Cyberattackers move focus from UK to mainland Europe

The UK is no longer the prime target for cyberattacks within Europe, passing the unwanted honour to Spain, according to cyber insurer Resilience on publishing its mid-year Cyber Risk Report.

According to Tom Higglestone, Resilience’s global head of claims, this suggests that “as the UK’s cyber risk market becomes more developed, threat actors are seeing more potential opportunities for successful attacks in other European countries”.

The UK, which recorded the second-highest number of cyberattacks this year, followed by Italy, also saw a more diverse range of attacks in the first half of 2024. While ransomware remains the leading cause of claims and losses in the UK and globally, the UK saw a smaller portion of ransomware claims than the US.

Phishing was the leading point of failure in the UK, with 84% of businesses experiencing an attack. However, phishing made up just 6% of claims filed by Resilience clients globally, suggesting companies are getting better at mitigating the losses from cyberattacks.

In terms of sectors, the top three industries with claims notices in the UK were transportation and warehousing; construction; and professional, scientific and technical. This was in contrast to the global picture, where manufacturing was responsible for half of the claims, followed by construction and healthcare.

While the report hailed improvements in Resilience’s loss ratio, it also highlighted developments that continue to make cyber an increasingly perilous risk.

Global M&A deal volume increased 36% in Q1 2024, creating new potential points of failure, while technology consolidation has also increased the reliance on single suppliers for critical services and increasing the threat of third-party vendor breaches.

For example, vendor data breaches have become a notable point of failure, rising from 32% of claims in January 2023 to 40% in June 2024.

“While cybersecurity has historically been considered as a line item in a company’s budget, it’s clear that this is insufficient,” said Egglestone. “Business leaders must adopt a risk-centric approach – one in which security strategies are grounded in the financial translation of cyber threats.

“Every ransomware claim that has been made in the UK so far has been substantial, reflecting the severe financial consequences of such attacks. This is why we are seeing UK companies take a more financially minded approach to cyber risk compared to other European countries, focusing on mitigating business losses when faced with cyberattacks.

“More business leaders globally must adopt a similar risk-centric approach in order to minimise losses, avoid business disruption, and ensure cyber resilience,” said Egglestone.