Security | Threat Detection | Cyberattacks | DevSecOps | Compliance

The old saying "prevention is better than cure" has lost currency in today's cybersecurity industry. Instead, security teams are advised to assume that the business has been breached and focus on threat detection, investigation, response, and recovery. Yet, during cyber incident post-mortems, it is not uncommon to find that the business owned the tool that would have protected it against the breach. The problem arose because it wasn't correctly configured before the incident happened, and no one knew this - or if they did, they didn't have the time or resources to fix it.

As Forrester expects the cost of cybercrime to reach $12 trillion by the end of 2025, enterprises are gearing up and investing heavily in cybersecurity. Yet, despite rising budgets, security leaders' confidence in detecting and recovering from incidents is declining. A key culprit is security tool sprawl, which quietly erodes visibility, speed, and trust in operations.

Cloud computing has reshaped the business landscape, delivering the scalability, flexibility and efficiency needed to stay competitive in a fast-moving world. However, this digital transformation brings with it security risks. From data breaches to cyberattacks and unexpected outages, today's cloud environments face constant threats. As stated in the IBM data breach report, 80% of organisations have experienced a rise in cloud security incidents, with 45% of breaches being cloud-based, and the average cost of a data breach is $4.35 million.

As businesses adapt to an ever-evolving threat and regulatory landscape, it is widely accepted that the next big challenge lies in scaling cybersecurity to keep pace. In fact, organizations have never experienced the volume, velocity, and severity of attacks that we witnessed in 2024 and are continuing to see in 2025. You only have to look at recent high-profile cyberattacks on major UK retailers and manufacturers to appreciate how devastating such attacks can be, with consequences rippling across entire sectors.

As cyber threats grow more advanced, with AI becoming a tool for both cyber attack and defence, the challenge facing businesses has never been more complex. Emerging technology is now making watertight cybersecurity practice a core pillar of operational resilience, data integrity, and customer trust. The path forward lies in strategic AI integration, harnessing its potential to automate defence and accelerate detection, while maintaining transparency, governance, and trust.

The automotive sector has special resilience needs, given the large number of suppliers and vendors required to make increasingly advanced vehicles. Recent reported disruptions have spotlighted the issue and show the need for cyber resilience to improve physical resilience. This is especially important now as autumn is one of the peak periods for new car demand.

Starting January 2026, Provision 29 of the UK Corporate Governance Code will require boards to report annually on the continuous effectiveness of their internal controls, including cybersecurity, or risk a substantial fine. In terms of reporting, Provision 29 marks a shift from "Do we have controls?" to "Can we prove they work?"

The digital enterprise is no longer primarily made up of individuals' identities. According to Gartner, over 60% of all identities in a typical organization are non-human. These Non-Human Identities (NHIs) are digital identities assigned to software, services, applications, containers, or devices that require access to systems and data. Unlike human identities, NHIs operate autonomously, at scale, and often with high privilege. This makes them essential for modern automation and uniquely vulnerable to misuse.