The UK must urgently strengthen its defences against a rapidly escalating wave of cyber threats, Security Minister Dan Jarvis told business and tech leaders gathered at Westminster for the Cybersecurity Business Network’s first Parliament and Cyber conference.
In a speech, Jarvis said Britain is entering an era where cybercrime is expanding so quickly that its global economic footprint would make it the world’s third-largest economy, and scams alone could cost $27 trillion a year by 2027, according to Microsoft’s Digital Defence Report.
Jarvis traced Parliament’s “Technology Gap” through the centuries, pointing out how Britain’s democratic institutions have lagged behind every major wave of innovation.
The printing press took more than 400 years to be fully embraced; broadcast media required almost a century; even computers and the internet arrived slowly, with MPs only getting connected in 1994.
Today, however, he said Parliament’s Information and Technology Strategy finally treats digital transformation as a necessity rather than an inconvenience. That shift matters, he argued, because the pace of technological change, and its associated vulnerabilities, is accelerating.
The stakes are enormous. Jarvis highlighted global statistics showing cybercrime has ballooned into an industry so large that, if considered a national economy, it would rank as the world’s third largest.
He cited Microsoft’s Digital Defence Report warning that annual scam-related losses could reach $27 trillion by 2027, a figure that underscores the severe economic toll cyberattacks pose to businesses, governments and citizens alike.
Behind those numbers lies a darker reality: police are confronting increasingly harmful forms of cyber-enabled abuse, from account hacking to the trading of intimate images of women and children, and even hybrid criminal groups that blur the line between online and real-world violence.
The minister emphasised that British businesses, particularly its “world-leading” sectors, sit directly in the crosshairs. Companies should assume not if they will face a cyberattack, but when. This mindset shift, he argued, must be matched by stronger defences and greater technical resilience.
To that end, Jarvis spotlighted the government’s growing portfolio of actions, starting with the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill introduced to Parliament just weeks ago.
Designed to bolster protections across essential services and streamline incident responses, the legislation forms part of a broader architecture that includes the Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan, aimed at combating foreign operations targeting Britain’s democratic institutions.
Jarvis also pointed to new practical support for businesses through the National Cyber Security Centre. Tools such as the Cyber Action Toolkit, launched last month, help sole traders and small companies take their first steps toward cyber hygiene.
The Cyber Essentials certification programme provides an assurance benchmark against common threats, while more than 13,000 organisations now subscribe to the free Early Warning service, which alerts users to potential attacks.
These efforts will culminate in next year’s National Cyber Action Plan, which will outline how the UK intends to strengthen resilience and counter the next wave of technological risks.
But the minister stressed that government action alone is not enough. Last month, the UK wrote to CEOs of FTSE 350 firms urging them to take cyber risks seriously at the board level.
With the domestic cyber industry generating more than £13 billion annually, Jarvis argued that strengthening cyber defences is both a national-security imperative and an economic opportunity.
Companies that invest in security strengthen not just themselves but the broader digital ecosystem.
Reflecting on Parliament’s historical reluctance to embrace new tools, Jarvis concluded that technological avoidance is simply no longer possible.
Today, technology underpins everything from democratic transparency to business performance and personal safety. and that interconnectedness also creates openings for hostile actors. He praised the tech sector leaders in the room for setting high standards and urged the rest of British industry to follow suit.
“Technology enhances everything we do,” he reminded the audience. “But this interconnection between technology and society can be exploited by those who seek to cause us harm.”
His message was unmistakable: the UK must act decisively, and collectively, to guard against the cyber threats that are already shaping the world of tomorrow.
