UK Ransomware Statistics 2026
How often ransomware attacks happen, what they cost, how long recovery takes, and what actually prevents them. Updated August 2026.
Sources: Sophos, Veeam, IBM, Verizon DBIR, Coveware, NCSC, DCMS.
75%
of organisations were hit by at least one ransomware attack in the past year, up from 25% five years ago.
Veeam Data Protection Trends 2024
$2.73M
is the average cost of a ransomware attack — including the ransom, downtime, recovery, and lost business.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
24 days
is the average downtime a business experiences after a ransomware attack before operations are fully restored.
Statista / Coveware
Frequency of Attacks
How often ransomware attacks are happening — and who's being targeted.
of organisations were hit by ransomware in the past year, according to Sophos. This figure has remained stubbornly consistent since 2022, suggesting defences are not keeping pace with attacks.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
organisations globally were targeted by an attempted ransomware attack in 2023. Many more went undetected or unreported.
Check Point Research 2024
of ransomware attacks now involve data exfiltration (stealing data before encrypting it), giving attackers double leverage: pay to decrypt, and pay to prevent publication.
Coveware / Multiple reports
— the United Kingdom is the third most targeted country for ransomware attacks globally, behind the United States and Germany.
Malwarebytes / NCC Group
Cost of Ransomware
The ransom payment is often the smallest part of the total cost.
is the average total cost of recovering from a ransomware attack, including downtime, recovery, hardware replacement, reputational damage, and lost revenue. This figure excludes the ransom payment itself.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
was the average ransom demand in 2024, though the median payment was significantly lower — many organisations negotiate down or refuse to pay entirely.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
of organisations that were hit paid the ransom. However, of those who paid, only 65% got all their data back. Paying is no guarantee of recovery.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
is the average cost of a ransomware-related data breach, nearly double the overall average breach cost of $4.88M.
IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024
Downtime & Recovery
How long it takes to get back to normal — and what determines recovery time.
is the average downtime from a ransomware attack. For small businesses without tested backups, this can stretch to weeks or months.
Statista / Coveware
of organisations that used backups to recover from ransomware were able to restore all their data. The rest suffered partial data loss due to backup gaps or compromised backup systems.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
of organisations took more than a month to fully recover from a ransomware attack. 10% took more than three months.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
ransomware attacks now target backup systems specifically. Attackers know that destroying backups forces payment. Offsite, immutable backups are the only reliable defence.
Veeam Data Protection Trends 2024
How Ransomware Gets In
The entry points attackers use most — and what that tells us about prevention.
remains the most common initial access vector for ransomware, used in approximately 41% of attacks. A single employee clicking a malicious link can compromise the entire network.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
were the entry point in 32% of ransomware attacks — unpatched software, exposed RDP ports, and misconfigured network services.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
— stolen or weak passwords — were used in 29% of attacks. Without MFA, a single breached password gives attackers full access.
Sophos State of Ransomware 2024
is the median time from initial access to ransomware deployment. Attackers are getting faster — in some cases, encryption begins within hours of the first breach.
Secureworks State of the Threat 2024
Small Business Risk
Why ransomware is disproportionately devastating for smaller organisations.
of ransomware attacks target companies with fewer than 1,000 employees. Small businesses are seen as easier targets with weaker defences.
Coveware Quarterly Report
of small businesses that suffer a major ransomware attack close permanently within six months, unable to absorb the financial and operational damage.
US National Cyber Security Alliance
of UK businesses have a formal incident response plan. When ransomware hits, most small businesses have no documented process for containment, communication, or recovery.
DCMS Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024
of UK small businesses have cyber insurance. The majority would bear the full cost of a ransomware attack — ransom, recovery, lost revenue, and regulatory fines — out of pocket.
DCMS Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024
How to Protect Your Business
Ransomware prevention comes down to closing the three entry points: phishing, unpatched systems, and weak credentials. Combined with proper backup, you can survive an attack even if one gets through.
- ✓Multi-factor authentication on every account — blocks the majority of credential-based attacks
- ✓Anti-phishing policies and email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to stop the most common entry point
- ✓Automated patching and device management through Intune so nothing falls behind on updates
- ✓Immutable, offsite backups that attackers can't encrypt or delete — with tested restores
- ✓Endpoint protection via Microsoft Defender with tamper protection enabled
- ✓A documented incident response plan so your team knows what to do when it happens
We configure all of this as part of our cybersecurity and backup & disaster recovery services. For a quick assessment of your current defences, book a free security review.
Sources & Methodology
Statistics are compiled from the Sophos State of Ransomware Report 2024, Veeam Data Protection Trends Report 2024, IBM Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, Verizon 2024 DBIR, Coveware Quarterly Ransomware Reports, DCMS Cyber Security Breaches Survey, NCSC, and other cited sources.
This page was last reviewed and updated in August 2026.
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