Cyber attacks are hitting UK businesses harder than ever. Are you covered?

Half of UK businesses have experienced a cyber security breach or attack in the past year. Yet only four in ten are insured against the fallout, and just three in ten have carried out a cyber risk assessment in the same period. For most organisations, the gap between exposure and protection has never been wider.

The scale of the problem

According to the UK Government's Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2024, businesses across the UK reported an estimated 7.78 million cyber crimes over the past 12 months, including around 116,000 non-phishing incidents. Phishing remains by far the most common route in, catching out 84% of businesses that reported an attack. A stark reminder that most breaches still start with a convincing email rather than a sophisticated exploit.

What's more striking is how few businesses are checking their exposure before something goes wrong. Only 31% have carried out a cyber risk assessment in the last year, and just 1 in 10 review the risks posed by their own suppliers, a blind spot that's increasingly where attackers look first.

Cyber insurance matters

Cyber insurance exists to soften the financial blow when prevention isn't enough. It helps cover the costs businesses face after a ransomware attack, data breach, or other cyber incident — from recovery and remediation through to the wider disruption an incident causes.

Strident has partnered with James & Lindsay Insurance Brokers to offer Active Cyber Insurance, underwritten by Coalition, to give businesses of any size a more proactive layer of protection. Rather than sitting dormant until a claim is needed, the policy is built around continuous risk assessment, active protection, and active response — support that's there before, during, and after an incident.

What Active Cyber Insurance includes

Active Cyber Insurance is built around four pillars:

• Assessing risk with a real-time, external view of your exposure and tailored recommendations
• Protecting your business by identifying and pre-empting new threats
• Responding with expert support the moment an incident hits, to limit damage and speed up recovery
• Covering the financial impact so a cyber incident doesn't threaten the business itself

Get in touch

With cyber crime this widespread and so few businesses actively reviewing their exposure, a conversation about cover is worth having now rather than after an incident. James & Lindsay and Strident will take the time to establish whether cyber insurance is right for your business, and what level of cover makes sense.

Call James & Lindsay on 01206 761111 or email info@jameslindsay.co.uk to find out more.