The 5 biggest digital security threats to UK small businesses in 2025

UK small business owners have faced mounting pressure in recent years, with challenging global trade conditions making it increasingly difficult to protect their balance sheets. But it’s not just economic uncertainty that endangers small businesses in 2025 – cyberattacks pose an equally serious threat. Thankfully, with the right digital security tools in place the risks can be mitigated.

Could your small business fall victim to one of these threats?

In June, the Home Office released its Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 report, detailing the most common cyberattacks experienced by UK small businesses in H2 2024. Here are the most common ways hackers attempted to gain money or data from UK small businesses last year:

• Phishing: 85% of businesses that reported cyberattacks identified phishing as a key threat. These scams trick employees into clicking on fake links – often via email – and inadvertently handing over sensitive data. Now powered by AI, phishing tactics are getting smarter than ever and more difficult to spot.
• Employee impersonation: More than half (51%) of businesses said hackers had posed as company employees to deceive their ‘colleagues’ into handing over information.
• Malware on company devices: While AI-powered scams today grab the headlines, malware is still very much present and very much a threat. Many small businesses reported that viruses and spyware had been installed on company devices, enabling valuable data to be syphoned off.
• Business bank account targeting: Nearly 1 in 10 small businesses that suffered cyberattacks in the second half of 2024 said their online banking accounts had been targeted, directly threatening their finances and financial data.
• Ransomware: A successful ransomware attack can be extremely lucrative for cybercriminals, and devasting for small businesses. Ransomware, which steals sensitive company data and demands payment for its return, is a continued threat for small businesses in 2025.

Don't take the risk: Defend your business data before it's too late

How to stop your small business falling victim to a cyberattack

All the hacking methods outlined in the Home Office report are potentially ruinous to a small business, so it’s vitally important that defences are in place to protect against these attacks. But how? It’s unrealistic to expect employees to be on constant alert against cyberattacks, especially with AI now making the threats much more difficult to spot – and that’s why business-grade security software is a must. 

If you’re going to place the defence of your business in the care of another, it needs to be someone you can trust. Norton is a renowned brand in the security sector, with a long-standing reputation for its powerful antivirus tools and professionalism.

Armed with the Norton Small Business or Small Business Premium security suite, you’ll instantly upgrade your company’s ability to defend itself from today’s scary digital threats.

The always-on Norton antivirus protection means your staff will not be caught with their guard down, while a dedicated firewall helps keeps at bay cyberthreats to your business devices. An encrypted vault for passwords and company credit card details, plus up to 500GB of secure cloud storage, helps you prevent sensitive business data falling into the wrong hands.

Social media monitoring helps you avoid damage to your business reputation, with notifications to suspicious activities like fake posts appearing on your profiles. You’ll also get alerts for suspicious financial transactions, sent out if anything unusual is spotted on your business bank accounts, helping you to protect your company from fraud.

Your employees are able to work safer online, even remotely, with the VPN and a secure browser encrypting data. A dark web monitoring feature scans the nastier regions of the web for compromised personal and company data that could put  your company or employees at risk.

Small businesses may not have their own dedicated IT teams, so 24/7 business tech support from Norton Small Business experts can put your mind at ease should you run into IT issues. The Norton Small Business suite will also ensure automatic software updates for Windows PCs take place to patch possible security vulnerabilities, while optimising business PCs for security and productivity.

Defend your small business with Norton

There are enough things to worry about when you run a small business. With Norton Small Business, online security doesn’t have to be one of them.

The Standard edition costs £54.99 for up to three employees, £69.99 for up to five employees, and £99.99 for up to 10 employees. Step up to Norton Small Business Premium to enjoy 24/7 Business Tech Support, Secure VPN, Financial and Social Media Monitoring, Driver Updater and 500GB of secure Cloud Backup online storage; it costs £149.99 for up to five employees, and £199.99 for up to 10 employees. All prices are for the first year.

Right now, PCWorld readers can take advantage of a rare 30% discount, unlocking Norton Small Business from just £38.50/year, and Norton Small Business Premium from just £105/year. Just enter the code PCWNSBP at checkout to take advantage.

You can also try Norton Small Business before you subscribe, thanks to a 30-day trial.