Cybersecurity Best Practices for UK Businesses: A 2025 Checklist

The Skills That Strengthen Cyber Resilience

Cyber incidents in 2025 have shown just how quickly a single weak point can cascade into disruption. Retailers, manufacturers, and even early-years providers have faced weeks of downtime, reputational damage, and millions in recovery costs.

These incidents have again demonstrated that cyber resilience depends on people as much as technology. Across every sector, investigations by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) have traced breaches back to preventable operational gaps – missed updates, rushed verification, or unclear responsibility.

In the wake of the numerous high-profile cyber-attacks in 2025, both the UK Government and the NCSC have released new guidelines for cybersecurity best practices that organisations should adhere to. The Cyber Governance Code of Practice (April 2025) and the NCSC’s Cyber Security Culture Principles both highlight a growing national priority: organisations need people who understand how to apply security in practice.

This checklist sets out eight skill areas that define strong cyber capability in 2025. Each reflects current government and NCSC guidance and aligns with the practical, embedded approach Baltic uses across its Cyber-First IT Apprenticeships, where cybersecurity awareness is woven through every module rather than treated as a standalone subject.

1. Governance and Leadership

The Cyber Governance Code of Practice (April 2025) makes clear that boards and senior leaders are now directly accountable for managing cyber resilience – setting expectations, allocating resources, and overseeing performance.

Strong governance provides the structure that enables every other part of cybersecurity to function effectively. When leadership takes ownership of cyber risk – aligning it with strategy, risk appetite, and long-term planning – operational teams can act with confidence and purpose.

Key skills:

• Linking cyber risk to strategic priorities, continuity, and reputation.
• Assigning clear accountability for cybersecurity across leadership roles.
• Interpreting assurance data and audit findings to guide investment.
• Ensuring that staff capability and resourcing match organisational risk.

2. Security Culture and Awareness

The ways that people approach risk are just as important as having the right technical measures in place. This means having a culture that supports doing the right thing, from leadership and communication to usability and psychological safety.

Incidents often escalate when warning signs go unnoticed or unreported. The NCSC notes that employees may hesitate to speak up if they fear blame or lack confidence in the process. A culture that encourages openness allows concerns to surface early, making it easier to contain problems before they spread.

Key skills:

• Recognising and responding appropriately to phishing, impersonation, and social-engineering attempts.
• Understanding how individual actions and decisions influence organisational risk.
• Reporting mistakes or suspicious activity quickly and constructively.
• Reviewing and simplifying processes so secure behaviour is the easiest option.

With those foundations in place, responsibility shifts to the technical teams who design, configure, and maintain the systems that keep data secure. The next sections explore the specialist skills that turn awareness into capability.

4. Verification and Troubleshooting

The helpdesk remains one of the most targeted areas for social engineering – and recent UK incidents have shown how easily an attacker can gain access by persuading support staff to reset credentials or disclose information under pressure. Clear procedures for verification and troubleshooting are among the simplest and most effective ways to prevent that.

Key skills:

• Applying structured troubleshooting frameworks such as the CompTIA Troubleshooting Methodology.
• Verifying identity through multiple, independent checks.
• Recognising indicators of compromise like repeated authentication failures or abnormal process activity.
• Recording each action clearly and accurately to support audit, accountability, and continuous improvement.

5. Configuration and Asset Management

Many security incidents stem from poor visibility of assets or outdated system configurations.

Organisations cannot protect what they cannot see. Unrecorded devices, unmanaged software, and inconsistent patching create entry points that attackers readily exploit. Maintaining control over configuration is one of the simplest and most effective forms of risk reduction.

Key skills:

• Maintaining accurate, continuously updated asset inventories with clear ownership and purpose.
• Applying vendor baselines and removing unnecessary privileges or services.
• Scheduling and testing patch deployment to reduce exposure without disrupting operations.
• Validating data backup and restoration processes as part of regular maintenance cycles.

6. Network Security and Infrastructure Design

The structure of a network often defines the limits of an incident. Design decisions made early define how resilient an organisation will be when its defences are tested.

The NCSC’s guidance on Network Security highlights that segmentation, access control, and secure configuration are central to limiting the spread of attacks once they occur. A well-structured network reduces the opportunities for lateral movement and helps incidents to be detected and contained quickly.

Key skills:

• Designing segmented network topologies that align with business policy.
• Implementing access control through firewalls, VLANs, and role-based permissions.
• Using encryption and VPNs to secure communication across locations.
• Monitoring and analysing network activity to detect anomalies early.

7. Cloud and Hybrid Systems Security

Cloud environments now underpin most UK business operations, connecting on-premises systems with third-party platforms and remote users. This flexibility also creates more potential entry points for attackers.

Poorly managed cloud platforms can introduce serious vulnerabilities – from misconfigured permissions to exposed data storage. Teams need the skills to maintain visibility and apply the same security principles across every environment.

Key skills:

• Configuring cloud services according to vendor and NCSC best practice.
• Managing identity federation and enforcing multi-factor authentication.
• Encrypting data in transit and at rest.
• Coordinating updates and permissions across connected systems.

8. Workforce Development and Continuous Skills Growth

The UK continues to face a national cybersecurity skills gap, with demand for skilled professionals far exceeding supply.

Government research shows that nearly half of UK organisations still lack staff capable of performing core cybersecurity best practices such as patch management or data protection. Building capability internally is now critical to long-term cyber resilience.

Cybersecurity is not static. Tools evolve, threats shift, and staff turnover can erode knowledge quickly. Cybersecurity training delivered through structured programmes – such as cybersecurity apprenticeships – helps organisations embed these skills in their IT teams and close the gap between policy and practice.

Key skills:

• Establishing structured development and progression pathways for IT teams.
• Supporting certifications such as CompTIA Security+ and Cyber Essentials Plus.
• Encouraging peer learning, mentoring, and knowledge-sharing.
• Embedding security principles into recruitment, onboarding, and performance management.

Baltic’s Cyber-First IT Apprenticeships are designed to address this skills gap directly.

At Level 3, learners establish the fundamentals of secure troubleshooting, configuration, and verification. At Level 4, they progress to designing, maintaining, and governing secure infrastructure – including hybrid systems and recovery planning. Each stage builds the applied knowledge, judgement, and confidence needed to manage cyber risk in practice.

This sustained approach creates long-term value for employers and contributes to a wider national goal: developing a workforce capable of protecting the UK’s digital infrastructure from within.

Closing the Cyber Skills Gap

The events of 2025 have shown that cybersecurity remains, above all, a question of capability.
Technical controls continue to evolve, but most breaches still begin with the same problems: human error, unclear accountability, and gaps in day-to-day practice. Building cyber resilience therefore depends on developing people who understand both the technology they use and the risks that come with it.

The eight skill areas outlined in this checklist the cybersecurity best practices every organisation needs to sustain protection in a changing threat landscape – from leadership and governance to secure configuration, recovery planning, and ongoing development. Together, they represent the practical steps that turn cybersecurity from a technical specialism into a shared organisational discipline.

Baltic’s Cyber-First IT Apprenticeships are built around these same principles. By embedding cyber awareness and secure practice across every module, they help employers strengthen their defences through people who can apply what they learn directly in the workplace.

As more organisations invest in cybersecurity training, the collective result is a stronger and more resilient digital economy, closing the cybersecurity skills gap and building an environment where security is sustained not just by systems, but by the people who manage them.