Over half of UK SMEs set to adopt AI in the next year
A new report shows that 52 percent of UK SMEs are already using or plan to adopt AI tools within the next 12 months.
The study, from fintech company SumUp, is based on a survey of 750 business owners and decision makers within small UK businesses and finds that 27 percent see AI mostly as an opportunity, highlighting its potential to drive growth or increase efficiency.
MSPs put aside dedicated funds for ransomware payments
According to a new report 45 percent of MSPs admit to having a dedicated pool of money set aside for ransomware payments. This is despite increasing pressure from insurers and global governments to avoid paying ransoms to stop fueling criminal enterprises and encourage proactive resilience.
The findings, from cyber risk specialist CyberSmart, also show that 36 percent opt to protect themselves with cyber insurance instead. Worryingly though, 11 percent of MSPs say they have no dedicated budget for ransomware payments or cyber insurance, in many cases leaving them without a contingency plan.
SMEs need to get a grip on their cloud costs
According to the Office for National Statistics, in late May 2025, 77 percent of UK businesses with 10 or more employees reported that their staffing costs, covering wages, bonuses, national insurance (NI) and pension contributions, had increased over the preceding three months; a rise of 41 percent since late February 2025, and a 17 percent rise from the year before.
In the light of this Brian Sibley, Virtual CTO at Espria, says clear and concise billing models for the cloud are needed for a wholly comprehensive understanding and urges businesses to urgently assess their MS Azure subscriptions to reduce costs and improve services.
The top SME security worries for 2025
Smaller businesses are just as vulnerable to cybersecurity issues as larger ones, more so in some cases as they have fewer resources to devote to protection.
New research from UK cloud services firm Six Degrees looks at the concerns of UK SMEs. It finds 35 percent cite AI-related threats as their top concern, outranking malware (25 percent), scams and other fraud (25 percent), phishing (25 percent), and ransomware (23 percent).
SMEs put at risk by poor mobile security practices
A new report finds that 35 percent of small business employees or owners report clicking on a phishing link via mobile.
The research, carried out by OnePoll for CyberSmart, among 250 small-medium enterprise business owners or leaders in the UK also finds 30 percent of respondents report losing or having had stolen a mobile phone containing sensitive corporate information, leaving their business more vulnerable to potential cybercriminal activity.
Small businesses lack mobile device security policies
Smaller businesses lack the tech resources of larger ones so it's common practice that they not only allow employees to use their personal mobile phones to complete work tasks but in many cases actively expect them to.
Research carried out by OnePoll for SME security solutions company CyberSmart finds that 60 percent of organizations expect their employees to use mobile devices to carry out work tasks despite not providing all of them with work phones.
Azure outages should spark new urgency for a multi-cloud approach
July 19th 2024 will go down as a tough day for many IT teams, and the day started even worse for businesses using Microsoft Azure and its supported services. In addition to the widely publicized global outage caused by a CrowdStrike update, Microsoft Azure's Central US Region was down for five hours due to an unrelated failure, impacting millions of business users worldwide.
As if that wasn't enough, less than two weeks later, Microsoft Azure experienced another global outage lasting more than six hours. According to the company's service status page, it was Microsoft's 8th service status-related incident.
SMEs invest in tech opportunities but risk missing security safeguards
Across Europe, 100 million people are employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The UK has over five million SMEs, providing three-fifths of employment and £2.4 trillion in turnover. As a vital component in the national economy, SMEs must continue to invest in automation, technology-led innovation, and underpin this with strong security.
We recently completed our sixth bi-annual SME IT Trends survey, and the good news is that technology investment continues to increase. Not only that, but business leaders and IT administrators are positive about the benefits of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). However, the other side of this coin is more concerning; the number of cybersecurity challenges organizations face continues to increase. Our study shows that they need to make bold decisions about their security posture. Failure to do so puts their businesses and employees at risk.
Cost of living crisis raises cyber risk from unhappy staff
A new survey of UK small and medium enterprises shows that 47 percent believe they are at greater risk of a cyberattack since the cost-of-living crisis.
The study from CyberSmart reveals that 38 percent believe this is due to increased malicious insider threats such as disgruntled employees making decisions that are not in the best interest of the company. While 35 percent believe it is due to negligent insider threats such as overworked or distracted employees making mistakes.
SMEs underestimate the cost of cyber incidents
A new report from cyber insurance provider Cowbell shows that 90 percent of small business leaders underestimate the cost of a cyber incident.
The study of 500 SME leaders across the US shows that 50 percent of SMEs have experienced a significant cyber incident in the past 12 months and, of those, 90 percent say the attack cost more than they anticipated.
Why are businesses slow on the uptake with logistics tech?
The incremental growth of eCommerce has accelerated significantly in recent years, with national lockdowns raising the profile of online retail to the status of truly rivaling traditional high street retail in every workable sector.
As a proportion of total retail, the UK’s eCommerce sector commands 27.8 percent of all sales as of February 2022, up from 22.7 percent before the pandemic. The figure was as high as 37.7 percent in November 2020, owing to a convergence of lockdowns and peak retail season.
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