UK organisations were hit by an average of 1,597 cyber attacks per week each in July 2026, a 26% increase year-on-year, according to new data from Check Point Research, the threat intelligence arm of Check Point Software Technologies. The growth rate outpaced the 16% year-on-year rise recorded globally, even though UK attack volumes remained below the worldwide average of 2,336 weekly attacks per organisation.
The figures form part of Check Point Research’s Global Threat Intelligence report for July 2026, which found that cyber risk is accumulating across multiple fronts at once: rising attack volumes, a sharp acceleration in ransomware activity, and growing exposure from the use of generative AI tools in the enterprise.
In the UK, Education, Energy & Utilities, Software, Government, and Media & Entertainment were named as the five most targeted industries in July, reflecting attackers’ continued focus on sectors that hold sensitive personal data, run critical national infrastructure, or present broad, distributed attack surfaces.
Global attacks keep climbing
Worldwide, organisations faced an average of 2,336 weekly cyber attacks in July, up 3% month-on-month and 16% year-on-year. Education remained the most targeted sector globally, averaging 4,848 weekly attacks per organisation, up 14% year-on-year. Government followed with 3,044 attacks and Telecommunications with 2,927, while Energy and Utilities rose 20% to 2,759 attacks and Hospitality, Travel and Recreation entered the global top five with 2,614 attacks, up 28%, likely reflecting increased exposure during the summer travel period.
Regionally, Latin America recorded the highest attack volume, with 3,561 weekly attacks per organisation, up 19% year-on-year, followed by APAC at 3,316. Europe stood out for its rate of growth, with attacks up 18% year-on-year to 2,051 per organisation, ahead of North America’s 9% rise to 1,613.
Ransomware breaks from its earlier pattern
The sharpest shift in July came from ransomware. Reported victims reached 964 globally, up 87% year-on-year and 49% from June, marking a decisive break from the first half of 2026, when monthly ransomware activity averaged around 672 incidents. Business Services was the most affected sector, accounting for 32.5% of reported victims, followed by Industrial Manufacturing at 14.4% and Consumer Goods and Services at 13.4%.
North America remained the most affected region for ransomware, accounting for 45% of reported incidents, followed by Europe at 28% and APAC at 17%. At country level, the United States continued to dominate the victim count with 39.4% of reported attacks, followed by Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom and Italy.
The Gentlemen and Qilin were the most prevalent ransomware groups in July, each responsible for 14% of published attacks, while DeadLock climbed to third place with 10% and 97 reported victims, highlighting continued churn in the ransomware ecosystem.
GenAI exposure becomes a daily business risk
The report also highlighted the growing data exposure risk posed by generative AI tools. One in every 36 prompts sent from enterprise networks carried a high risk of sensitive data leakage, and 88% of organisations that regularly use GenAI tools were affected by high-risk prompt activity. Organisations used an average of eight GenAI tools in July, with individual users generating 95 prompts on average during the month.
Personal data was the most common sensitive category exposed, appearing in 70% of organisations, followed by financial data and network and IT infrastructure information, each present in 68% of organisations.
Email also remained a high-volume risk channel: one in every 128 emails, or 0.78%, was classified as phishing in July, with a further 20% falling into unwanted or risky categories such as graymail, spam and suspicious messages.
“Cyber risk is accumulating across multiple fronts”
“July’s data shows that cyber risk is accumulating across multiple fronts at once,” said Barnaby Nickels, regional sales manager for UKI & North EU at Check Point Software. “Attack volumes continue to rise, ransomware has accelerated sharply, and GenAI exposure is now part of daily business activity. Organisations need prevention-first, AI-driven security that protects networks, users, data and AI workflows before attacks can cause impact.”
For UK organisations, the message lands with particular urgency. With attack growth outpacing the global average and sectors ranging from education to critical infrastructure squarely in attackers’ sights, security teams are being urged to strengthen defences across network, cloud, endpoint, email and AI usage rather than relying on any single layer of protection.
