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Cybersecurity experts warned UK organizations not to treat cyber insurance as a substitute for operational resilience after a Cohesity survey found that only 22% of business leaders believed their policy would adequately cover breach costs and lost revenue. Respondents estimated that a cyberattack would cut revenue by an average of 15.17%, while one in five organizations had never modelled the business impact of a cyber incident.
The warning aligns with UK government breach-survey findings on uneven cyber-risk preparedness and insurance coverage across businesses. Although cyber-insurance adoption increased during 2025 and insurers paid £197 million in cyber claims, organizations are urged to review exclusions and coverage limits, maintain tested recovery plans, model attack impacts, and regularly test restoration of critical services.
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Marks & Spencer experienced a cyber attack that disrupted its operations.
The Association of British Insurers reported £197 million in cyber-insurance payouts during 2025.
The Association of British Insurers reported that 17% more cyber-insurance policies were taken out in 2025 than in the preceding year.
Cohesity surveyed UK business leaders and found that only 22% believed their cyber-insurance policies would cover breach-related costs and revenue losses. One in five respondents said their organization had never conducted cyber-attack business-impact modelling.
Following its April 2025 cyber attack, Marks & Spencer recovered £100 million from insurers.
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Hiscox’s 2026 Cyber Readiness Report found that **29% of organizations globally** sustained at least one successful cyberattack in the prior 12 months, and affected organizations experienced four incidents on average. Each affected organization reported average losses of about **$52,000** and **32.8 hours of downtime**, alongside strategic, financial, operational, reputational, and workforce effects. Nearly 69% of victims reported employee burnout, stress, or a toxic workplace culture following incidents. UK businesses were the most frequently targeted among countries surveyed, with **38%** reporting a successful attack, although their average per-attack cost of $35,908 was below the global average. UK firms spent an average of $59,700 on cyber resilience, but only 40% of small businesses held cyber insurance. Across the 6,800 security decision-makers surveyed, organizations reported average annual resilience spending near $51,000 on staff, training, and tools, while increasingly preparing for AI-related risks through training, insurance reviews, and planned audits.
Sep 16, 2026
The UK government advanced its **Cyber Security and Resilience Bill** after publishing policy materials in 2024 and formally introducing the legislation to Parliament in November 2025, later adding an impact assessment, factsheets, supporting research, and notice that the Regulatory Policy Committee rated the assessment **fit for purpose**. The bill is part of a broader push to strengthen cyber resilience obligations as the government also signaled tougher online safety enforcement and wider expectations that critical services and digital platforms improve security governance. Government survey data published in 2026 showed why the pressure is increasing: **43% of UK businesses** and **28% of charities** reported a cyber breach or attack in the previous year, with **phishing** remaining the most common and disruptive threat. While ransomware among businesses fell to **1%**, the survey found repeat victimisation drove an estimated **5.19 million** cyber crimes against UK businesses, and more advanced controls such as **two-factor authentication**, formal incident response plans, VPN use, and supplier risk reviews remained uneven, especially among smaller organisations. Industry reporting said the findings are sharpening focus on resilience measures including **Cyber Essentials Plus**, phishing-resistant MFA, network segmentation, tested backups, dependency mapping, and board-level reporting on recovery and operational survivability.
Sep 2, 2026
New reporting based on Verizon DBIR’s Breach Impact Study says cyber insurance claims data from roughly 70,000 incidents puts the **median breach impact at about $83,000**, with **small and midsize businesses** facing a median loss near **$38,000** and the most severe cases climbing above **$22 million** for the top 2.5% of incidents at companies with more than $250 million in revenue. The findings argue insured losses are only a floor for total damage, as breach costs also expand through regulatory penalties, litigation, legal fees, and coverage gaps, particularly in heavily regulated sectors such as healthcare and financial services. The data indicates **business interruption** accounted for roughly one-third of known losses in 2024 and can be more operationally significant than reputational harm, while third-party and supply-chain incidents were identified as the events most likely to exhaust cyber insurance limits. Separate reporting adds that ransomware and double-extortion attacks are increasing, with AI helping attackers scale operations, and that staffing shortages, shadow AI, and slow response times further raise losses; organizations using stronger identity controls, DevSecOps, lifecycle management, and faster incident response are better positioned to contain breach costs.
Aug 7, 2026