UK Cybersecurity Sector Revenue Grows 12% to Top £13bn – Source: www.infosecurity-magazine.com

The UK’s cybersecurity industry demonstrated “exceptional performance” in the past financial year, increasing total revenue by 12% to reach £13.2bn, according to a new government report.

The UK Cyber Security Sectoral Analysis 2025 was compiled from various data sources including Companies House data and telephone surveys.

It revealed that there are an estimated 2165 cybersecurity firms currently operating in the UK, an increase of 74 from the previous year. Most of these (59%) offer services, a quarter (26%) registered as product-focused, 12% MSSPs and 3% resellers.

Although the majority (56%) are classed as micro-businesses, there’s a far bigger share of medium (16%) and large (10%) businesses in the cyber sector than in general across the UK – where the figures are 3% and 1% respectively.

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Of the 2165 cybersecurity firms operating in the UK, only a quarter (26%) have an international presence. UK-headquartered cyber firms mainly operated in the EU (52%) and US (43%).

As well as posting impressive revenue growth of 12%, the UK’s cybersecurity businesses also recorded a 21% increase in gross value added (GVA), to £7.8bn. GVA measures the contribution of a sector to an economy, minus the value of the inputs used to produce its goods and services.

An additional 6600 full-time jobs were added to the sector last year – an 11% annual increase – which brings the total number to 67,300.

Long-Standing Challenges

However, the report also revealed persistent challenges. A lack of technically skilled candidates (47%) and unaffordable salary demands (46%) were the top two cited challenges in this area, followed by competition from rival businesses (39%).

According to an ISC2 study, the UK’s cyber workforce skills gap increased 27% to reach 93,000 last year, although this also includes cybersecurity professionals working in sectors other than cyber.

Andy Kays, CEO of Cardiff-based security business Socura, argued that the sector can grow even further and faster if it tackles long-standing issues including skills shortages, regional disparities, lack of investment in research and startups, and apathy amongst SMEs.

“The lack of technical skills is definitely a problem, but virtually every government is grappling with ways to boost STEM education and encourage more young people into careers like cyber. It’s not a new issue, and is certainly not unique to the UK,” he added. 

“Meanwhile, a large proportion of the SME market still believes it doesn’t need cybersecurity. Historically, smaller businesses felt they were not a target, and the security sector has not always prioritized services for the SME market. However, this is no longer the case.”