# CyberSecStats #44 - AI coding tradeoffs, UK security jobs boom and automation vs burnout > CyberSecStats #44: UK cyber jobs up 194%, AI code 15-18% more vulnerable, OT protocol attacks up 84%, 76% of security pros emotionally exhausted. Source: https://fmcybersecurity.com/en/insights/strategy/cybersecstats-44/ Locale: English Other locale: https://fmcybersecurity.com/insights/strategy/cybersecstats-44/ ## Metadata - Date: 2026-05-18 - Author: fredrik-standahl - Topic: strategy - Format: news - Scope: international ## This Week's Cybersecurity Eye-Openers Three takeaways from this week's data. **1. UK cyber security employment boom in numbers** The UK now has almost three times as many people working in cybersecurity as five years ago (83k today vs 28k in 2021). Cybersecurity is the second-fastest-growing IT role in the UK. **2. AI code workflows are fast but fragile** AI-assisted workflows deliver 48-58% faster time-to-pull-request, but AI-generated code contains 15%-18% more security vulnerabilities per line and waits 4.6 times longer for human review. **3. OT protocol attacks explode** Attacks using operational technology protocols surged 84% in 2025, led by Modbus at 57%. Meanwhile, 71% of exploited vulnerabilities are not even in the CISA KEV catalog. ## Big Picture Reports ### 2025 Threat Roundup (Forescout) Global analysis of cyberattack trends, exploited vulnerabilities, and shifting threat actor behavior across 2025. **Threat trends:** - Web applications became the most attacked service type at 61%, up from 41% in 2024, while abuse of Amazon and Google cloud infrastructure rose to over 15% of attacks. - Attacks using OT protocols surged 84%, led by Modbus (57%), Ethernet/IP (22%), and BACnet (8%). - 71% of exploited vulnerabilities are not in the CISA KEV catalog, and 242 new entries were added to CISA KEV, a 30% year-over-year increase. [Read the full report here.](https://www.forescout.com/resources/2025-threat-roundup/?ref=cybersecstats.com) ## AI and Software Development ### 2026 State of AI Report (Vention) How AI adoption has shifted from experimentation to business-critical across enterprises. **The AI tipping point:** - 99% of organizations report using AI in business, and 97% say AI brings real value. - Global AI spending is projected to reach $1.5 trillion, with hardware and infrastructure accounting for 59% of total investment. - 62% of organizations have experienced deepfake incidents, and 32% of cybersecurity leaders report AI-related attacks. [Read the full report here.](https://ventionteams.com/solutions/ai/report?ref=cybersecstats.com) ### AI Coding Impact 2025 Benchmark Report (Opsera) Benchmarking the security tradeoffs of AI coding assistants on developer productivity, code quality, and security. **Fast, secure, or unique. Choose two:** - AI coding assistants reached 90% enterprise adoption by the end of 2025, with GitHub Copilot holding 60-65% market share. - AI-assisted workflows achieve 48-58% faster time-to-pull-request, but AI-generated PRs wait 4.6 times longer for review than human-written ones. - AI-generated code results in 15-18% more security vulnerabilities per line, and code duplication increases from 10.5% to 13.5%. [Read the full report here.](https://opsera.ai/resources/report/ai-coding-impact-2026-benchmark-report/?ref=cybersecstats.com) ### Digital Trust Digest (Keyfactor) Survey of 500+ cybersecurity professionals on the security risks posed by AI agents and autonomous systems. **Agentic AI risks:** - 69% of cybersecurity professionals believe vulnerabilities in AI agents pose a greater threat than human misuse of AI, yet only 28% believe they can prevent a rogue AI agent from causing damage. - 85% expect digital identities for AI agents to be as common as human and machine identities within five years. - 68% of organizations lack full visibility or governance over AI-generated code contributions. [Read the full report here.](https://www.keyfactor.com/digital-trust-digest-ai-identity/?ref=cybersecstats.com) ## Security Operations ### 2026 Security Operations Insights (Sumo Logic) Research into how security teams manage tooling, automation, and cross-team alignment. **Where integration falls short:** - 93% of enterprise organizations use at least three security operations tools, and 55% of leaders report having too many point solutions. - Only 51% of security operations leaders say their current SIEM is very effective at reducing mean time to detect and respond. - 90% say AI/ML is extremely or very valuable in reducing alert fatigue, yet only 25% have fully automated threat detection and response. [Read the full report here.](https://www.sumologic.com/guides/2026-security-operations-insights?ref=cybersecstats.com) ### Voice of Security 2026 (Tines) AI adoption, automation, and burnout in security operations teams are not correlated the way you might think. **Automated, but exhausted:** - 99% of SOCs use AI, and 77% of security teams regularly rely on AI, automation, or workflow tools, yet manual or repetitive work still consumes 44% of security teams' time. - 76% of security leaders and practitioners report emotional exhaustion and fatigue. - Top AI-related concerns: data leakage through copilots and agents (22%), third-party and supply chain risks (21%), and evolving regulations (20%). [Read the full report here.](https://www.tines.com/access/whitepaper/voice-of-security-2026/?ref=cybersecstats.com) ## Data Breaches and Data Security ### 2025 Annual Data Breach Report (Identity Theft Resource Center) Comprehensive tracking of data compromises, victim notices, and consumer impact across the United States. **More data breached, but fewer people informed:** - A record 3,322 data compromises in 2025, up 79% over five years, yet victim notices dropped 79% to 278.8 million, the lowest since 2014. - 70% of breach notices in 2025 did not include attack information, up from 45% in 2023. - 88% of consumers who received a breach notice experienced at least one negative consequence, and 80% of consumers surveyed received a breach notice in the past 12 months. [Read the full report here.](https://www.idtheftcenter.org/publication/2025-data-breach-report/?ref=cybersecstats.com) ### Protecting Data Report 2026 (Arelion) Enterprise leaders are not very confident about data security across their own networks. They are even less confident about third-party infrastructure. **Confidence collapses when third parties get involved:** - 70% of senior leaders are losing sleep over critical data security, but only 52% feel very confident about data traveling across their own networks. - Confidence in data security falls to 40% when data passes through third-party provider networks, and 49% of leaders do not know the locations of all data centers, including third-party providers. - 48% of enterprise leaders are not fully confident they could demonstrate compliance with data protection regulations. [Read the full report here.](https://www.arelion.com/resources/white-papers/protecting-data-report-2026?ref=cybersecstats.com) ## Industry Deep Dives ### Inside the Mind of a Hacker (Bugcrowd) Annual survey of the global hacker community on tools, motivations, and collaboration. **What hackers care about:** - 82% of hackers now use AI in their workflows, up from 64% in 2023. - 65% have chosen not to disclose vulnerabilities due to a lack of clear reporting pathways, despite 85% believing reporting is more important than making money. - 56% say geopolitics now outweighs pure curiosity as a driving factor in hacking. [Read the full report here.](https://www.bugcrowd.com/resources/report/inside-the-mind-of-a-hacker/?ref=cybersecstats.com) ### State of the Banking and Credit Union Industry 2026 (Wipfli) Banking cyber risk in 2026. **The exposed institutions:** - 81% of banks and 77% of credit unions experienced at least one unauthorized network access incident in the past year. - 67% of banks and 82% of credit unions are implementing AI, yet only 16% of banks have an enterprise-wide AI roadmap. [Read the full report here.](https://www.wipfli.com/insights/research/state-of-the-banking-industry-2026?ref=cybersecstats.com) ### A Wave in Cyber (Socura/ONS) Cybersecurity is becoming a popular job title in the UK. **The workforce boom:** - The UK now has 83,700 cyber security professionals, up 194% from 28,500 in 2021, making it the country's fastest-growing IT profession. - There is now one cybersecurity professional for every 68 businesses, down from one per 196 in 2021. - Only one in five cybersecurity professionals is female, though the number of women in the field has grown 163% since 2021. [Read the full report here.](https://socura.co.uk/reports-and-whitepapers/a-wave-in-cyber?ref=cybersecstats.com) --- For the full documentation index, see https://fmcybersecurity.com/llms.txt For the complete corpus as a single document, see https://fmcybersecurity.com/llms-full.txt