Crises do just happen unexpectedly, but they are also accidents waiting to happen

The spate of cyber incidents – breaches and ransom demands – that befell UK retailers in April and May this year is arguably a continuation of a trend that has been around for some time.

Staying ahead of the cyber criminals is both not easy nor a cheap enterprise. Businesses struggle to protect their systems and everything that they hold, in an age where bedroom hackers around the world are a few clicks away from causing untold trouble.  Little wonder the FT recently dubbed this the ‘age of cyber insecurity’.

Strategies vary among the business community on what to do should a hack happen to you, and a demand comes with it too.  Resist the demand and rebuild, if you can. Or secretly pay and rebuild and try to future-proof and goldplate your systems. Or fight and risk customer backlash as the hackers play with your data and let legacy media know they can.

All of these played out in some way as UK retailers sought to get on top of this latest set of breaches.

Do I have a magic bullet answer? No.

What I do have though – as does everyone – is the benefit of hindsight to help you prepare for this worst of all nightmares. It is mostly, nearly all, about preparation.

If you know all of the risks that could happen to you (including data breaches) then you will be prepared for handling them – and regularly appraise them and prepare yourselves for handling them. Right? No, not necessarily.

Google yourself or use AI to find the proportion of businesses and organisations  - large, medium and small – that are NOT ready, or prepared, or even know the full extent of a risk that could cripple their businesses.  This is very worrying, more so if you are one of their customers with your data – personal and private – entrusted to that entity.

Statistics vary on the numbers that are not prepared for risks such as cyber-attacks or other forms of issues that could mutate into crises. But they are significant enough to warrant action.

So, I’ve explained in a new guide what you could do, if in business, to help yourselves get ahead of the likelihood of issues damaging your business.  It does not contain anything that is amazingly new, but it does contain practical and I believe common sense advice for ensuring you are prepared. More on this in the next post.

June 2025