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NCSC Annual Review: The State of the Cyber Nation

4 November 20264 min read
News
Digital illustration of scales of justice on a circuit board, representing cyber regulation themes in the NCSC Annual Review

On 3 November, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) published its annual review: State of the Cyber Nation. Marking ten years of the UK’s technical authority for cyber security, the report reflects on the progress made over the past decade to build the UK’s cyber capabilities and strengthen its partnerships at home and abroad.

This year has seen unprecedented pressure on the cyber security sector, and the NCSC has been reviewing the tools and guidance it provides to support organisations and wider society. While progress has been made, the report paints a frank picture of the challenges we face in defending against cyber threats. AI has undoubtedly shone a light on our vulnerabilities but, as the NCSC states, ‘AI did not create these cyber security weaknesses; it revealed them.’

The core message of this year’s review is clear: while new technologies create opportunities for growth, innovation and prosperity, the core principles of cyber security remain unchanged, and addressing our vulnerabilities will take a whole-of-society approach.

This year’s report focuses on six themes:

Understanding the threat: NCSC’s Incident Management team received 1,831 reports of cyber attacks this year, 80 of which were nationally significant. Most successful attacks still exploit known vulnerabilities, weak credentials and social engineering, but adversaries are increasingly using AI to find and exploit weaknesses faster and at greater scale. The Jaguar Land Rover attack in 2025 showed the severe and prolonged disruption an attack can cause to individuals and the wider economy. The NCSC expects that by 2028, nation states will be able to use AI in their cyber operations, and that AI-powered malware will likely be used in a ransomware attack on UK critical national infrastructure. Alongside the review, the NCSC has published a report examining current AI-enabled threat trends and projections. Read the report.

Technology and the future of cyber security: The NCSC continues to review how technological change is affecting security, from AI to post-quantum cryptography. It warns of a widening gap between organisations that use AI to strengthen their defences and those with weak security, and highlights the risks of ‘shadow AI’, where staff use unapproved tools. On post-quantum cryptography, the NCSC restated its migration timeline.

Building strong foundations: Cyber Essentials certifications continue to grow, up almost 20% on last year. Enrolment in the NCSC’s Early Warning service rose by 52%, with over 50 million events matched and sent to organisations in a 12-month period. The NCSC also continues to promote passkeys as a safer, simpler and more resilient alternative to passwords, and the UK is recognised as a global leader in passkey adoption.

Securing the backbone of society: The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is the biggest update to UK cyber regulation in years, bringing new sectors into scope and giving government powers to act. Alongside this, the NCSC is making the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) easier to use and developing a clearer resilience pathway for organisations that brings together the Cyber Action Toolkit, Cyber Essentials and the CAF. Later this year, the NCSC will launch the Cyber Adversary Simulation (CyAS) Scheme as a minimum viable product, giving assurance about the suppliers that deliver these services.

The future of cyber defence: The NCSC sets out several initiatives to strengthen national defence:

Cyber Shield: announced earlier this year, it is a five-year programme with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to build a national-scale system of automated cyber defence. The NCSC provides the core platform and data, and industry builds the defensive tools.

  • Project DROMOS: uses frontier AI to find vulnerabilities in government code and uncovered hundreds of potential issues in its pilot.

  • National Detect Strategy and a National Cyber Coordination Function, the latter now being piloted with partners.

  • Shaping global cyber resilience: The NCSC continues to champion secure by design as the default. It works through trusted international partnerships, including the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, to better understand and strengthen the resilience of critical national infrastructure, digital services and supply chains.

Read the full National Cyber Security Centre Annual Review 2026.

We look forward to continuing to support the NCSC’s work to improve the UK’s cyber resilience and to deliver against the government’s cyber objectives.

In particular, we continue to engage with government to represent our members’ views on the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, and we will respond to consultations on secondary legislation once they're launched. On post-quantum cryptography, we continue to amplify members’ activity and to support the NCSC’s and government’s wider work in this area. We're also seeking further clarity on the practical ways our members can get involved in the NCSC’s Cyber Shield programme, and we hope to share more information in due course.