Top Cyber Threats and Prevention Trends in 2026

The cyber attacks that dominated headlines in 2025 – whether high-impact ransomware incidents like the Marks & Spencer breach, supply-chain compromises such as Bank Sepah, or critical infrastructure attacks affecting organisations like Collins Aerospace – highlight a growing reality: no organisation is too small, local, or operationally traditional to be targeted anymore.

Here in Greater Manchester, we’ve seen the ripple effect first-hand. Local SMEs, charities, schools, professional services firms and manufacturers rely more than ever on cloud systems, remote workforces and third-party tools. This digital growth brings incredible opportunities – but it also expands the attack surface dramatically.

Across the UK, ransomware surged by 60% in the first half of 2025, with attackers taking advantage of operational weaknesses, cloud misconfigurations and fragmented IT environments. Meanwhile, cyber criminals and nation-state groups have weaponised artificial intelligence (AI) to automate phishing, deepfake social engineering, and malware creation. Attacks are faster, more personalised, and more convincing.

But the good news is that defensive AI and modern security frameworks are also evolving quickly, giving businesses in Greater Manchester access to the kind of protection once reserved for global enterprises.

Top Cyber Threats Anticipated in 2026

Cyber security risks are expected to escalate across several key areas, especially as Manchester's businesses continue expanding digital services, integrating AI tools, shifting to hybrid working, and relying on complex supplier ecosystems.

AI-Driven Attack Sophistication

2026 will see attackers using agentic AI systems to autonomously probe networks, craft targeted phishing campaigns, and generate deepfakes capable of bypassing traditional identity verification. For Greater Manchester businesses, this means: CEO impersonation attacks will become harder to detect; HR and finance may be targeted by deepfake voice or video; and AI-written phishing emails could become indistinguishable from genuine ones.

Expanding Digital Attack Surface

Local SMEs now operate across multi-cloud platforms, SaaS tools, remote devices, IoT systems, and AI-enabled applications. Third-party b reaches will remain a major concern. As seen in the Salesforce OAuth abuse and Jaguar Land Rover supplier incident, attackers increasingly compromise one trusted supplier to gain access to many organisations downstream. In Greater Manchester, businesses relying on Microsoft 365, cloud CRMs, outsourced developers or finance platforms, must ensure their suppliers meet modern cyber standards.

The Rise of Shadow AI in the Workplace

Employees across the region are rapidly adopting tools like ChatGPT and open-source LLMs to speed up admin tasks, reports, or coding. However, when staff copy confidential material into public AI tools, sensitive data may be exposed or retained outside organisational control. This will become a leading cyber risk for 2026.

AI-Driven Workforce Reductions Creating New Weaknesses

As companies automate processes with AI, operational insight can be lost if human checks are removed too quickly. Cyber criminals will exploit this during periods of rapid organisational change.

Onchain Cyber Crime and Cryptocurrency Attacks

As digital payments and blockchain technologies spread, criminals are expected to: target decentralised platforms, exploit vulnerabilities in smart contracts, attempt large-scale crypto exchange breaches, and migrate operations to public blockchains to evade law enforcement. While this affects the financial sector most directly, any Manchester business dealing with digital payments or fintech partners may feel downstream impact.

"The investment you make in security today is insurance against the potentially catastrophic costs of a breach tomorrow. We're talking data loss, regulatory fines, customer trust erosion, operational downtime, and in some cases, business closure.

But here's the good news: security done right can actually be a competitive advantage. Customers care about data protection. Suppliers want to work with secure partners. Demonstrating strong cyber security can help you win business and build trust.

So yes, cyber security requires investment - in tools, in people, in processes. But the cost of not investing? That's a bill you really don't want to receive.

Start small. Build incrementally. But start today. Because the threat landscape isn't waiting for you to be ready, and neither are the attackers".

- Paul Chijioke, Apex Cyber Security Analyst

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Fortifying Your Defences in 2026

Case Study

Securing Elegance: Protecting Trust in Luxury Retail

David M Robinson, one of the UK's leading luxury jewellery and watch retailers, partnered with Apex to strengthen its cyber security and protect highly sensitive customer data. Operating in a sector where trust and reputation are critical, the business needed a more joined-up, proactive approach to cyber security that reduced risk without adding complexity.

By implementing Apex's holistic cyber security solution: The Apex Cyber Security Sphere; David M Robinson gained stronger protection, improved visibility across its security estate, and better-informed staff through ongoing cyber awareness training. The result is greater confidence, reduced exposure to cyber threats, and reassurance that both the business and its customers are protected - allowing the team to focus on delivering exceptional service in a highly competitive, high-value retail environment.

Trusted by Businesses Across All Sectors

Discover more about our work with the Retail sector here

Changing Mindset: Preparing for 2026 and Beyond

Cyber security in 2026 will demand a shift from "detect and respond" to "predict, prevent, and defeat". With attacks becoming faster, more complex and more targeted - especially against local SMEs - prevention is no longer optional.

AI-Driven Autonomous Defence

Using AI to predict threats, identify attacker behaviour, and block malicious campaigns before they affect your business or your suppliers.

Resilience-Focused Governance

Clear governance frameworks are essential to ensure AI-powered security tools are ethical, transparent and safe.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration

Security teams must work closely with networking, cloud, development and behavioural analytics teams. Continuous simulation training will help close skills gaps and improve readiness.

Getting the Basics Right

MFA can be a pain - one more code to type in, one more app to check before you can log in. But did you know that MFA blocks 99.9% of account takeover attempts?

Roll out MFA across everything - email, admin accounts, cloud services, the lot. Make it non-negotiable. Your future self (he one dealing with a data breach) will thank you.

Nobody likes patch management. It's tedious, it can break things, and it never seems urgent - until it is.

Automate it wherever possible. Set a schedule. Make it happen. Attackers are actively scanning for unpatched vulnerabilities, and they're not waiting for you to get around to it.

Ransomware isn't going anywhere. If anything, it's becoming more industrialised and efficient. That's why your backup strategy needs to be bulletproof.

The golden rule is 3-2-1: three copies of your data, on two different types of media, with one copy stored offsite. And here's the critical bit - make sure your backups are immutable, meaning even if ransomware hits, it can't encrypt your backups.

Plus, make sure you test them. Quarterly. A backup you haven't tested is just a theory.

Over 70% of data breaches involve human error in some way. Your people are both your greatest vulnerability and your strongest defence.

Security awareness needs to be continuous, engaging and relevant. Monthly phishing simulations are ideal for this, teaching your employees what modern attacks actually look like. Because today's emails aren't full of typos and obvious mistakes - they're sophisticated, well-researched, and genuinely convincing.

Make training role-specific too. Your finance team needs different awareness than your marketing team. Tailor it to the threats they'll actually face.

Security can't just be "the It department's problem". It needs to come from the top and permeate throughout the organisation.

Talk about security in company meetings. Include it in your quarterly goals. When leadership treats it as important, everyone else follows suit.

Email remains the number one attack vector. Full stop.

Invest in advanced email filtering that goes beyond basic spam protection. Look for solutions that analyse links in real-time, sandbox suspicious attachments, and detect impersonation attempts.

And implement DMARC, SPF, and SKIM to prevent email spoofing. These protocols help ensure that emails claiming to be from your domain actually are from your domain.

1. Apex Winning Award for IT Support - Manchesters MSP

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