October 2025

CyberScotland updates

News and updates from CyberScotland and our partner network

Cyber-attacks have risen 50%, according to NCSC report

NCSC handled 204 nationally significant cyber incidents in the past year, according to the NCSC’s latest Annual Review 2025. This is more than double the 89 recorded in the previous 12 months.

In total, the NCSC managed 429 incidents, of which 18 were classed as “highly significant,” meaning they had the potential to cause serious disruption to essential services such as government operations, energy supply and healthcare infrastructure.

The 50% increase makes this the third consecutive year of rising cyber incidents.

Richard Horne, CEO NCSC said:

“Nobody wants to believe their business could grind to a halt following a cyber attack. But any leader who fails to prepare for that scenario is jeopardising their business’s future.”

UK Ministers write to leading UK companies about cyber security

With the rise in frequency and sophistication of cyber incidents, UK Government has written to leading companies in the UK, including those in the FTSE100 and FTSE 250 with advice to protect themselves against cyber attacks.

The letter sets out 3 actions large businesses can take to improve their cyber resilience:

Make cyber risk a Board-level priority using the Cyber Governance Code of Practice
Sign up to the National Cyber Security Centre’s Early Warning service
Require Cyber Essentials in your supply chain

For smaller businesses, a free Cyber Action Toolkit is now available to help protect against cyber threats.

CyberFirst Girls Competition 2026 launching in November

The CyberFirst Girls Competition is launching for 2026 on 24 November 2025. The competition is a team event. Each team – consisting of up to four girls in Year 8 (England and Wales), S2 (Scotland) or Year 9 (Northern Ireland) – tackle challenges from cryptography and logic to artificial intelligence and networking for the chance to be crowned cyber security champions.

Every girl from the winning teams will take a brand-new laptop home and have a chance to win prize money for their school. Find out more about how to enter the competition here.

Cyber Resilience and You! roadshow

The Cyber Resilience team has been visiting colleges and universities around Scotland to promote its new Cyber Resilience training. Students learned some basic lockpicking skills and discussed how the Cyber Resilience and You! Training programme could help them.

The training programme launched earlier this year and has been supported by Mr Graeme Dey MSP, Scotland’s Minister of Higher and Further Education.

It focuses on cyber threats relevant to student life such as the risks of using public Wi-Fi, how to identify common scams, avoiding fraudulent accommodation ads, how to back up important data and so much more.

Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland launches new conference encouraging girls to get into cyber

The Cyber and Fraud Centre – Scotland has launched the See It, Be It: Women and Girls in Cyber Conference to tackle the gender gap in cybersecurity. The inaugural conference will take place 7 November 2025 at NatWest Gogarburn, Edinburgh.

Supported by Accenture, Fortinet and NatWest, the event will bring together up to 200 pupils, teachers, cyber professionals and industry leaders to inspire more young women to pursue careers in cyber security. You can register your interest for the conference here.

CyberFirst launches university bursary

CyberFirst has launched its University Bursary application. Successful applicants will receive up to £24,000, summer placements, hands-on experience and access to a community of other future cyber leaders.

Find out more about how to apply here. Applications close at 11pm on Monday 17 November 2025.

Scottish Government & Skills Development Scotland create new digital learning initiative

A new digital learning initiative to help people across Scotland gain skills in a range of digital technologies has been launched in partnership with IBM, Salesforce, AWS, Cisco and Microsoft.

Led by The Scottish Government in partnership with Skills Development Scotland, the initiative was launched by Business Minister Richard Lochhead at Scotland’s National Innovation Summit.

Police Scotland teams up with Abertay cyberQuarter to combat cyber-crime

Police Scotland has created a partnership with Abertay cyberQuarter to develop new approaches to cyber resilience and combating cyber-crime. Its cyber-crime investigations and digital forensics teams will work with academics, researchers and students at the research and development centre on a range of projects.

This will include an investigation of how individuals can determine AI-generated visual deepfakes from genuine online media, with the aim of creating training materials to improve detection. Police Scotland is also a CyberScotland Partner.

Cyber meetup on mental health in cyber security

CyberScotland Partner, ScotlandIS is hosting a cyber meetup with a focus on mental health in the cyber security industry on 5 November at the Abertay cyberQuarter. The relentless pressure of the high-stakes cyber security environment, coupled with the weight of potential consequences, significantly erodes performance and actually compromises cyber resilience.

Annabel Berry from Leading Cyber will discuss why managing mental wellbeing is fundamental to our overall cyber resilience. Register for the event here.

Age Scotland shares digital tips for older people

Age Scotland held its annual awards and conference on 8 October 2025. Cyber and Fraud Hub CEO Alex Dowall ran a workshop at the conference focussed on building confidence and digital safety in older people.

Age Scotland has tips on how older people can stay safe online here.

ScotSoft success for ScotlandIS

ScotSoft, Scotland’s leading technology conference, took place on 25 September, with over 600 people in attendance. Run by ScotlandIS, ScotSoft allows attendees to connect, learn and innovate while meeting new talent at the Young Software Engineer of the Year Awards.

Mark your calendars for 24 September 2026 for next year’s event!

In other news…

Cyber security news from Scotland and the rest of the UK

Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) hack is costliest cyber-attack in UK history

The Jaguar Land Rover cyber-attack has cost an estimated £1.09bn and is the most economically damaging cyber event in UK history.

According to the Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC), 5000 businesses across JLR’s supply chain have been affected, as well as the local economy and full recovery is not expected until January 2026.

Two Scottish tech projects receive share of government fund

Two Scottish tech projects are among 14 from across the UK that will benefit from funding from the UK government’s Department of Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT’s) Regional Tech programme, designed to help boost local and regional businesses.

ScotlandIS’ Future Ready programme, which provides business support and learning resources for tech businesses across the country, and Game Space in Dundee, which supports those working in the country’s gaming industry, are among the recipients.

60% of UK secondary schools hit by cyber-attack or breach in past year

Six out of 10 secondary schools have suffered a cyber-attack or breach over the past 12 months, rising to eight out of 10 for further education colleges and nine out of 10 for higher education institutions. According to a UK government survey, educational institutions are more likely to face a cyber-attack or security breach than private businesses.

Arrests made after nursery chain hack

Two teenagers have been arrested after cyber hackers stole information about thousands of children from a nursery chain. The hackers were said to be using pictures and the names of about 8,000 children from the Kido nursery chain, to demand ransom money.

Millions in UK at risk of cyber-attacks as Windows 10 ends updates

About five million British computer users risk becoming vulnerable to cyber-attacks and scams after Microsoft stops updating its decade-old Windows 10 system, consumer campaigners have warned.

One in four of an estimated 21 million UK people using a device that runs the Windows 10 software intend to continue using it after updates cease and so will be at risk of online security breaches including malware and viruses, according to a survey by Which? More than a third of those who are not planning to take action and therefore risk becoming vulnerable are people aged over 55.

Cyber-attacks costing UK businesses more than £10,000

Cyber-attacks are costing UK businesses more than £10,000 on average per incident, according to Uswitch Broadband. Online threats are becoming worse as more people work from home or use public Wi-Fi. The risks have grown since remote and hybrid working took off in 2020, with hackers targeting less secure connections.

The CyberScotland Bulletin is a monthly roundup of news and updates on cyber security and resilience with a particular focus on Scotland. Feel free to forward it to anyone in your network who might benefit from it.

Please ensure you only take information from trusted sources. The NCSC has a useful glossary of cyber terms you may wish to reference while you read the bulletin.

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