The latest figures from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) make for worrying reading for life sciences organisations. According to recently released data, the organisation saw a 600% rise in cyberattacks in 2025, with many of the threats originating from emerging technologies such as AI and quantum computing.
AI might be transforming the way UK life sciences organisations innovate, but it’s also rapidly becoming one of the major threats to the industry's security. Every part of the sector, from pharmaceutical companies and biotech firms to medtech businesses and healthcare device manufacturers, is now a target for increasingly sophisticated AI-powered cyber attacks. As incidents become faster, more targeted, and increasingly difficult to detect with traditional security methods, we look at what life sciences businesses in the UK need to prepare for in 2026.
The background
The last official statistics from The Department for Science, Innovation & Technology’s Cyber security breaches survey 2025 reveal that 43% of businesses reported a cyber security breach during the 12 months to June 2025. That’s approximately 612,000 businesses, with medium and large businesses (67% medium and 74% large) being affected the most, prompting the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to warn organisations that they are at risk if they fail to modernise their cyber resilience strategies. Ransomware, phishing and identity-based attacks pose the most disruptive threats.
What has altered this year is the speed, automation and precision that AI now offers attackers. This has prompted life sciences organisations to reassess their cyber resilience to ensure that sensitive research, patient records, intellectual property and highly regulated data is protected. For organisations within the sector, 2026 must be the year that cyber resilience becomes as important as scientific innovation.
Why AI has changed cybersecurity requirements
Life sciences businesses are high-value targets for cybercriminals seeking patient and clinical trial data, as well as intellectual property linked to drug and device development. Organisations in this highly regulated sector not only depend on uninterrupted manufacturing and research activities but are beginning to rely more heavily on the interconnectedness of medical and laboratory technologies, the disruption of which can have severe consequences for supply chains, healthcare delivery and patient outcomes.
In the past, cyber threats required criminals to invest significant time, skill and manual effort. AI has completely changed that, enabling them to automate many aspects of their attacks. The AI Security Institute (AISI) recently noted that ‘frontier’ AI models, currently the most advanced, can already perform tasks faster, more accurately and in greater volume than any human, and the NCSC has issued a warning that AI will ‘almost certainly’ increase both the impact and number of cyber attacks against organisations in the UK.
In practice, this means that cyber criminals can now easily:
- Automate every stage of an attack
- Immediately identify vulnerabilities
- Create adaptive malware that evolves during an attack
- Quickly and cheaply launch ransomware campaigns
- Generate highly convincing personalised phishing campaigns
- Clone identities for fraud attempts
- Create deepfake video content
- Analyse public company data to personalise attacks
- Infiltrate networks
- Extract data and rapidly analyse it.
In the wake of attacks such as the recent UK Biobank breach, in which the medical information of over 500,000 volunteers was offered for sale online in China, the UK government has reissued warnings that AI-driven threats are becoming increasingly commercially available, meaning that even hackers with limited cyber skills can launch destructive campaigns. And with AI tools enabling attackers to adapt their campaigns in real time, traditional perimeter security approaches are no longer sufficient.
Deepfake concerns
One of the most significant concerns for life sciences organisations at the moment is the rise of AI-generated impersonation attacks. This form of generative AI content enables criminals to impersonate employees at an organisation, replicating their voices and physical appearances in videos and producing emails that are realistic enough to bypass standard verification procedures. A recent survey suggests that 62% of organisations experienced a deepfake attack involving social engineering, but fewer than half are adequately prepared to respond effectively.
This can impact life sciences organisations in many ways, including:
- Fraudulent supplier payments
- Fake procurement requests
- False communication from regulators or research partners
- Executive impersonation during M&A activity or investment rounds
- Recruitment fraud
- Data theft
- Manipulation of clinical trial documentation
- Stolen research data
- AI-generated misinformation is affecting public trust.
One possible cause of this increase is that hybrid working models, which are both common and popular in the UK, have increased the difficulty and likelihood of verifying a person’s identity, making these social engineering attacks more effective.
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has stressed the importance of stronger governance, authentication controls and identity validation in organisations as their use of AI technologies increases.
Ransomware attacks
With almost 60% of UK companies reporting ransomware attacks in 2024, ransomware remains a serious and disruptive concern for life sciences organisations, and AI exacerbates the volume and impact of the threat. The average payment for ransomware attacks in the UK is around £435,000. However, current government advice is that organisations should not pay to avoid Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) sanctions, which can result in up to 7 years’ imprisonment for making a payment to a sanctioned entity. The reattack rate for organisations that do pay is currently around 80%, and many UK insurers exclude ransomware from cover, making prevention especially important.
AI-powered ransomware criminals are able to:
- Automatically scan networks
- Identify high-value systems
- Tailor ransom demands according to company's finances
- Exploit vulnerabilities immediately
- Automatically spread ransomware across an internal network.
For life sciences organisations in particular, ransomware can have catastrophic operational consequences, including research disruptions, manufacturing downtime, delayed clinical trials, concerns over patient safety, supply chain failures, and regulatory breaches. In the face of such potential disruption and the increase of ransomware incidents, the NCSC has recently advised businesses to ensure that their backup and recovery strategies are robust and up-to-date.
Risks to connected devices
With more interconnectedness between devices across healthcare and life sciences environments, cyber risks are creating additional vulnerabilities. An increase in smart manufacturing and laboratory equipment, IoT infrastructure, connected medical devices, cloud-based diagnostic platforms and digital patient technologies means that cyber risks now extend beyond traditional IT systems, allowing AI-generated attacks to rapidly exploit weak spots. Operational Technology is one of the most-targeted industries, with over 2,073 ransomware attacks in the 12 months to March 2025.
Cyber attackers are now employing AI to:
- Identify which connected devices are vulnerable
- Exploit obsolete firmware
- Target weaknesses in supply chains
- Launch automated credential attacks
- Manipulate connected systems.
This has the potential to cause manufacturing shutdowns, delay product distribution, disrupt research, result in compliance breaches, pose safety risks, and create supply chain instability. Despite NHS Cyber Security Guidelines, organisations that work with patient data or operate within regulated healthcare systems risk substantial legal and reputational damage if they have not built resilience into their connected systems.
Intellectual property and research
According to the Office for Life Sciences, the UK’s life sciences sector generates £147 billion in annual turnover and is classed as the fourth most innovative economy, globally. The legal rights that intellectual property (IP) brings are vital to protecting commercially valuable innovations across the whole sector. However, as the technology to develop medical devices, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostics, and digital health advances, so does the potential for breaches of vital information.
Cybercriminals and hostile actors are utilising AI to target:
- Drug development research
- Clinical trial data
- Manufacturing systems
- Genomics platforms
- Supply chain issues
- Proprietary algorithms.
Cyber attacks are now aimed at stealing firms’ intellectual property and carrying out industrial espionage, rather than being purely financially motivated, which can have a devastating commercial effect on an organisation, especially when so much money is being invested in R&D.
A widening cybersecurity skills gap
One of the most significant challenges facing UK life sciences organisations today is having access to specialist cybersecurity talent. With AI-powered threats evolving faster than most organisations can recruit or train talent to combat them, the demand for individuals with both cybersecurity and life sciences experience is growing rapidly.
Life sciences organisations increasingly need professionals who are familiar with:
- Cybersecurity frameworks
- Data protection
- AI risk management and implementation
- Regulatory compliance
- Healthcare data protection
- Cloud and infrastructure resilience
- Operational technology security
- Threat intelligence
- Incident response.
The demand for highly skilled, specialist cyber talent is already high across the UK and, with these skills remaining in short supply, the competition to recruit such individuals is intense. Many UK life sciences organisations are failing to keep pace with evolving AI-powered threats to their businesses and must rethink their recruitment strategies to avoid catastrophic outcomes.
What can life sciences organisations do?
With over 28 million AI-powered cyber attacks taking place last year, and the average cost of a data breach now standing at £4.27 million, it’s not something that life science organisations can afford to ignore.
To strengthen their resilience against AI-powered cyber attacks, life science organisations should focus on several key areas:
Modernise legacy infrastructure
Legacy systems can be one of the most vulnerable areas of life sciences organisations. Priorities should include:
- Cloud systems upgrades
- Continuous monitoring
- Endpoint detection and response (EDR)
- AI-enabled threat detection
- Network segmentation
- Automatic patch management
Strengthen workforce awareness
With AI-powered phishing and impersonation attacks targeting employees directly, greater awareness is needed to block the most common entry points. Organisations should consider:
- Continuous security training
- Simulated phishing and deepfake exercises
- Executive fraud prevention training
- Identify verification processes
- Secure data handling
- Clear incident escalation procedures
Ensure cyber resilience
Cybersecurity isn’t simply about prevention. Organisations also need to develop robust response mechanisms, including:
- Incident response planning
- Business continuity testing and procedures
- Disaster recovery capability testing
- Cyber insurance reviews
- Crisis communication frameworks
- Executive-level crisis management preparation.
The government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022–2030 is a good starting point for understanding the resilience priorities that UK businesses are expected to adopt.
Invest in talent
Technology on its own won’t solve the problem of AI-powered cyber attacks. Life sciences organisations need access to professionals who can understand both the technical aspects of AI-driven threats and the requirements of this highly regulated sector. This means individuals such as:
- Security architects
- SOC analysts
- OT security specialists
- AI governance experts
- Cloud security engineers
- Compliance-focused cyber professionals.
Across all areas of the life sciences, recruiting and retaining tech talent is now becoming a major strategic priority.
The importance of cyber talent in life sciences
As AI-powered cybercrime continues to affect the life sciences, cybersecurity has become a priority for UK organisations. This year, firms across the entire sector must invest in proactive cyber resilience and modern infrastructure and, most importantly, reinforce their specialist technology talent.
This is where nufuture can add real value to your organisation. With extensive expertise across both life sciences and technology, we help life sciences firms to secure the skilled cybersecurity and AI professionals that they need to strengthen their resilience, support regulatory compliance, protect vital innovation and ensure that they are fit for increasingly complex future threats.
For more information about how nufuture can support your organisation in attracting the technology talent you need to combat cybercrime in all its forms, contact us.