New report finds that 74% of IT leaders believe that integrating AI into their businesses could increase vulnerability, but only 16% rely on cyber recovery providers for expertise
London, UK – October 7, 2025 (BUSINESS WIRE) — 11:11 Systems (“11:11”), a leading managed infrastructure provider, today announced its latest research findings. A new global study of over 800 senior IT leaders reveals that complexity, overconfidence, and lack of expertise are leaving businesses dangerously exposed to cyber threats.
The survey, conducted across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific, highlights that 81% of IT leaders believe their organisations are overconfident in their cyber incident recovery capabilities, despite facing mounting challenges. Highlighting the scale of these challenges, the research found 82% of respondents have experienced at least one cyberattack in the last 12 months, of which 57% endured two or more cyberattacks in the past year. Worse yet, 74% of respondents are concerned that integrating AI into their businesses could increase their vulnerability to cyber attacks.
Overwhelmed by planning complexity: Among European respondents, who made up 48% of the global sample, 40% cited planning complexity as their top concern, this increased to 42% in the Netherlands and UK.
Staggering financial losses: There were significant financial losses reported by European respondents from just one hour of cyber-related downtime.
- 78% reported losses of up to $500K
- 16% reported loss between $501K–$1M
- 6% reported losses that exceeded $1M
With more than 50% of respondents stating that recovery times following a cyber incident take between a week or two to recover, this figure quickly adds up, costing affected organisations millions in downtown, business disruption along with legal fees and fines.
Cyber recovery providers are an untapped resource: Despite these costs and risks associated with cyber breaches and even minor incidents, only 17% of European businesses have fully leveraged the expertise of cyber recovery providers. More than half (54%) prefer a hybrid approach, while 21% manage recovery in-house and 8% lack any formal plan altogether.
Cyber recovery preparedness: When asked how to improve their cyber recovery preparedness, responses varied, with one quarter (25%) calling for better staff training and awareness, while 22% of respondents cited greater investment in cyber incident recovery solutions followed by better integration of cyber resiliency and disaster recovery planning (20%) this was slightly higher in France. One fifth (20%) said more frequent testing and simulations would improve preparedness, while 13% of respondents cited increased automation in recovery processes.
Customisation of recovery solutions remains an important consideration: 59% of European respondents identified application-level recovery solution customisation as extremely important, while another 36% considered it somewhat important.
Budget intentions: Encouragingly, 97% of European respondents plan to invest in cyber incident recovery within the next 12 months.
Sean Tilley, Senior Director of Sales at 11:11 Systems, commented: “This data confirms what we see every day, IT leaders are under immense pressure to navigate increasingly complex cyber threats and recovery landscapes. While it is positive to see that the majority are investing in cyber incident recovery, without the involvement of a specialist, these investments may not achieve the desired results. At 11:11 Systems, we’re committed to simplifying cyber resilience through integrated, expert-led solutions that empower businesses to recover with confidence.”
Country comparisons:
Although more UK respondents had experienced a minor incident (54%) compared to France and the Netherlands, only 7% of respondents had experienced significant cyber-attacks multiple times in the past year compared to France (16%) and the Netherlands (26%).
AI driven phishing attacks are a major concern for companies in the Netherlands with 60% of respondents stating that they have experienced this type of attack, the highest in all regions surveyed. Yet, social engineering attacks were at the lowest for respondents in the Netherlands, where only 6% had experienced such an AI-driven attack while France was one of the highest (24%). For the UK autonomous and mutating malware attacks were the highest in the region at 39%.
Despite this, 92% of French respondents were overly confident or somewhat overconfident in their cyber incident recovery capabilities. This was lower in the Netherlands, where respondents stated that they were realistic about their capabilities (40%).
Sean Tilley states: “The recent Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) cyber incident highlights the need for strong cybersecurity in protecting manufacturing supply chains. Our report shows that even an hour of downtime can lead to significant costs, making early detection of vulnerabilities essential.
“These incidents cause significant disruption and considerable stress for all parties engaged in system restoration and operational resumption. They underscore the importance of regularly evaluating cyber resilience and confirming the adequacy of current plans and systems. Of concern, our respondents demonstrate a notable lack of preparedness and this requires immediate attention.”
About the Report
The 2025 Cyber Resilience Report from 11:11 Systems gathered insights from 800+ senior IT, security and risk leaders in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, representing companies with at least 1,000 employees. The data reflects the alarming complexities of cyber recovery planning, growing concern around AI, rising costs of downtime and the pressing need for organisations to modernise their cyber recovery strategies.
396 (45%) of the respondents were from Europe (UK, 23%, Netherlands 13%, France 12%). Total global respondents were 800+ senior IT security professionals. The European cohort comprised 204 cybersecurity professionals and 192 DR professionals.
The full 11:11 Cyber Trends Report – 2025 is available now for download.
About 11:11 Systems
11:11 Systems is a managed infrastructure solutions provider that empowers customers to modernise, protect, and manage mission-critical applications and data, leveraging 11:11’s resilient cloud platform. Learn more at 11:11 Systems.
Media Contacts:
Rolyn Parker
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