Ransomware remains one of the most disruptive cyber threats facing UK organisations going into 2026. Attacks have become more targeted, automated and financially motivated, with SMEs often bearing the brunt. Yet despite increased awareness, most ransomware incidents still succeed through preventable weaknesses, poor backups, weak passwords, unpatched software, or a single employee clicking the wrong link.
This guide gives UK businesses a practical ransomware prevention checklist that goes beyond generic advice. Each step is something you can act on today, building real resilience across people, technology, and processes.
Why Ransomware Remains a Top Threat in 2026
Cyber criminals now operate with the sophistication of legitimate businesses. They share tools, sell data, outsource attack stages, and continually refine tactics to bypass traditional defences. This “cybercrime economy” is projected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually, representing a transfer of wealth so significant it would rank as the world’s third-largest economy.The tactics driving this growth are becoming increasingly commonplace:
MFA Fatigue and Evasion
While Multi-Factor Authentication remains essential, it’s no longer a silver bullet. Attackers are bypassing these controls with increasing success; in 2025, confirmed “MFA fatigue” (push bombing) and session hijacking techniques have surged, with reports indicating that 90% of successful breaches now involve some form of credential manipulation or lateral movement that evades initial authentication layers.Supply Chain Compromise
Attackers are aggressively targeting the weakest link in the corporate ecosystem. Recent 2025 data reveals a 20% increase in supply chain attacks, as threat actors bypass fortified corporate networks by hijacking less-secure third-party vendors and software providers.Double Extortion
The ransomware model has shifted, and it’s no longer just about locking systems; it’s about leverage. Ransomware attacks in 2025 now increasingly use double extortion tactics, exfiltrating sensitive data to threaten a public leak before encrypting the files. This ensures that even if a company has strong backups, the threat of reputational damage remains a potent bargaining chip.SMEs are hit hardest because they often:
- Lack dedicated cyber teams
- Rely on ageing infrastructure
- Underestimate the importance of secure backups
- Have inconsistent endpoint security
- Don’t train staff regularly
Ransomware doesn’t discriminate by sector, location, or size. It targets opportunity. This checklist helps eliminate those opportunities.
The 2026 Ransomware Prevention Checklist (Step-by-Step)
Below is a practical, sequential checklist for improving ransomware protection across your organisation. You can implement these steps gradually or as part of a structured project with your IT partner.
Step 1: Strengthen Endpoint Security
Endpoint devices (laptops, desktops, mobiles) are the most common entry point for ransomware. Strengthening them immediately raises your protection level.Key actions:
- Enforce regular patching and updates: Ransomware operators aggressively exploit known vulnerabilities. Delayed patching is one of the most common root causes of compromise.
- Use advanced endpoint security rather than basic antivirus: Modern EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) tools detect suspicious behaviour, not just malware signatures.
- Apply least privilege access: Most ransomware spreads using admin permissions that shouldn’t exist. Tightening access reduces the blast radius dramatically.
- Remove or restrict unsafe features: Disable macros, risky scripting tools and unnecessary software where possible.
Strong endpoint hygiene underpins most managed cyber security models, because compromised devices are still the most common entry point for ransomware attacks.
Step 2: Implement Secure Backups (The 3-2-1+ Approach
Secure backups are your last line of defence against ransomware and the strongest factor in whether a business recovers quickly or at all.Your backup strategy should include:
- Three copies of your data (production and two backups)
- Two different storage types (local and cloud)
- One offsite or offline copy (immutable if possible).
Modern ransomware increasingly targets backups first, so offline or immutable backups are essential.
Just as important: test your restores. If you’ve never restored critical systems, you cannot assume they’ll work during a crisis.
For many organisations, this forms part of a broader business continuity and disaster recovery approach, where secure data backup and recovery are designed specifically to withstand ransomware attacks.
Step 3: Apply Multi-Layer Email and Identity Security
Most ransomware infections begin with a phishing email or compromised account. Strengthening identity security has one of the highest ROI-to-effort ratios.Actions to take:
- Enforce MFA everywhere: Preferably phishing-resistant authentication for admin accounts.
- Block legacy authentication protocols: Many ransomware tools rely on outdated login methods still active across SMEs.
- Use modern email filtering and scanning tools: Advanced filtering catches malicious payloads and impersonation attempts.
- Apply Conditional Access policies: Set rules for where, when and how users can access corporate data.
Identity is increasingly the real perimeter for organisations heading into 2026, which is why access control now sits at the intersection of cyber security, day-to-day IT operations, and infrastructure management.
Step 4: Reduce Lateral Movement with Network Segmentation
Ransomware rarely stops at a single device. Once inside, it attempts to move laterally across your network, escalating privileges and identifying high-value targets.Simple segmentation steps make this much harder:
- Separate critical infrastructure from general user devices
- Apply firewall rules between departments or VLANs
- Restrict service accounts and machine-to-machine access
- Monitor unusual internal traffic.
Zero Trust is a long-term goal, but even “Zero Trust Lite” dramatically cuts risk and is often implemented gradually through routine infrastructure and IT management work.
Step 5: Invest in Cyber Awareness Training That Actually Works
Technology alone won’t stop ransomware, and people are still the most common attack route.Effective cyber awareness training should:
- Be continuous, not once a year
- Include phishing simulations
- Teach employees to “stop, verify, escalate”
- Show real-world examples of ransomware emails and MFA fatigue attacks.
Training that changes behaviour is far more effective than box-ticking courses, because attackers rely on habit, speed, and distraction.
Step 6: Improve Visibility with 24/7 Monitoring and Alerting
Ransomware rarely detonates immediately. In many cases, attackers spend days or weeks exploring your systems before launching an attack.To catch them early, you need:
- Continuous log monitoring
- Behaviour-based detection
- Alert triage
- A defined incident response playbook.
This type of ransomware protection is built on continuous monitoring and proactive vulnerability scanning, rather than relying on reactive alerts alone.
Step 7: Test Your Defences with Realistic Scenarios
Ransomware response is not theoretical. Teams must practise.Helpful activities include:
- Tabletop exercises (“What would we do if…?”)
- Ransomware simulation or red-team style assessments
- Testing backup restores under time pressure
- Reviewing communication and escalation policies.
These exercises reveal gaps in process, not just technology, and often prompt wider conversations about risk ownership and long-term resilience planning.
Step 8: Keep a Simple, Human-First Recovery Plan
Ransomware incidents are chaotic, and the more complex your plan, the less likely it will be followed.Your plan should outline:
- Who makes decisions
- Who communicates with staff, customers and regulators
- Who isolates affected systems
- How and when to restore backups
- When to escalate to legal, insurance, or the ICO.
Even a one-page plan is better than none at all, as most ransomware responses fail due to uncertainty rather than lack of tools.
2026 Ransomware Tactics to Watch Out For
While exact trends will evolve, UK businesses should stay alert to:
These threats underscore the need for strong identity security, monitoring, and secure backups.
- MFA Fatigue and Push-Bombing: Attackers flood users with MFA prompts, hoping they approve one by accident.
- Deepfake-Based Social Engineering: AI-generated voices now mimic CEOs, suppliers and finance contacts, making social engineering a real risk in 2026.
- Supply Chain Infiltration: Compromising IT partners or software vendors to reach multiple targets at once.
- Data Theft Before Encryption: Modern ransomware always steals data first, creating data breach liabilities.
- Targeting of Backups and Cloud Services: Backups, hypervisors and SaaS accounts are now being hit early in the attack chain.
These threats underscore the need for strong identity security, monitoring, and secure backups.
Quick Wins You Can Implement This Week
Even without a full project rollout, you can immediately reduce ransomware risk by:
Small actions can significantly reduce your attack surface.
- Enabling MFA for all accounts
- Patching critical vulnerabilities
- Testing at least one backup restore
- Removing unused admin privileges
- Running a phishing simulation for staff.
Small actions can significantly reduce your attack surface.
How Nexus Can Help
Ransomware resilience isn’t built through a single tool or one-off project. It comes from consistent improvements across how systems are configured, how access is managed, how data is protected, and how people respond under pressure.
Nexus works with UK businesses to strengthen those foundations in practical, achievable steps. Whether that means tightening endpoint controls, improving cloud backup resilience, increasing visibility across systems or helping teams prepare for real-world incidents, our focus is always on reducing risk without adding unnecessary complexity.
Rather than selling point solutions, we help organisations prioritise what matters most based on their environment, resources and risk profile.
Book a free consultation today to review your ransomware defences and identify your next best step.
Article Sources
- Cybersecurity Ventures. Cybercrime To Cost The World $10.5 Trillion Annually By 2025. November 13th, 2020
- Wikipedia. Lateral movement (cybersecurity). Accessed December 12th, 2025
- Insurance Business UK. Global cyberattacks rise sharply as supply chains prove most vulnerable, says QBE. June 9th, 2025
- The Hacker News. Top 3 Ransomware Threats Active in 2025. Feb 6th, 2025
- UK Government. Red Teaming Handbook. Accessed December 12th, 2025