Business
How 2025 became the year of the cyber hack – and what British businesses face next
As 2025 winds down, business leaders and executives will feel it has been a particularly expensive year as the cost of employment shot up, inflation of raw materials impacted supply chains and both oil and tariff shocks hit in the first half of the year.
But perhaps the biggest cost of all was one borne by companies hit by cyber attacks.
One damning government report suggests that close to half of British businesses (43 per cent) and three in ten charities (30 per cent) claimed to suffered a type of cyber security breach or attack in the past year. These include anything from a phishing attack to a full-blown digital shutdown costing hundreds of millions of pounds.
The list of those affected includes some of Britain’s biggest businesses.
Marks and Spencer. Adidas. Co-op Group. Heathrow airport. Harrods. And, of course Jaguar Land Rover (JLR). Each have suffered publicly confirmed cyber hacks. These attacks were not limited to companies either: the German parliament also suffered a breach and, in October, the UK government saw the Foreign Office hacked.
Organisations have to fight a moving target, one with seemingly limitless capabilities. This isn’t a foe a business and kill and move on from – cyber attacks come in all different ways, from all points of the earth and if one attempt doesn’t work, it just keeps coming.
Jason Soroko, a cybersecurity expert and host of the Root Causes podcast, put it bluntly: “For cyber attacks, 2025 was brutal. 2026 will be worse.”
What did the hacks cost?
Attackers aren’t just looking to break into digital vaults and extract cash. Data has become incredibly valuable, while damage to economic or manufacturing operations can provide an opportunity for someone else to pick up the slack in demand, meaning State-level involvement is part of the picture at times too.
The truth is for a business, lost sales are only part of the picture – there’s reputational damage to consider, possible reimbursement or lost opportunity costs, the loss of ongoing clients to rivals and, obviously, the amount spent to fix and then upgrade their own systems too.
Cybersecurity Ventures, a noted source of data and research in the cybersecurity sphere, says the entire “industry” was worth around $10.5 trillion this year alone (£7.8tn). In country terms, this would make it the third-biggest economy in the world after only the US and China.
For individual companies, the reliance is on their accountancy estimates being made public. M&S originally said the hit to their profits would be in the region of £300m, but ultimately in November gave a figure of just under half that, having recouped £100m in insurance payouts.
JLR were not so fortunate as they had not renewed their cyber insurance specifically, meaning they’d bear the brunt of a £200m estimated cost. Meanwhile, Co-op’s cyber attack saw more than 6 million customers’ data stolen, with the final tally expected to cost around £120m.
Elsewhere, the “cost” is more difficult to place a figure on, but is more wide-ranging and potentially damaging.
JLR’s shutdown was big enough, and prolonged enough, to contribute towards an economic downturn: car production failed to rebound in September and October across the industry and was one of the big factors in UK GDP contracting 0.1 per cent in the latter month.
The biggest issues and why firms are struggling
There are several good reasons why companies cannot keep cybercrime at bay.
Attacks can be multi-pronged in style or timing and have the advantage of being first: those in defence must rely on seeing what the attackers are doing and respond accordingly.
“Attackers now deploy AI at a speed defenders simply haven’t matched. It’s an asymmetry that widens by the month. Defenders have been slow to uptake stronger authentication, which is like failing to better locks on the doors. The attackers take advantage of this,” explained Mr Soroko, who works with online security firm Sectigo.
Cybersecurity Ventures, meanwhile, estimates that the “frequency of ransomware attacks on governments, businesses, consumers, and devices will continue to rise […] to hit once every two seconds by 2031.”
It’s a lot to stop – and that’s just the digital version.
What about when humans get involved? We know about people getting caught out by scams through texts, emails and more. Why would it be any different for ordinary people at work?
“We’re currently seeing youths socially-engineer their way into global businesses. After online research and exploiting other breaches to obtain information, a single phone call to a help desk can be enough to persuade them to reset passwords or MFA tokens,” explained Tim Rawlins, security director at the cyber firm NCC Group.
“This opens the door for criminals to move across systems and escalate their access until they have the same level of access as IT teams do.”
What comes next is critical.
Co-op notably opted to pull the plug, as it were, locking out those hacking them but also limiting their own initial powers of response as it was deemed that was the safest course of action.
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The government’s cyber report notes even the biggest firms don’t actually have a set course of action for if they are hit: 53 per cent of medium businesses and 75 per cent of large ones have “have an incident response plan”, it suggests.
“Following breaches, organisations can’t afford knee-jerk fixes,” Mr Rawlins adds. “Organisations must work with cyber experts to rebuild their systems safely; seeing how the hackers were able to infiltrate, what they accessed, and how a breach is impacting critical business systems.”
But this is a wide-ranging topic, a brand new area for many businesses to deal with and an area of high expertise needed. As such, many remain underprepared to deal with it.
Research from compliance company IO suggests a third of British and American companies don’t feel that governments are doing enough to support and protect them.
What are the next big risks?
The pace of technological change means firms are facing an awful lot of “the same, but different”. Hackers looking to exploit gaps in security, individuals unwittingly opening or accessing files and even external or third party contributors accidentally letting outsiders in have all been part of the equation this year.
Companies essentially have to defend against what they cannot see coming – plus there’s no telling when attackers themselves might decide a particular target is now the ideal one.
Moody’s, the global ratings firm, says cyber attacks on banks in particular “are rising and becoming more sophisticated”. If you thought being unable to order a click and collect from M&S for a couple of months was bad, try imagining not being able to make payments, withdraw cash or check your balance.
Happily they do note most banks have “robust defences”, though those financial institutions using technological infrastructure “developed decades ago” and simply building new apps and process on top of it do present an ongoing concern.
Simply put, it’s a race to a never-in-sight finish line to keep security systems updated. For some businesses next year, the question will at some stage inevitably turn to what the best method of containment is, rather than how to keep attackers out. Once the defences are breached, the answer to that question can be the difference worth many, many millions.
Business
Four ports under construction in Andhra Pradesh, Centre tells Lok Sabha – The Times of India
The Centre is pushing port-led infrastructure expansion in Andhra Pradesh, with four ports currently under construction, even as it steps up nationwide port modernisation and efficiency measures.As per information shared on Friday in Parliament, the ports under construction in Andhra Pradesh are Mulapeta Port (formerly Bhavanapadu Port) in Srikakulam district, Machilipatnam Port in Krishna district, Ramayapatnam Port in SPSR Nellore district, and Kakinada SEZ Port in Kakinada district.The government said it is undertaking measures such as mechanisation of berths and terminals, digitalisation and logistics integration, new berth construction, capital dredging for larger vessels, and connectivity upgrades across road, rail and waterways.It has also rolled out initiatives including elimination of manual forms, direct port delivery and entry, container scanners, e-delivery of documents and payments, RFID-based gate automation and Maritime Single Window platform SagarSetu 2.0 to cut vessel turnaround time.Two new ports — Vadhavan Port in Maharashtra and Galathea Bay Port in Andaman and Nicobar Islands — have been notified as major ports. At present, 12 major ports operate under the central government, while 68 other-than-major ports are under state governments.Under the Sagarmala scheme, financial assistance is provided across five pillars including port modernisation, connectivity, port-led industrialisation, coastal community development and inland water transport.The government has also launched HaritSagar green port guidelines, the Green Tug Transition Programme (GTTP), and the Cruise Bharat Mission to promote sustainability and cruise tourism.The information was given by Union Minister of Ports, Shipping and Waterways Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.At present, 12 major ports operate under the administrative control of the central government, while 68 operational other-than-major ports are under state governments.The government said it has launched multiple national programmes for port development, expansion and upgradation. Under the Sagarmala scheme, financial assistance is provided under five pillars — port modernisation, port connectivity, port-led industrialisation, coastal community development, and coastal shipping and inland water transport.Green and sustainability-linked initiatives have also been introduced. The government has launched HaritSagar green port guidelines to promote environment-friendly port ecosystems and initiated the Green Tug Transition Programme (GTTP) to shift harbour tugs towards greener fuel alternatives.Further, the Cruise Bharat Mission has been launched to prioritise cruise tourism development across the country.
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Anthropic’s AI tools have triggered a sharp decline in Indian IT stocks like TCS, Infosys, Wipro, eroding Rs 3,11,873 crore in market value.
Anthropic’s valuation surpassed combined value of total IT firms in India
The entire Information Technology (IT) industry in India is battering with the existential threat, which comes on the heels of rising generative AI, posing doubts over the viability of their business model.
Stocks of the IT industries, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, Wipro, etc., hit brutally over the past week. This was triggered with the launch of new AI tools by Anthropic’s Claude for Cowork, which is like an office teammate helping the user to do tasks such as file sorting, reading legal drafts, etc.
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Anthropic’s Valuation vs Nifty IT Index
Anthropic’s phenomenal valuation rise has surpassed the combined value of India’s top IT firms. Standing at a valuation of $380 billion, the US-based AI company has eclipsed India’s Nifty IT index, whose market cap was at $296.4 billion by the time of writing this report.
Investors are accelerating their exit from technology stocks as concerns intensify that advanced artificial intelligence tools could disrupt core segments of the global software and IT services industry.
This week alone, TCS, Infosys and HCL Technologies dragged 9-11 per cent.
The sharp correction has wiped out substantial investor wealth. Based on intraday lows, the combined market capitalisation of the top five domestic IT companies has eroded by nearly Rs 3,11,873 crore this week.
TCS emerged as the biggest laggard, losing Rs 1,28,800 crore in market value, with its market capitalisation slipping to Rs 9,35,253 crore. The fall also pushed it to the fifth-most valued listed company from the fourth position.
Infosys has seen its market capitalisation shrink by Rs 91,431 crore following a 15 per cent decline this week. HCL Technologies has lost Rs 53,647 crore in market value over the past five trading sessions. Wipro and Tech Mahindra have also recorded declines, with their market capitalisations falling by Rs 22,762 crore and Rs 15,233 crore, respectively, during the same period.
| Company Name | Mcap ($Billion) |
| Tata Consultancy Services | 107.4 |
| Infosys | 61.2 |
| HCL Technologies | 43.6 |
| Wipro | 24.8 |
| Tech Mahindra | 16.6 |
| LTIMindtree | 16.7 |
| Persistent Systems | 9.5 |
| Oracle Financial Services Soft | 6.4 |
| Coforge | 5 |
| Mphasis | 5.2 |
| Total | 296.4 |
Source: Bloomberg
Anthropic’s Recent Funding Round
Anthropic has recently raised $30 billion in Series G funding led by GIC and Coatue, valuing Anthropic at $380 billion post-money, as announced by the company in the press release.
The investment will fuel the frontier research, product development, and infrastructure expansions that have made Anthropic the market leader in enterprise AI and coding.
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February 14, 2026, 09:15 IST
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IndiGo, the country’s largest airline is set to go on a hiring spree, bringing over 1,000 pilots on board. This comes after the aviation giant faced massive operational disruption last December, when the company was forced to cancel more than 5,000 flights within seven days.The fresh intake will span trainee first officers, senior first officers and commanders. A recruitment notice shows the carrier is also ready to accept applicants without time on the Airbus A320, the workhorse aircraft across its network, ET reported.Under the updated framework, the number of landings permitted between 12 am and 6 am has been limited, while the mandatory weekly rest period for pilots has gone up.A review carried out by the irectorate General of Civil Aviation concluded that the airline had neither hired in line with the new rules nor accelerated its training capacity. This, the probe noted, resulted in pilots being stretched through repeated reassignments, lengthier duty spans and greater use of deadheading, in which crew are moved as passengers to operate flights elsewhere.
Stepping up expansion
A senior official, as cited by ET, maintained that IndiGo is now lining up a steady supply of cockpit crew to keep pace with rapid aircraft additions. The airline’s in-house system is currently upgrading about 20–25 first officers to captain each month. Now, alongside hiring, the carrier has begun adjusting its network planning to create more breathing space in daily operations. From almost no buffer in December, the margin has been raised to 3% this month. Standby crew availability has also been lifted to a minimum of 15%.Fleet expansion is continuing at a brisk rate, with roughly four aircraft joining the airline every month on average.Training remains a long lead activity. Trainee first officers require around six months before they are cleared to operate, while promotion to captaincy demands at least 1,500 hours of flying, though airlines may prescribe stricter benchmarks.While the regulator’s baseline requirement is three sets of pilots per aircraft, including one captain and one first officer, IndiGo’s intense utilisation levels push its need to well over twice that figure.Figures placed during the inquiry into the December episode showed the airline needed 2,422 captains but had 2,357.
DGCA findings
After the disruption, the watchdog stepped in with temporary relaxations, suspending night-duty restriction rules until February 10.In its assessment, the DGCA said there was an overriding focus on maximising utilisation of crew, aircraft, and network resources, which significantly reduced roster buffer margins.The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said that the airline structured its crew schedules to extract the longest possible duty hours, leaning heavily on deadheading, tail swaps and stretched work patterns while leaving very little room for recovery. It noted that such planning weakened roster integrity and hurt operational resilience.
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