The Government Cyber Action Plan was recently introduced to parliament to better protect the UK’s vital public services. The plan sets out steps to bolster cyber defences for the services that are relied on daily. As the new year begins, the focus for organisations that fall within these regulations must be on ensuring cyber resilience, suggests NetScout – both internally and for their supply digital supply chain, before they become the target of an attack.

While organisations have traditionally prepared for attacks from cyber criminals, the growing threat for 2026 is being caught in the crossfire of geopolitically driven cyberattacks. Unfortunately, the democratisation of sophisticated attack tools and services has made it easier for threat actors to generate attacks whilst obfuscating their true source.

Darren Anstee, chief technology officer for security at NetScout, explains why 2026 requires continued evolution in defensive strategy:

“The introduction of the Government Cyber Action Plan is an acknowledgement that as geopolitical tensions heighten, elevated levels of cybersecurity vigilance are required from every organisation, especially those involved in the delivery of key public services. For example, geopolitics has long been a driver of DDoS attack activity, but threat actors are targeting more intelligently, moving on from targeting government websites directly to hitting supporting service enablers and digital supply chains.”

“A big change we have seen in 2025 is the immediacy of the relationship between real-world tensions and cyber activity. Attacks are now launched to coincide with individual political speeches or specific military operations. Private and public sector organisations can easily become collateral damage in geopolitically motivated attack campaigns.”

“More sophisticated attack tools and the emergence of next-generation ‘DDoS-as-a-Service’ capabilities have removed barriers to entry to sophisticated attack capabilities, giving threat actors the ability to easily orchestrate complex campaigns. For defenders, this makes real-time intelligence** and adaptive defences more critical than ever.”

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Categories: Articles, Broadband

Tags: ddos, NetScout