Cyber Brief: Board Gaps, Holiday Scams, Hardware Security

The start of the week brings a mix of strategic warnings, consumer protection alerts and significant movements in UK cyber policy. The overarching theme today is confidence versus capability. Leaders believe they are prepared, but the evidence continues to show that resilience needs more attention. With holiday shopping season approaching and new legislation on the horizon, organisations should prioritise practical readiness and clear communication across their teams.

Boards Overestimate Their Cyber Readiness

A new analysis highlights a worrying disconnect between senior leadership confidence and actual operational resilience. UK boards continue to express high confidence in their ability to withstand a major cyber incident, yet national data shows a rising number of significant attacks each week. The gap between perception and proven readiness is growing. Many organisations have documented plans, but few regularly test them under realistic conditions. This creates blind spots in areas such as crisis communication, response coordination and service continuity. The report encourages leadership teams to challenge internal assumptions and ensure that their cyber strategies are validated rather than assumed.

Why it matters:
Organisations often invest heavily in prevention but not enough in rehearsed resilience. Without tested processes, a real incident could lead to delays, confusion and disruption. Clear leadership understanding is essential to avoid overconfidence that masks vulnerabilities.

Source: Consultancy.uk

Shoppers Warned About Holiday Season Cyber Scams

As the festive retail period begins, security officials have issued a reminder to watch for scams targeting shoppers looking for discounts and last minute deals. Criminals commonly exploit the seasonal surge in online spending by creating fake websites, sending fraudulent text messages and circulating convincing phishing emails. These scams are often designed to mimic familiar brands or known delivery services in an attempt to lure victims into entering personal or payment information. The guidance encourages people to slow down, check website legitimacy and avoid clicking links from unsolicited messages. Businesses are urged to prepare customer service teams for an increase in scam reports.

Why it matters:
Seasonal phishing and spoofed sites accelerate sharply at this time of year. With employees shopping online during breaks or on personal devices, the risk crosses over into workplace exposure. A single successful credential theft can lead to wider compromise.

Source: NCSC and WiredGov

Government Announces Investment in Hardware Level Cyber Defence

The UK Government has committed major funding to advance hardware based security innovation. The investment focuses on accelerating adoption of technologies designed to block attacks at processor level before they can impact software. This includes the continued development of capability based hardware models that restrict how memory can be accessed or manipulated by attackers. Hardware security is often overlooked compared with software controls, yet it offers a powerful safety net that reduces entire categories of exploits. The initiative aims to strengthen the long term resilience of both commercial and critical national infrastructure by embedding protections within the chips that underpin modern systems.

Why it matters:
Hardware vulnerabilities can undermine even the strongest software defences. As organisations rely on increasingly complex environments, building resilience into the foundation of computing becomes essential. This move signals a shift in the national security posture and in future procurement expectations.

Source: Open Access Government

Concerns Raised Over Proposed Ransom Payment Ban

Plans to restrict ransom payments for operators of essential services have prompted significant debate among industry leaders. Critics argue that banning payments entirely could lead to extended outages, safety issues or disruption of public services if organisations are left without a viable recovery path. Supporters of the proposal believe the change will reduce the profitability of ransomware and encourage better resilience planning. The discussion highlights tensions between short term recovery needs and long term deterrence goals. Many affected organisations are now reviewing their business continuity arrangements to ensure they can maintain operations without relying on ransom negotiations.

Why it matters:
If this policy becomes law, affected sectors will need stronger recovery strategies that assume full system rebuilds and potential data loss. Organisations supplying or partnering with regulated industries should prepare for increased scrutiny.

Source: Financial Times

AI and Cloud Security Identified as Top Priority Areas

A recent global study shows that organisations are directing their budgets towards areas most likely to reduce risk in the coming year. Investment is increasing in cloud native security controls and in AI driven defence tools as organisations attempt to keep pace with evolving threats and limited security resources. Many teams continue to struggle with talent shortages, and automation is becoming central to maintaining coverage without increasing headcount. The shift reinforces that cloud environments and remote working models remain high priority attack surfaces. Security leaders are urged to ensure their cloud posture, identity controls and data governance reflect this focus.

Why it matters:
Budgets are often tight, so investing in the right areas is critical. Prioritising AI and cloud security helps organisations modernise their defences and mitigate risks created by distributed systems and workload complexity.

Source: Connected to India

Today’s Key Actions

1. Validate leadership assumptions about cyber readiness and ensure plans are regularly tested.
2. Issue seasonal scam guidance to staff and prepare customer service teams for increased reports.
3. Review vendor roadmaps for hardware based security improvements and how they align with your future infrastructure.
4. If you operate in or supply regulated sectors, build incident response pathways that assume no ransom payment option.
5. Confirm that your cloud and AI security priorities align with current investment trends and support your risk profile.

Secarma Insight

Today’s stories reinforce a clear pattern. Organisations often feel confident about their resilience, but confidence alone does not withstand an incident. Real resilience comes from practical testing, informed leadership decisions and clear communication across teams. With holiday scams increasing and policy changes ahead, this is the time to strengthen internal awareness, rehearse your response capabilities and focus on investments that support long term growth. If you want support building a resilience plan, conducting a tabletop exercise or reviewing your security priorities, our team is here to help Get in touch with us