The Real Cost of a Cyber Attack.

Cyber attacks are no longer a distant threat, they’re a present-day reality for UK small businesses. With over half of UK businesses experiencing at least one cyber incident in the past three years, many do not understand the reality of the potential losses until it happens. When it does, the financial and operational impacts can be devastating to SMEs.

According to the National Cyber Security Agency’s Cyber Breaches report in 2025, the average cost of a cyber-attack for a UK small business is £8,690. However, this figure can escalate significantly depending on the nature of the breach. For instance, if new hardware is to be procured, this can add significant costs depending on the size and complexity of the infrastructure. Similarly, IT consultancy, recovery efforts and specialist negotiators can soon escalate.

Beyond immediate financial losses, cyber attacks can cause prolonged operational disruptions. According to multiple sources, a reasonable estimate to recover from a cyber attack is approximately 21 days, during which businesses may face downtime, loss of productivity, and strained customer relationships.

Those businesses with robust Disaster Recovery procedures and systems, this time will be greatly reduced, but if the infrastructure is complex, or the DR solution is not robust enough then recovery times may be extended.

Employees will still need to be paid while systems are offline and to make this worse, businesses may have to pay overtime in order to clear a back log of work that has mounted up once systems are operational again.

It’s common for small businesses to underestimate their vulnerabilities to cyber-attacks, thinking they are too small to be targeted. But the reality is only 20% of attacks are targeted at larger organisations, the remaining 80% are aimed at smaller businesses because they’re easier targets.

Smaller businesses do not have the same budgets and capabilities of larger organisations to implement robust cyber security measures, exposing them to threats and leaving the business.

There is also a common misconception that threat actors are not interested in small business data. At CyberProtect we’ve heard it so many times, “they would not be interested in our data”, but the reality is that they are interested in preventing you using it so they can extort money out of you for it’s safe return.

Use our handy calculator on the right to calculate the estimated losses your business may face in the course of a cyber attack. The calculator takes into consideration, lost revenue, employee costs and other costs such as recovery or hardware. We’ve also included reputational damage, which is of course, hard to estimate, but we’ve used 2% of the annual revenue to replicate a lost contract. We do not take into account paying any ransom that may be required to gain access to your data, this varies drastically depending on the business industry and its finances.

The true cost of a cyber attack extends far beyond immediate financial losses. For UK small businesses, the cumulative effects can be devastating. Understanding the risks and taking proactive steps to improve cybersecurity are essential to safeguarding your future.

Consider investing in Cyber Insurance to protect your business in the event of a cyber-attack, doing so will provide a much-needed hand should your systems be severely impacted. Many insurers will insist in you having certain controls in place, but cyber security measures do not need to cost the earth.

By partnering with a business that understands the challenges SMEs face, you can be sure to receive cost effective security solutions that are robust and tailored to your business.