The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has given rise to, and supported, a vibrant professional security industry through its certification schemes. Their Check Team leader exam set an early global benchmark for professional hackers and penetration testers. The NCSC has also been a strong advocate for the adoption of the Cyber Essentials scheme, which is now widely used by UK businesses to demonstrate their cyber security posture.
The UK government has invested heavily in cyber security research and development, with initiatives such as the Cyber Security Research Institute and the National Cyber Security Programme. These efforts have helped to foster innovation and collaboration between academia, industry, and government agencies.
OECDEU-AccessionUNIMFWBNATOG7G20CPTPP
Publishing
National CERT
National Cyber Security Centre (UK)
86.0
Cyber resilience rating
A · Strong · first pass, 3 of 7 pillars
28th
Bloch Index rank
of 191 countries · score 68.8
First pass. This rating covers 3 of the methodology's 7 pillars, scored from evidence we already hold (treaty and adequacy registers, our own CERT list and collector, and passive checks of two government websites per country). It is a starting point, not a verdict: the remaining pillars, a wider government-domain sample and corrections from the countries themselves will move it edition by edition. Version v0.1 first pass, cut-off 2026-10-26.
Our cyber reasoning
The Cyber Risk Barometer rates countries on protection in practice, not on paper: each indicator is a public, checkable fact or something we measure ourselves. The seven pillars, their fixed weights and the A to E bands are set out in the methodology before any country is scored. This page shows every indicator we hold for United Kingdom, with the evidence behind it.
How the rating is built
Each pillar is scored 0 to 100 from its indicators. The rating is the weighted mean of the pillars scored so far, on the fixed weights published in the methodology. The 4 pillars not yet scored are left out and the weights renormalised, so this is a preview, 3 of 7 pillars.
Pillar
Weight
Score
Points
Gold-standard data protection
20
85.0
34.0
National CERT in action
15
100.0
30.0
Government cyber hygiene, measured
15
73.3
22.0
Weighted mean
86.0
Cyber resilience rating
86.0 · A Strong
Gold-standard data protection
20% of the rating
85/ 100 · 17 of 20 points
Is the country bound by Convention 108/108+, or recognised by the EU or UK as giving equivalent protection?
Sources: Council of Europe Treaty Office; European Commission and ICO adequacy lists.
National CERT in action
15% of the rating
100/ 100 · 9 of 9 measurable points (15 in all)
Is there a national CERT, and is it visibly working? Three of the six indicators are measured today from our own list and collector; the other three are still to be measured. Our daily collector reads every working feed, so "publishing" is observed, not declared.
Indicator
Evidence
Points
✓ A national (government-designated) CERT/CSIRT existsP2.EXISTS
· It publishes regularly (12 or more items in the last 12 months)P2.REGULAR
Not yet measured
– / 2
· It publishes an annual report or statisticsP2.REPORT
Not yet measured
– / 2
National Cyber Security Centre (UK) · National cyber agency · Europe · languages en · website · news · alerts · feed · status: feed ok Report feed stale (latest 2025-05-07).
Sources: Our national-CERT list (FIRST teams directory plus hand-added teams) and our daily feed collector; status checked 2026-10-26.
Government cyber hygiene, measured
15% of the rating
73/ 100 · 11 of 15 points
Do the country's own government websites and email domains follow basic security practice? First-pass sample: the national CERT's and the data protection authority's websites.
Indicator
Evidence
Points
✓ DMARC at p=quarantine or p=rejectP6.DMARC
2 of 2 domains pass: www.ncsc.gov.uk, ico.org.uk checked 2026-10-26
4 / 4
✓ SPF record present and not +allP6.SPF
2 of 2 domains pass: www.ncsc.gov.uk, ico.org.uk checked 2026-10-26
2 / 2
✗ DNSSEC: zone signed (DS record)P6.DNSSEC
0 of 2 domains pass: none checked 2026-10-26
0 / 3
✓ HTTPS front page with a valid certificateP6.HTTPS
2 of 2 domains pass: www.ncsc.gov.uk, ico.org.uk checked 2026-10-26
3 / 3
✓ Strict-Transport-Security headerP6.HSTS
2 of 2 domains pass: www.ncsc.gov.uk, ico.org.uk checked 2026-10-26
1 / 1
½ security.txt with a contactP6.SECTXT
1 of 2 domains pass: www.ncsc.gov.uk checked 2026-10-26
1 / 2
Domains sampled
Domain
DMARC
SPF
DNSSEC
HTTPS
HSTS
security.txt
www.ncsc.gov.ukNational Cyber Security Centre (UK) · national CERT
✓
✓
✗
✓
✓
✓
ico.org.ukInformation Commission (formerly Information Commissioner's Office, ICO) · data protection authority
✓
✓
✗
✓
✓
✗
A first-pass sample of the two government bodies most responsible for cyber and privacy. Passive lookups only: DNS records and the HTTPS front page.
Sources: Our own passive DNS and HTTPS checks of government domains.
Still to be scored
50% of the rating
4pillars to come
These pillars are defined in the methodology with fixed weights and yes / partial / no indicators against a fixed standard. They appear here, with every indicator and its evidence, as each is scored.
Pillar
Weight
Main sources
Citizens' rights protectedDoes a GDPR-grade law give people enforceable rights, and does an independent authority use its powers?
20
Statutes; regulator sites; our fines data
Incident reporting and transparencyMust serious cyber incidents and personal-data breaches be reported, quickly, and does the public get to know?
10
Statutes and regulator rules
Cybercrime law and cooperationCan the country prosecute cybercrime and work across borders?
10
Council of Europe Treaty Office (Budapest Convention); UN cybercrime convention status; FIRST membership
AI and emerging-tech safeguardsAre there binding rules for high-risk AI and for connected-product security?
10
Statutes
Table: Cyber Risk Barometer · WLD-CRB-57 · Source: Cyber Risk Barometer national-CERT list (FIRST teams directory plus hand-added teams) and daily feed collector, status 2026-10-26; data/ratings.json v0.1 first pass
Context from the Bloch Index
Three of the Bloch Index's seven pillars, reused as it publishes them: the economy, institutions and education that shape a country's cyber capacity. Every indicator is ranked against every other country the Bloch Index scores (191) and turned into a percentile score from 0 to 100; a pillar is the average of its indicators. Snapshot of 2026-10-05; these numbers do not enter the cyber rating.
Economy
18% of the Bloch Index
47.9/ 100
Economic strength, stability and growth, measured by GDP per head, inflation, unemployment, growth rate and debt sustainability.
Indicator
Value
Year
Percentile score
Inflation% · lower is better · FP.CPI.TOTL.ZG
3.9
2025
35
Unemployment% of labour force · lower is better · SL.UEM.TOTL.ZS
4.8
2025
58
GDP per headUS$ (PPP) · higher is better · NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD
64,606
2025
84
GDP growth% · higher is better · NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG
1.4
2025
23
Central government debt% of GDP, IMF GFS consolidated · lower is better · GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS
131
2024
2
World Bank fundamentals (40.5) are blended 80/20 with a market signal: the 10-year government bond yield of 5.24% (2026-09, OECD) scores 77.4, giving 47.9.
Governance
18% of the Bloch Index
89.2/ 100
Institutional quality and accountability: rule of law, control of corruption, voice and accountability, and government effectiveness (World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators).
Indicator
Value
Year
Percentile score
Rule of lawWGI score, 0 to 100 · higher is better · GOV_WGI_RL.SC
79.53
2025
88
Control of corruptionWGI score, 0 to 100 · higher is better · GOV_WGI_CC.SC
78.92
2025
92
Voice & accountabilityWGI score, 0 to 100 · higher is better · GOV_WGI_VA.SC
81.29
2025
91
Govt effectivenessWGI score, 0 to 100 · higher is better · GOV_WGI_GE.SC
77.58
2025
87
Education
11% of the Bloch Index
83.8/ 100
Educational access and attainment: secondary and tertiary enrolment.
Indicator
Value
Year
Percentile score
Tertiary enrolment% (gross) · higher is better · SE.TER.ENRR
80.4
2023
84
Secondary enrolment% (net) · higher is better
no recent data
Table: Cyber Risk Barometer · WLD-CRB-58 · Source: Bloch Index (blochindex.web.app) snapshot 2026-10-05; World Bank World Development Indicators and Worldwide Governance Indicators; OECD long-term government bond yields
The connectivity and economic columns shown for United Kingdom in the league table. Fixed broadband is fetched live from the World Bank; the rest come from the Bloch Index's World Bank snapshot.
Indicator
Value
Year
Fixed broadband per 100 people
42.2
2024
Internet users (% of population)
95%
2024
GDP per head (PPP, int$)
$64,606
2025
Central government debt (% of GDP, World Bank/IMF GFS)
131%
2024
Tertiary enrolment (% gross)
80%
2023
Table: Cyber Risk Barometer · WLD-CRB-59 · Source: World Bank World Development Indicators (IT.NET.BBND.P2 live; IT.NET.USER.ZS, NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD, GC.DOD.TOTL.GD.ZS, SE.TER.ENRR via the Bloch Index snapshot 2026-10-05)
Memberships
Bloc and treaty memberships exactly as the Bloch Index records them (list updated 2026-08-30), so the two sites group countries the same way. The league table filters by them and the super league compares the EU, China and the United States.
Blocs and treaties
OECD · Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (developed economies)
EU-Accession · Accession candidate
UN · United Nations member
IMF · International Monetary Fund member
WB · World Bank member
NATO · North Atlantic Treaty Organization
G7 · Group of 7 (advanced economies)
G20 · Group of 20 (largest economies)
CPTPP · Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership
Data sources
National CERT: the Cyber Risk Barometer's list of national CERTs and cyber agencies (FIRST teams directory, plus teams added by hand), and our daily feed collector, which records whether each team's feed is working. Master copy: the "CERTs & sources" tab of our data workbook. No contact data is collected.
Cyber pillars: methodology v0.1 (seven pillars, fixed weights, A to E bands), our own design; evidence from treaty offices, official adequacy lists, statutes, regulators and our own passive checks. Not derived from any other country cyber ranking.
Economy, Governance and Education: Bloch Index pillar scores and indicators (World Bank World Development Indicators and Worldwide Governance Indicators; OECD Main Economic Indicators for bond yields), snapshot 2026-10-05.
Memberships: Bloch Index country-memberships list.
Population (used to weight blocs in the super league): World Bank, via the Bloch Index.