Businesses’ preparedness against cyber threats beginning to shrink: Beazley

Beazley, a specialist insurer, has released its Risk & Resilience report, Spotlight on Cyber & Technology Risk 2024, which explores global business views on cybercrime, tech obsolescence, disruptions, and intellectual property risks amid rapid technological change.

Over the past year, the cyber threat landscape has grown more challenging due to the increased sophistication of cyber criminals, now enhanced by AI tools.

Beazley’s survey of 3,500 global business leaders indicates that despite the growing risk, only 23% of executives view cyber threats as their top concern this year, a decrease from 34% in 2021.

With cyber criminals continually evolving their tactics, it’s worrying that 69% of global firms believe their current cyber defences are adequate.

The sense of preparedness against cyber threats is also waning. In 2024, 75% of business leaders so far feel confident in their cyber resilience, down from 78% in 2022.

This decline in perceived preparedness is evident as 24% of global businesses plan to invest in cybersecurity measures this year, and another 24% are considering insurance options that include risk and crisis management services, crucial for defending against and recovering from cyber incidents.

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) offers organisations significant opportunities to enhance operational efficiency.

AI use has become widespread, with 25% of businesses planning to invest in AI to boost their resilience to risk. However, AI also poses societal challenges, with nearly two-thirds (68%) of global business leaders believing AI will lead to job losses within their companies.

The rapid pace of AI innovation is also a major concern. 27% of global business leaders view technological obsolescence as their top threat this year, with about 24% feeling unprepared to manage this risk.

Additionally, technology is reshaping the cyber risk landscape. AI can aid cyber criminals in refining existing attack methods, such as phishing, and introducing new techniques, like deepfake attacks.

As hackers become more advanced and harder to detect, businesses must strengthen their cyber defences to address the evolving range of cyber and technological risks.

Paul Bantick, Global Head of Cyber Risks, Beazley, commented: “As our report shows, with technological innovation set to bring about seismic societal change, the growing regulatory burden for firms, and cyber criminals becoming more and more sophisticated, businesses are facing a wave of new threats.

“The need for robust risk mitigation strategies has never been greater, and insurance can play an important role. By leveraging the vast amounts of claims, incident, and threat information data we have and translating that into actionable guidance and advising on elevated ‘always on’ resilience for a range of cyber and technology risks we can help clients to better navigate the risks they face today.”

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