Hostile States Behind 75% of Cyber Attacks on UK Infrastructure - NCSC CEO
RUSI's Annual Security Lecture, given by National Cyber Security Centre Chief Executive Dr Richard Horne, highlights the scale of cyber threats faced by the UK’s critical infrastructure.
Addressing an audience of RUSI Members and invited guests, Dr Richard Horne said more than 200 cyber incidents affecting the UK’s critical national infrastructure and its supporting ecosystem were managed by the NCSC in the year to May 2026, with around 75% of those believed to be linked to state actors.
Dr Horne, warned that hostile states, such as Russia, China and Iran, are increasingly targeting the systems that underpin the UK’s essential services, arguing that cyber security should not be treated simply as a risk to be managed, but as an ongoing contest with capable adversaries.
He said:
'We still see far too many significant incidents today that are possible...because the fundamentals are not in place.'
'The truth is that in this great contest there are no spectators, we are all on the pitch. From boardrooms to IT help desks, to sofas at home, to operations and partners abroad the contest is everywhere.
If we collectively embrace the contest, understand the urgency and believe we can be a match for any opponent, then we can and will prevail.'
He also warned that advances in artificial intelligence are likely to accelerate the threat, with the NCSC assessing that by 2028 AI-enabled cyber capabilities will likely be used by attackers to exploit known vulnerabilities in legacy technology at scale across critical national infrastructure.
Read the transcript of the speech here.
The NCSC has published a range of resources and guidance to help organisations counter AI-powered attacks by acting now to improve their cyber security foundations. For more information, visit ncsc.gov.uk/frontier-ai.
View more information about RUSI's Cyber and Tech research group and you can access a collection of the Institute's work highlighting the importance of societal resilience and cyber security and resilience here.
The Annual Security Lecture is one of RUSI’s flagship events and more information about these and our membership offer can be found here.