Cyber insurance should become as common a purchase for UK businesses as property insurance within the next decade, says the Association of British Insurers (ABI).
The ABI said that any business using the internet was vulnerable to threats, including deliberate attacks by thieves and data losses caused by human error, and that cyber cover should be the norm by 2025.
Speaking on 5 May at an ABI conference on cyber insurance, the association’s director general Huw Evans said: “Cyber risk is growing rapidly. At the moment, despite more than 80 per cent of large businesses suffering a cyber security breach in a 12-month period, only around ten per cent have any form of cyber insurance.
“Online breaches can cost millions, and would threaten the viability of many businesses, so the stakes are high. Cyber insurance is an increasingly important way for businesses of all sizes to manage this threat.
“The UK insurance industry is already providing cover for cyber risk to customers around the world. More British firms are now taking advantage of this expertise and by 2025 this type of cover will be seen as an essential business purchase.”
The ABI warned that cyber attacks and failures could result in businesses closing or having to dramatically change what they do, adding that the latest government survey on information breaches found that ten per cent of affected organisations had to change the nature of their business as a result.
