pervasive, systemic, and underestimated.

2. Cyber Attacks Are Increasing and Getting Worse.

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 confirms that cyber attacks remain widespread across the UK:

• 43% of businesses suffered a breach or attack in the last 12 months⁵.
• Large and mid-sized firms continue to see higher attack frequencies than micro and small organisations⁵.
• Phishing remains the primary infection route for most incidents⁵.

The NCSC highlights the increasingly visible impact in everyday life:

• Major retailers like Marks & Spencer and the Co-op have experienced cyber attacks that caused significant disruption to operations and customers ³.
• A ransomware attack on a key supplier to several NHS organisations led to disruption of over 10,000 appointments and thousands of procedures ⁶.
• Critical national infrastructure operators need the NCSC’s Cyber Assessment Framework to identify and manage growing cyber risks ¹³.

These incidents sit on top of a global backdrop of increasing attack volume, automation and sophistication, as highlighted in the latest threat intelligence from major vendors ¹²⁶.

3. Fraud: The Hidden Cost of Data Breaches

Fraud is now the UK’s most common crime and the clearest downstream consequence of data breaches.

The government-commissioned Frontier Economics study on breach-to-fraud harm found that:

• 437,000 people became victims of fraud due to data breaches that took place in 2023 — around 11% of all fraud victims in England and Wales²⁹.
• Fraud episodes linked to organisational data breaches are likely to account for around 8% of the annual cost of fraud in the UK — about £755 million per year²⁹.

Most strikingly, the modelling shows that:

84% of people whose data is exposed in a breach experience personal fraud, and the average financial loss per victim is £21,500. ²⁹

Beyond this, wider fraud statistics underline the scale of harm:

• UK Finance reports fraud losses of around £1.17 billion in 2024³⁰.
• Cifas reports that UK consumers lost around £11.4 billion to scams over a recent 12-month period³¹.
• The ONS Crime Survey records approximately 3.9 million fraud offences in the year to September 2024²⁸.

Taken together, these findings show that the fraud harm caused by a breach often exceeds the immediate costs of the breach itself. Stolen data is not just leaked; it is actively weaponised for long-term exploitation.

4. The Real-World Impact on Consumers & Services

KPMG’s analysis for the UK Government sets out hypothetical but evidence-based scenarios showing how cyber attacks can disrupt access to essential goods and services for consumers ¹⁷¹⁹.

Financial Services

• A cyber attack resulting in a three-day loss of access to online banking is estimated to cost between £5.5 million and £231 million per incident ¹⁷.
• Disruption to a motor vehicle insurer for eleven days is estimated to cost up to £0.69 million ¹⁸.

Healthcare

• A cyber attack affecting a major hospital is estimated to cost around £11.14 million, with an estimated frequency of three times per year ¹⁹.
• Attacks on GP practices, though individually smaller, occur far more frequently ²⁰.

Creative Industries & Digital Services

• A one-day outage of online ticketing services is estimated to cost between £0.6 million and £161 million ²¹.
• A one-day outage of video streaming services is estimated to cost between £2.8 million and £197 million ²².
• Eleven days of disruption to museums and galleries is estimated to cost around £0.27 million ²³.
• Eleven days of disruption to libraries is estimated to cost around £0.02 million ²⁴.

Property & Real Estate

• A three-month loss of access to property transaction systems is estimated to cost between £0.14 million and £0.24 million per incident ²⁵.

Transport – Rail Network

A systemic cyber incident affecting Great Britain’s rail network is estimated to generate a total economic cost of around £1.8 billion for one week of disruption, with up to £1.397 billion of that impact affecting gross value added (GVA) ¹.

In every scenario, the underlying issue is the same: critical systems and data are permanently connected.

5. Why Firevault Exists

Across every dataset — UK Government, NCSC, IBM, ONS, UK Finance, Frontier Economics — the pattern is identical:

• Connected systems are a single point of failure.
• When files, systems or backups remain online, they remain reachable.
• When they are reachable, they are exploitable.

Firevault was created to eliminate that risk for the most important files and digital assets by:

• Disconnecting them from the attack surface.
• Removing them from credential-based compromise.
• Shielding them from ransomware and extortion.
• Preventing internal misuse and unauthorised access.
• Eliminating dependence on cloud platforms.
• Stopping breach-to-fraud journeys before they start.

Offline means unavailable to attackers. Unavailable means unreachable. Unreachable means safe.

In a landscape where the average significant cyber attack can cost a UK business around £195,000 ¹ and where personal fraud following a breach can cost an individual an average of £21,500 ²⁹, the cost of robust offline protection becomes an easy decision to justify.

The safest digital assets are the ones attackers cannot see, scan or steal. Firevault gives you a practical way to make that true for your most important files.

Footnotes

1. Economic Modelling of Sector Specific Costings of Cyber Attacks, KPMG, 2025 (UK Government)
2. Economic Impact of Intellectual Property and Knowledge Assets Theft from Cyber Attacks in the UK, Alma Economics, 2025 (UK Government)
3. NCSC Annual Review 2025 – Incident Overview (NCSC)
4. NCSC Annual Review 2025 – Significant Incidents (NCSC)
5. Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 (UK Government)
6. Update on cyber incident: clinical impact in South East London, September 2024 (NHS England)
7. Cyber Essentials – Management Information (NCSC)
8. Cyber Governance Code of Practice (UK Government)
9. Cyber Governance Training (NCSC)
10. Cyber Security Codes of Practice (UK Government)
11. Regulations: Consumer Connectable Product Security (UK Government)
12. Share and Defend Capability (NCSC)
13. Cyber Assessment Framework (NCSC)
14. Cyber ASAP and Cyber Runway Programmes (NCSC / UK Government)
15. Pall Mall Process Declaration – Tackling Commercial Cyber Intrusion Capabilities (UK Government)
16. UK Cyber Sector Growth and Jobs Statistics (UK Government)
17. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Financial Services Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
18. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Motor Insurance Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
19. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Healthcare Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
20. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – GP Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
21. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Ticketing Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
22. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Streaming Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
23. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Museums and Galleries Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
24. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Libraries Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
25. The Economic Impact on Consumers of Cyber Attacks – Property Transactions Scenario (KPMG / UK Government)
26. Cost of a Data Breach Report 2025 (IBM)
27. UK Interpretation of IBM Cost of a Data Breach 2025 (Northdoor)
28. Crime in England and Wales – Fraud and Computer Misuse (ONS)
29. Modelling the Link Between Data Breaches and Fraud (Frontier Economics / UK Government)
30. Annual Fraud Report 2025 (UK Finance)
31. State of Scams Report 2024 (Cifas / GASA)