A changing threat landscape. Rising regulatory pressure. AI moving faster than controls. Our latest research reveals the challenges facing UK CNI organisations, and why 2026 marks a decisive turning point for security leaders.
What You’ll Learn
Our 2026 report provides a concise, data‑driven view of the biggest challenges and emerging priorities for cyber security leaders across CNI. Inside, you’ll discover:
- How regulation has become the strongest driver of cyber maturity across critical sectors
- Why managing AI cyber risk has rapidly surged into the top tier of organisational concerns
- The underlying factors exposing CNI to attacks, from cloud misconfigurations to legacy OT systems
- Where organisations are struggling with visibility, patching and asset discovery, and why these gaps persist
- How attitudes to incident response compare with the reality of today’s faster, more automated attacks
- Which sectors face the greatest pressure, and why risk exposure varies significantly across CNI
Snapshot of Key Findings
A few headline insights uncovered by the research:
- 93% of CNI organisations experienced a cyber attack in the past 12 months
- Regulation is now the #1 motivator for maturing cyber security programmes
- AI‑related cyber risk has entered the top five cyber challenges for the first time
- Cloud environments are now the most common attack entry point
- Legacy OT and outdated systems continue to drive a significant proportion of successful breaches
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