Vigilance Urged Over Business Cyber Attacks

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Businesses across the South are being urged to remain ultra vigilant in the face of an onslaught of cyberattacks. The main takeaway from a cyber security seminar held in Hampshire for owners, business leaders and decision-makers is that cyber threats are here to stay – ignore them at your peril.

Three regional businesses – HWB Chartered Accountants, Lloyds Bank and Gallagher Insurance & Risk Management – combined to stage the breakfast event at the Axis Centre in Southampton to impart their cyber security advice.

Keynote speaker was Sam Cheshire, Head of Cyber at Gallagher, whose talk covered cyber threat intelligence, cloud security, artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, data, protection and privacy. He said:

“There were 7.78 million cyberattacks on UK businesses in 2024 – the vast majority being social engineering attacks – but just 15% of businesses have a formal incident management plan that is cyber centric. The average annual cost of cybercrime to businesses is £15,300, yet only 30% of all organisations use monitoring tools to spot a malicious attacker on their network."

“However, the real cost of an attack can be to a company’s hard-earned reputation – especially if there is business interruption or large amounts of sensitive customer data are collected – which can take years to rebuild, if at all.”

Sam, whose firm offers a comprehensive range of cyber insurance policies, said the current ransomware epidemic began after the Covid-19 pandemic and by 2023 cyber incidents were ranked the number one global business risk for the first time.

He also covered common cyber risk misconceptions, such as the businesses who thought they didn’t need insurance as they invested in IT security or outsourced their IT. There were also those who considered themselves too small to be targeted or felt cyber was covered under their standard insurance.

Michaela Johns, Director at HWB Chartered Accountants, based at Chandler’s Ford, near Southampton, said:

“Business owners and directors must remain vigilant at all times to prevent them from becoming a sad statistic. It is especially important to maintain year-round protection as most attacks happen on major holiday dates such as Easter Sunday and Christmas Day when businesses may have taken their eye off the ball. The most common cyberattack at the moment is invoice redirection."

“It is vital that businesses have an incident management plan that is cyber centric, and I was staggered to learn that just 15% of UK businesses have this in place. The most paid out insurance claims are to manufacturing businesses who need to be able to get their machines unlocked in order to continue production, but charities are also a common target as they are perceived to have weaker systems."

Michaela has provided a six-point checklist of cyber security advice to help businesses in the ongoing fight against cyberattacks.

 Update your incident management plan:
 Ensure all staff are fully trained to spot scams and phishing
 Invest in cyber resilience measures
 Check your cyber insurance covers incident response and that they provide a system vulnerability scan for you
 Have offline back ups
 Consider multi factor authentication (MFA) on emails and all remote application.

John Turner, of Lloyds Bank, added:

“Cyberattacks are not going away and form the biggest threat to many of our valued customers. We wanted to give something back to the community in which we live and work, and this seminar has helped raise awareness of the multiple issues surrounding this subject and some of the actions to take to combat them.”

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025, commissioned by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and the Home Office revealed that 43% of UK businesses (approximately 612,000) and 30% of UK charities (61,000) identified a cyber breach or attack in the past year.

The survey, published in June, also shows that the prevalence of cyber breaches and attacks in medium and large businesses remains high (67% medium and 74% large) with micro businesses at 35% and small businesses 42%.

Photo: Safety First - Combining for a cyber security seminar in Southampton were, from left, William Gage (Lloyds Bank), John Turner (Lloyds Bank), Sam Cheshire (Gallagher), Charlotte Powney (Gallagher), Michaela Johns (HWB)

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lindaandrews071
May 22
3 min read

Updated: May 24

The Great Britain Cycling Team have completed the line-up for the Lloyds Tour of Britain

Women, which gets underway on Thursday 5 June. The British national team will be the 19th

team in the record-breaking field for the race, taking the number of riders starting the event to

114.

The team also become the first to name their provisional six-rider line-up for the Lloyds Tour

of Britain Women, with a roster that includes experience of racing in Britain’s biggest

professional women’s race, as well as having represented Great Britain on the track, road, and

off-road disciplines.

Former Lloyds national road race champion Jess Roberts (2018) has ridden the race on one

previous occasion in 2021 while alongside her will be April Tacey, who already has two

appearances in the race to her name (2021 & 2022), and has been in UCI Women’s WorldTour

action so far in 2025 with Team Coop – Repsol.

Fenix – Deceuninck teammates Millie Couzens and Flora Perkins both return, having raced in

the 2024 Lloyds Tour of Britain Women for the Great Britain Cycling Team, with the latter

finishing 13th overall and runner up in the under-23 young rider classification 12 months ago.

Two of the six rider squad will make their debut in the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women, with world

individual and team pursuit champion Anna Morris, who took second place at the recent Rapha

Lincoln Grand Prix, joined by Ella MacLean-Howell, who enjoyed a breakout year in 2024, with

10 top-10 finishes in the under 23 category at mountain bike World Cups, and represented

Great Britain in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Commenting on the announcement, Senior Academy Endurance Coach Chris Newton said;

“It’s fantastic to again have a strong GB Team in the Tour of Britain Women. It’s a great opportunity to come together as a national team and further develop our current and future stars. This year’s course looks tough and well-planned to make for an exciting race."

“We are looking to challenge from day one with a strong mix of youth and experience. The first

two days around the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire are particularly interesting, as they are

old training roads for myself, so hopefully that knowledge will be useful. I also know the crowds

will be super supportive.”

Jess Roberts, added;

“I’m really excited to be part of the GB team for the Tour of Britain this year. The last few years I’ve taken a step back from road racing so I am a little nervous to step back in to a World Tour peloton but it will be great to get some experience back and hopefully help the team to some good results.”

To discover the routes of all four stages of the Lloyds Tour of Britain Women in more detail,

and more information about the race, host venues, and participating teams, please click here.

The Lloyds Tour of Britain Women gets underway in the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire on

Thursday 5 June, with a stage between Dalby Forest and Redcar across the North York Moors

National Park, before the second stage from Hartlepool ends with an uphill finish at Saltburn

by-the-Sea.

The race concludes with a pair of stages in Scotland, the first in the Scottish Borders, starting

and finishing in Kelso, before the final stage in Glasgow on Sunday 8 June.

Following the final leg, fans and cyclists of all ages and abilities will have the chance to take

part in the free Lloyds Tour of Britain Family Cycling Festival, building on Glasgow’s cycling

legacy, and providing a unique chance to ride on the same closed road, traffic free, circuit as

the world’s best. For more information on the Lloyds Tour of Britain Family Cycling Festival, please click here.

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Vigilance Urged Over Business Cyber Attacks

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