2026 KnowBe4 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report for the UK and Ireland
How Vulnerable Is Your Organisation to Phishing? Get the 2026 UK&I Phishing Benchmarking Report to Find Out
Phishing now accounts for 93% of all cyber crime against UK businesses — and it's getting easier to carry out. The high-profile attacks on Marks & Spencer, Co-op and Harrods didn't defeat technology. Attackers talked their way past it, impersonating staff to IT help desks and resetting passwords to gain access. The M&S disruption alone is estimated to have cost £300 million. The common thread in every incident is people.
The 2026 KnowBe4 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report for the UK and Ireland measures real employee susceptibility across industries and organisation sizes — giving security leaders the data they need to benchmark their risk and make the case for stronger awareness programmes.
What you'll learn
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Which sectors carry the highest baseline risk — Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals (43.9%), Hospitality (38%) and Construction (34.1%) top the regional exposure list
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Why Consumer Services achieves a 95% reduction after one year, while Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals and Financial Services retain the highest residual risk at 8.7% and 7.5%
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How enterprise organisations drop from 33.1% to 14% within just 90 days — and why all size bands converge to between 4.5% and 6.1% after one year
- Why help desk social engineering and impersonation attacks demand specific, scenario-based training that goes beyond generic phishing simulations
- What separates organisations that beat the benchmark from those running annual compliance exercises that fail to change behaviour
Download the 2026 United Kingdom & Ireland Phishing Benchmarking Report today and stay ahead of tomorrow’s cyber threats.