Businesses are expecting catastrophic cyber incidents: 65% think a serious cyber attack could threaten survival

New research finds that cyber is the leading cause of downtime and data loss for the fourth year running

LONDON, June 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- In the wake of highly disruptive attacks on M&S and Jaguar Land Rover, 65% of organisations now think a serious cyber attack could threaten their survival, according to Databarracks' Data Health Check 2026, released today.

The annual survey of 500 IT decision-makers also revealed that, for the fourth consecutive year, cyber is the leading cause of both downtime and data loss. 30% of organisations cited cyber incidents as their biggest cause of IT downtime over the last 12 months, ahead of hardware failure at 19%. Meanwhile, 43% of large organisations reported losing data as a result of a cyber attack.

Other key findings from the research include:

• Integrating IT and business resilience is the leading resilience priority in 2026, cited by 39% of organisations, just ahead of updating continuity plans (38%) and improving backup processes (38%).
• AI-driven attacks have more than doubled in frequency in the last 12 months, affecting 25% of organisations, and are now seen as the biggest resilience challenge facing organisations over the next 5 years.
• Only 18% of organisations that suffered a ransomware attack paid the ransom, while 59% recovered from backups. 
• 76% of organisations believe they are more resilient than they were 12 months ago.

Commenting on the findings, James Watts, Managing Director at Databarracks, said:

"The idea that a cyber attack could be existential is no longer a fringe view. It is now the majority position. We can't dismiss it as alarmism because it's grounded in what organisations are experiencing. Cyber is still the leading cause of IT downtime and data loss, and AI-driven attacks are adding to the pressure, more than doubling in frequency in the last 12 months."

With organisations now prioritising integration and improvement to backup processes, Databarracks expects to see more coordinated incident response and a stronger baseline of cyber resilience. If adoption of air-gapped and immutable backups continues to increase, as the trend suggests it will, more organisations will also be in a stronger position to recover from ransomware without paying attackers.

Watts added:

"Encouragingly, the data also shows that organisations are growing in confidence. They believe they are more resilient than they were 12 months ago and better able to respond to a crisis. The next step is ensuring that confidence is backed by preparation, testing and exercising so recovery is proven in practice and not just assumed."

Download the full report: Data Health Check 2026 – Databarracks