Logicalis UKI has revealed the scale of the cybersecurity threat facing UK CIOs in its 2025 CIO Report.
Off the back of reportedly recent spike in high-profile cybersecurity breaches and ransomware attacks, this latest research has found that the majority of organisations are still exposed to growing threats and UK CIOs are under pressure to do more with less.
The research, based on insights from 100 CIOs in the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands, found that 80% of organisations experienced at least one cyber incident in the past year, with over a quarter (26%) facing multiple breaches.
More than a third (34%) have reported a rise in breach volume compared to the previous 12 months, this raising questions around whether AI-driven threats are increasing or whether investment in cybersecurity defence is lacking.
According to the report, investment isn’t the problem – but rather where the money is being spent.
The majority of UK CIOs (96%) believe their security investments meet their organisation’s needs, however, 95% also admit there’s room for improvement in their organisation’s security coverage.
Alarmingly, 54% say they still lack access to a solution that fully fits the business; 43% acknowledge having overinvested in tools they don’t use; and 61% say their patching systems are too complex to manage effectively.
Neil Eke, CEO, Logicalis UKI said: “We’re seeing a disconnect between rising cybersecurity spend and actual resilience. The issue isn’t investment, it’s optimisation.
“Security teams are battling complexity, disjointed tooling and emerging threats faster than they can adapt.
“CIOs, not just in the UK, but globally, need support to focus on risk visibility and smarter, outcome-based partnerships to drive real protection.”
When asked to rank the most popular cybersecurity attacks they receive, UK CIOs reported that data breaches were the number one threat (45%), with malware/ransomware attacks (41%), phishing (38%) and social engineering (35%) as the top four, with AI-driven threats (19%) and deepfakes (10%) also entering the threat landscape.
Using sophisticated AI to launch attacks is what UK CIOs are preparing for, with 42% expecting increased risk from AI in the future.
Despite this, only 31% strongly agree that their organisation has fully implemented an AI security policy and over half (52%) admit they’re not confident about investing in AI.
Humans still pose a large threat to organisations, with over half of UK CIOs (52%) saying that staff awareness and the resulting mistakes are still a significant risk they will have to mitigate in the future.
Eke concluded: “AI is both the battleground and the solution. CIOs who invest strategically in AI-led cyber defence while addressing the human factor through education and simple security instructions will be the ones who stay ahead.”
