Why cybersecurity is now a national security issue

When people hear the words national security, many still picture soldiers, tanks, and fighter jets. Those images aren’t wrong, but in 2026, they’re incomplete. Today, a serious attack on the UK doesn’t have to involve troops crossing borders. It can happen quietly, in the background, through computers and networks we all rely on every day.

As global tensions rise, countries are increasingly using cyber-attacks as a way to weaken rivals without firing a single shot. These attacks are hard to see, hard to attribute, and often hit civilians first – by disrupting hospitals, transport and energy infrastructure, and other essential services.

The attacks we do not see, until everything stops working

Cyber-attacks rarely look dramatic. There are no explosions or sirens. Instead, systems shut down, files become inaccessible, datasets disappear, and networks go offline, causing disproportionate distributions.

Modern society depends on digital systems to function. Hospitals use them to run diagnostics and schedule operations, power plants use them to manage electricity supply, and transport providers use them to plan schedules and track networks. Disrupting those systems makes a huge impact on daily lives. That is why cyber-attacks are so attractive to criminals and hostile states. They are relatively cheap to launch, can be done from anywhere in the world, and can cause serious disruption without triggering a traditional military response.

How big is the problem in 2026?

The scale of cyber-attacks in recent years shows just how serious the threat has become.

In the UK, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) reported that it dealt with 204 nationally significant cyber incidents in the twelve months up to August 2025. That was more than double the number recorded the year before. For instance,

• Third-party cybersecurity reporting has claimed that in early 2025, threat actors attempted to breach UK energy infrastructure and National Grid control systems;

• In August-September 2025, Jaguar Land Rover suffered a crippling ransomware and data breach that halted production at its UK factories for weeks. With losses estimated at £1.9 billion and major knock-on effects on the UK economy, experts have described this as the most economically damaging cyber-attack in UK history;

• A ransomware attack on Collins Aerospace’s airport check-in software in late 2025 caused widespread flight disruption at Heathrow and other European airports.

These aren’t minor scams or blocked hacking attempts, they are serious attacks that required coordinated national response. The UK is fortunate to be a frontrunner in cybersecurity, but staying ahead demands continuous investment and long-term commitment.

Across Europe, the picture is similar. The EU’s cybersecurity agency, ENISA, analysed nearly 4,900 major cyber incidents across EU member states in its 2025 threat report. Many of these attacks targeted large organisations, public services, and critical infrastructure, often using ransomware or large-scale denial-of-service attacks to cause disruption.

The key point is this: cyber-attacks are no longer rare events. They are frequent, persistent, and increasingly severe.

Why critical infrastructure is a prime target

Critical infrastructure refers to the systems and services a country simply cannot do without – healthcare, energy, transport, water, communications, and finance. When these are hit, the consequences spread far beyond the organisation that was attacked.

Healthcare is one of the clearest examples. When hospital systems go down, appointments are cancelled, test results cannot be accessed, and staff are forced to rely on paper records. Delays and disruption can directly affect patient safety.

One of the most striking examples of how cyber-attacks can affect national infrastructure in the UK remains the 2017 WannaCry ransomware attack on the NHS.

The attack spread rapidly across the world, but the NHS was particularly hard hit. Hospitals and GP surgeries lost access to computer systems, leading to thousands of cancelled appointments and operations, ambulances being diverted, and staff locked out of critical systems.

While the attack itself happened quickly, the cost and disruption lasted much longer. The UK Department of Health later estimated that the total cost to the NHS was £92 million, including lost productivity and recovery work. WannaCry is often mentioned because it shows how cyber incidents can move from “technical issue” to national crisis almost overnight.

Beyond direct disruption, cyber-attacks are expensive. Studies commissioned by the UK government estimate that cyber-attacks cost the UK economy billions of pounds every year. This is another reason cyber security is a national issue, not just a private one. When critical organisations fail, the impact is shared by everyone.

Cybersecurity is not one tool, it is a stack of defences

Cybersecurity is often talked about as if it was a single solution. In reality, it is a combination of different solutions, each protecting a different part of our digital world. National resilience depends on strengthening all of these layers together, rather than relying on a single solution.

At the base of the cyber stack is threat prevention. This includes measures that reduce the likelihood of attacks succeeding in the first place, such as secure access, strong authentication, system hardening, and regular updates. As new technologies emerge, prevention also means preparing for future risks – including the impact of quantum computing on today’s encryption, an area being addressed by companies such as Cavero Quantum, which focuses on making systems secure against next-generation threats.

Because no system is perfectly secure, threat detection and response are equally critical. Many modern cyber-attacks are designed to remain hidden, quietly moving through networks before causing disruption. Continuous monitoring and early detection allow organisations to respond quickly and limit damage before essential services are affected.

Another vital layer is application security. Much of our public infrastructure relies on software – from healthcare platforms to online government services. Securing applications by design and reducing vulnerabilities helps close off common entry points used by attackers.

As more services move online, cloud platforms are used to store data and deliver services, making strong data protection essential. Companies such as KryptoKloud focus on strengthening security in these environments as organisations continue their shift to the cloud.

Closely linked to this is data security. Even when systems are compromised, sensitive information must remain protected. Secure data access and privacy-preserving analytics, an approach supported by platforms like Bitfount, help reduce the impact of breaches while allowing data to be used safely.

Together, these layers form a cyber stack that turns cybersecurity investment into national resilience, helping ensure that essential services keep running in an increasingly uncertain world.

The bottom line

Cyber-attacks do not make headlines in the same way as tanks or missiles, but their effects are very real. In 2026, the UK and Europe are seeing more frequent and more serious cyber incidents than ever before, many aimed at the systems we all depend on. Cybersecurity is no longer a niche technical concern, but a very real and live national security issue.

Investing in cybersecurity is not about preparing for some distant or abstract threat. It is about ensuring hospitals can treat patients, utilities can be supplied, trains can run, and essential services keep working.

In a world of rising global tensions, resilience is not just built on strength, it is built on essential systems that keep working when they are tested.