Cyber security in 2026: Why Birmingham businesses can’t ignore it
Written by Callum Steen-Vale from Solutions 4 IT
Cyber security is often deprioritised because businesses judge risk by what they can see.
When servers are running, emails are sending, and staff can log in, security feels “good enough.”
This reactive mindset— “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”—is precisely what leaves organisations exposed.
The problem is a cyber-attack usually gives no warning at all, and a staggeringly high percentage of SMEs were breached simply because they did not think it would happen to them.
In 2026, the reality is UK businesses are being targeted constantly.
The current landscape
According to the UK Government’s Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, 43 per cent of UK businesses reported a cyber-attack or breach in the last 12 months.
That is not just large corporations. That is SMEs too.
It equates to over 600,000 UK businesses affected in a single year. (Tom's Hardware)
In fact, small and medium businesses are often more attractive to attackers because they usually lack resolute IT security teams.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) also reported the UK experienced the highest level of cyber threat activity in nine years, handling hundreds of serious incidents in 2025 alone. (Computing)
Overall, cyber attacks in the UK are not slowing down, but our article does not aim to scaremonger- cyber security tools and defences are advancing just as rapidly.
The most common attack
Phishing, fraudulent emails designed to trick users, is still by far the most common threat to businesses.
Among organisations that suffered an attack, around 93 per cent experienced phishing attacks. (UK Data Service)
These emails do not look suspicious anymore either, due to malicious users exploiting AI to write the phishing emails. Modern attacks now often:
• Have no spelling/grammar mistakes.
• Have a replicated website of a legitimate company that could be near-identical.
The aftermath of an attack
We have seen situations where businesses:
• Cannot send or receive emails.
• Lose access to customer data.
• Have accounts systems locked.
• Stop trading completely for days.
Even a small incident has a financial impact. The average most disruptive breach still costs businesses thousands of pounds before you even consider lost sales or reputation. (zigram.tech)
Additionally, there is another massive hidden cost of a breach- downtime.
A company with 15 staff unable to work for two days is expensive.
Why many businesses still get caught
Human error still remains to be the largest contributor to a data/network breach in a business. The risk of this happening can be exacerbated by:
• Staff with no/little security awareness training
• Passwords being reused.
• Systems not being monitored.
• Backups not being properly tested.
What businesses should be doing now
The NCSC consistently recommends practical steps such as:
• Multi-factor authentication (especially email)
• Regular software updates
• Tested backups.
• Staff awareness training
• Access controls
Conclusion
The golden rule businesses should follow in 2026 is that they need to enforce policies and utilise tools that aid detection, mitigation, and prevention.