Think you’re safe from modern threats? Think again.

By Martin Lewis, Head of Business Continuity Sales at Wavenet

As we mark Business Continuity & Resilience Awareness Week 2026, it’s a timely reminder that resilience is no longer just about recovery, it’s about readiness for a threat landscape that is constantly evolving.

The confidence gap in modern resilience

It’s a conversation I have almost daily with customers. On the surface, everything looks secure. Controls are in place. Policies exist. Plans have been written and signed off. There is a clear sense of confidence that, if something happens, the organisation will respond.

But when we dig deeper, a different picture often emerges.

Many organisations are prepared for traditional, isolated incidents. What they now face are co-ordinated, hybrid threats that move faster, cut across functions, and exploit the gaps between teams. And in my experience, those gaps are exactly where risk lives.

It’s easy to assume your organisation is protected. Controls are in place. Plans exist. Teams know their roles. But modern threats do not follow traditional rules.

Hybrid warfare now extends far beyond the military domain. It operates across cyber security, information channels, supply chains, and economic pressure, targeting how organisations function day to day. It is co-ordinated, subtle, and designed to exploit the gaps between teams and technologies.

The reality we see is not that organisations are unprotected. It’s that many are unprepared for how threats behave today.

Hybrid threats are already here

Hybrid threats are not a future concern. They’re embedded in today’s risk landscape, and they are already impacting organisations across every sector.

What we consistently see with our customers is reflected clearly in the wider data. Around 66% of organisations have experienced ransomware in the past year, while ransomware and extortion now account for roughly a third of all breaches¹.

At the same time, 30% of breaches involve third parties or supply chains², and more than 70% of organisations report at least one significant third-party cyber incident annually³.

Connected threats, not isolated incidents

These are not isolated incidents. They are connected, overlapping, and increasingly complex.

Unlike traditional incidents, they do not appear as a single, clearly defined event. They unfold across multiple fronts at the same time, often blending cyber attacks, operational disruption, and information manipulation into one cohesive campaign.

We see this complexity play out regularly with customers. What begins as a single alert often turns out to have multiple contributing factors. In fact, organisations report an average of nearly three contributing causes behind a successful cyber attack⁴, highlighting just how interconnected these events have become.

These threats are built to:

Avoid detection by appearing as low-level, unrelated issues
Slow response by overwhelming disconnected teams
Amplify impact by targeting technical systems and human trust simultaneously

More than half of organisations only discover breaches through external sources⁵, often after attackers have already gained a foothold.

Even when detected, attackers can remain inside environments for an average of 10 days⁶, and in some cases much longer, giving them time to move laterally and co-ordinate wider disruption.

The result is a form of disruption that’s harder to identify, harder to contain, and far more damaging over time.

What modern hybrid attacks look like

Threats rarely operate in isolation, they are now layered, timed, and co-ordinated for maximum impact.

A single incident may involve:

Cyber intrusions targeting networks, endpoints, or operational technology
Disinformation campaigns that undermine customer trust and internal confidence
Supply chain disruption that delays recovery and limits access to critical services
Economic or regulatory pressure that intensifies the operational impact

From single incidents to multi-layered disruption

What we often see with customers is that attackers are deliberately combining these elements. The data supports this shift. Modern ransomware techniques, for example, now frequently include multiple pressure tactics such as data theft, service disruption, and direct engagement with customers or stakeholders⁷, rather than relying on encryption alone.

At the same time, these incidents are rarely driven by a single weakness. Organisations report an average of 2.7 contributing factors behind a successful cyber attack⁸, reinforcing how interconnected and multi-layered these events have become.

We also see how far beyond the organisation these attacks can reach. Around 30% of breaches now involve third parties or supply chains⁹, meaning disruption often extends well beyond the initial point of compromise.

And increasingly, attackers are targeting trust as much as systems. Nearly half of organisations have experienced deepfake or AI-driven impersonation attacks¹⁰, adding a new dimension of reputational risk to technical incidents.

We often see customers experience what initially looks like a contained cyber incident but as the situation develops, it becomes clear that other pressures are at play.

What this looks like in practice

A ransomware attack on a key system may be launched alongside false or misleading information circulating online. While technical teams focus on containment, customers and stakeholders are exposed to confusion and uncertainty, rapidly escalating reputational risk.

At the same time, supply chain dependencies can be strained, delaying recovery and compounding operational disruption.

This is no longer just an IT issue. It’s a full-scale business risk, and one that requires a joined-up response.

We see this in practice with our customers. For example, Birmingham City University needed to ensure continuous operations during critical enrolment periods, where any disruption would have had a direct impact on student recruitment and revenue. What they required was not just resilience from a cyber perspective, but a fully integrated approach that combined secure infrastructure, data protection, and work area recovery. By aligning these capabilities, they were able to maintain operations even in the face of potential disruption, demonstrating how resilience today depends on more than a single function operating in isolation.

Why traditional approaches fall short

Many organisations are still structured around a model that separates cyber security, risk, and business continuity.

We see this every day when working with customers:

Cyber security teams respond to digital incidents
Risk and compliance functions focus on governance and regulation
Business continuity teams prepare for recovery after disruption

Each of these functions is critical. But hybrid threats exploit the lack of integration between them.

This creates challenges that customers regularly struggle with:

Delayed visibility, as signals are missed across siloed systems
Fragmented response, where teams act in isolation rather than in coordination
Slower decision-making, due to incomplete or inconsistent information

The impact in complex environments

We see this particularly clearly in complex environments such as healthcare. In one example, an NHS Trust we supported was dealing with fragmented systems, limited in-house cyber expertise, and the constant need to prioritise frontline services. Cyber security could not be treated in isolation, because any disruption had a direct impact on patient care. By bringing together threat detection, response capability, and operational continuity, we helped create a more resilient environment where critical services could be maintained even under pressure.

We work closely with customers, aligning cyber security and business continuity to create a more integrated approach that closes the gaps hybrid threats are designed to exploit.

Traditional plans assume incidents are contained and predictable. Hybrid threats are neither. They are specifically designed to bypass those assumptions.

The shift to proactive resilience

Defending against modern threats requires a fundamental shift in mindset. It’s no longer enough to respond quickly. Organisations need to anticipate, adapt, and act with cohesion.

Across our customer base, we’re seeing a clear shift towards a more integrated model of resilience:

Aligning cyber, risk, and business continuity functions to operate as a unified capability
Sharing intelligence across teams to build a complete, real-time view of risk
Monitoring patterns and behaviours, not just isolated alerts
Planning for concurrent and compounding incidents, rather than single event scenarios

This is an area of expertise for us, and something we’ve been able to deliver for customers thanks to our industry-leading capabilities across both cyber security and business continuity. Resilience is not just about protection. It’s about maintaining operational integrity in the face of complex, evolving disruption.

The tools enabling smarter resilience

Technology plays a critical role, but only when it’s integrated properly.

We often see customers with many of the right tools in place, but not fully connected. This creates blind spots and slows response, exactly where hybrid threats gain ground.

The organisations that are moving ahead are focusing on a core set of integrated capabilities:

Threat detection and response, supported by SOC expertise

Providing real-time visibility and identifying co-ordinated activity early

Threat intelligence and dark web monitoring

Providing insight into emerging threats before they materialise

Attack surface and vulnerability management

Reducing unknown exposures that attackers can exploit

Identity and access controls such as MFA and IAM

Limiting how far an incident can spread within the organisation

Incident response and business continuity platforms

Enabling coordinated action and clear decision-making during disruption

Cyber resilience and clean, rapid recovery solutions

Ensuring operations can be restored quickly and effectively

The value, as we always emphasise with customers, is not in individual tools. It’s in how they work together to provide a joined-up view of risk and response.

Preparing faster and more proactively

One of the most important shifts we’re helping customers make is in how they prepare. Preparation is no longer about having a static plan. It’s about ensuring that plan works under pressure, across multiple, overlapping scenarios.

This means:

Stress-testing plans against multi-layered, realistic threats
Breaking down silos between technical and business teams
Ensuring leadership has clear visibility and decision-making frameworks during crises
Investing in both prevention and response across the organisation

The organisations we see performing best are not necessarily the most heavily resourced. They are the ones that are the most aligned.

Need some help?

Modern threats exploit the gaps between teams, systems, and expectations. From what we see across our customers, this is the defining challenge organisations are facing today. But it is also where the biggest opportunity sits. Resilience comes from alignment.

When cyber security, risk, and business continuity operate as one, organisations move from reactive defence to proactive control. They gain the visibility, speed, and confidence needed to stay ahead of disruption.

If your approach still treats threats as isolated incidents, it is already behind.

We help organisations close these gaps, align their teams, and build resilience that reflects how modern threats actually behave.

About the author

Martin Lewis, Head of Business Continuity Sales

Martin brings more than 29 years of experience across the full spectrum of the IT industry, having held roles with leading vendors, distributors, resellers, and service providers.

Now leading a team of Business Continuity sales specialists at Wavenet, he works closely with customers to ensure solutions not only meet, but exceed their governance, compliance, and risk management requirements. His focus is on helping organisations build resilience in a way that is practical, effective, and aligned to real-world challenges, reinforcing Wavenet’s position as a leading provider of operational and cyber resilience solutions in the UK.