More than 60 businesses from across the UK economy have committed to strengthening their cybersecurity by signing the new Cyber Resilience Pledge, a government-backed initiative designed to improve cyber-resilience across organisations.
The pledge comes as cyberthreats continue to increase in scale and sophistication. According to the National Cyber Security Centre’s Annual Review 2025, more than five million cybercrimes were committed against UK businesses last year, equivalent to one every six seconds.
The report also found that the National Cyber Security Centre handled 204 nationally significant cyber incidents in the year to September, compared with 89 the previous year. Independent research cited by the government estimates the average cost of a significant cyberattack on a UK business at almost £195,000, with the annual cost to organisations reaching £14.7 billion.
The pledge has been designed for medium and large organisations, although organisations of all sizes can participate. Signatories commit to taking three actions aimed at strengthening their cyberdefences.
Founding signatories include Marks & Spencer, Nationwide, ITV, Microsoft UK, Cloudflare, Deloitte LLP, Accenture UK, Vodafone Group and VodafoneThree.
David Boda, Chief Security and Resilience Officer at Nationwide, said: “Uplifting the cyber- resilience of the UK economy is a collective endeavour that no one organisation or sector can achieve alone. As a modern mutual Nationwide Building Society are proud to play our part and be a signatory of the Cyber Resilience Pledge.”
