What You'll Learn from This Episode

Trish and Tom from Cool Waters Cyber break down the 2025 Cyber Security Breaches Survey findings to help UK financial services leaders understand their current risk landscape and improve their cyber defenses.

Critical Insights for Business Leaders

Your Risk Profile is Higher Than You Think

• 74% of large businesses and 67% of medium businesses experienced cyber incidents
• Finance and digitally intensive sectors face elevated risks
• Ransomware attacks have doubled, now affecting 1% of all businesses (19,000 organizations)

Phishing Remains Your Biggest Threat

• 85% of breached businesses were hit by phishing attacks
• Even failed attempts drain significant staff time
• AI-enhanced scams are making phishing more sophisticated and harder to detect

Financial Impact Can Be Severe

• Average breach costs range from £1,600 to £8,260 depending on severity
• Cyber-facilitated fraud averages £5,900 per incident
• Repeat attacks are common—affected businesses face an average of 30 incidents annually

Key Action Items

Strengthen Board Accountability

• Only 27% of businesses have a board member explicitly responsible for cyber security
• Finance sector performs better (57%) but still has room for improvement
• Make cyber security a standing board agenda item

Improve Incident Response Preparedness

• Just 23% of all businesses have formal incident response plans
• Only 39% of affected businesses report incidents externally
• Develop and regularly test your incident response procedures

Implement Proven Frameworks

• Use the UK Cyber Governance Code of Practice's five principles as your foundation
• Consider IASME Cyber Assurance for comprehensive governance alignment
• Start with Cyber Essentials for essential technical controls

Bottom Line

The episode demonstrates that while cyber threats are intensifying, businesses with structured governance and incident response capabilities are better positioned to minimize impact. The key is moving from reactive to proactive cyber security management through proven frameworks and clear board-level accountability.

Next Steps: Assess your current cyber governance against the five principles, ensure you have formal incident response plans, and consider certification standards like Cyber Essentials or IASME Cyber Assurance to systematically strengthen your defences.

Need help with Cyber Security?

Speak to Cool Waters Cyber - NCSC assured Cyber Advisors and Cyber Essentials experts - www.cool-waters.co.uk

Implementing the UK Cyber Governance Code of Practice with IASME Cyber Assurance

In this episode, we discuss the crucial topic of cyber governance for business leaders. With 74% of large businesses and 70% of medium businesses in the UK experiencing a cyber breach in the past year, boards are now clearly expected to lead on cyber risk. In response, the UK government (via DSIT and NCSC) has introduced the voluntary Cyber Governance Code of Practice to guide boards and directors.

The Code distils five key principles for effective cyber governance: Risk Management, Strategy, People, Incident Planning & Response, and Assurance & Oversight. However, implementing these practices can be a challenge.

Our deep dive focuses on a pragmatic roadmap to implement the Code: the IASME Cyber Assurance standard. Formerly known as "IASME Governance", this government-backed standard is comprehensive yet accessible, developed with UK government support as an alternative to more complex standards like ISO/IEC 27001.

Using IASME Cyber Assurance to implement the Code offers several benefits:

• Integrated Approach: It delivers both the Cyber Governance Code's requirements and the technical controls of Cyber Essentials in one unified effort, avoiding duplicate work.

• Structured Guidance: IASME provides detailed guidance, templates, and a structured question set to lead you through implementing controls, so you don't have to "reinvent the wheel".

• Comprehensive Coverage: The standard covers technical controls, risk management, data protection (like GDPR), and regulatory compliance.

• External Assurance: It culminates in an independent certification, providing tangible proof to stakeholders that your cyber governance meets a national standard.

Learn how following a structured roadmap using IASME can help organisations achieve significant cyber maturity relatively quickly, often within ~3–6 months to certification.

Implementing these steps can be challenging, which is why partnering with an NCSC-accredited Cyber Advisor can be invaluable. Advisors, like our sponsor Cool Waters Cyber, provide expert gap analysis, hands-on remediation support, plain-English communication, project management, and certification liaison. They offer a clear, pragmatic roadmap and help streamline the process, ensuring you meet the standards effectively.

Cool Waters Cyber offers a comprehensive service to help boards implement the Cyber Governance Code of Practice. They provide tailored support backed by real-world experience and plain-English advice.

Ready to strengthen your cyber governance? Cool Waters Cyber can help your firm implement the new code.

Need help with Cyber Security?

Speak to Cool Waters Cyber - NCSC assured Cyber Advisors and Cyber Essentials experts - www.cool-waters.co.uk

Tune into this episode for a deep dive into the UK government's Cyber Governance Code of Practice. This Code is a crucial resource designed specifically for boards and directors. Understanding it can significantly benefit your organisation.

By listening, you will gain insights into:

• Why cyber governance is essential for modern businesses and organisations. Digital technologies are deeply embedded in most businesses, and critical operations often rely on them. Cyber risk is a material risk for almost all organisations.

• The critical role of boards and directors in managing digital risks and protecting their organisations from cyber attacks. Governing cyber risk requires strong engagement and action at a leadership level.

• How the Code helps protect your organisation's financial viability. Effective management of cyber risks is crucial, and building cyber resilience is key to recovering from harm caused by cyber events.

• What the Cyber Governance Code of Practice is and how it sets out the most critical governance actions that directors are responsible for. It shows how boards and directors can build resilience to a wide range of cyber risks.

• Who should use the Code: It's tailor-made for boards and directors of both public-sector and private organisations, especially medium and large ones. While not specifically for small organisations, they play a critical role in UK economic resilience and should seek to implement the Code's principles.

• How the Code helps manage cyber risks effectively and reduce the likelihood and impact of cyber attacks. Cyber incidents can lead to major impacts like loss of income, damage to customer trust, or costly remedial action.

• How the Code fits into a wider government support package. It is underpinned by resources such as Cyber Governance Training and the Cyber Security Toolkit for Boards, which help strengthen understanding and support implementation.

• The key areas covered by the Code, including Risk Management, Strategy, People, Incident Planning, Response and Recovery, and Assurance and Oversight, detailing specific actions for each area.

• Understanding the minimum standards for managing cyber risk, especially when the Code is used alongside Cyber Essentials, a government-backed certification scheme.

Understanding the principles and actions outlined in the Code of Practice is crucial for effective governance and protecting your organisation in today's digital landscape

Need help with Cyber Security?

Speak to Cool Waters Cyber - NCSC assured Cyber Advisors and Cyber Essentials experts - www.cool-waters.co.uk