Beazley, the British parent company of specialist insurance businesses with operations in Europe, North America and Asia, found in its latest survey that cyberattacks remain the biggest fear for energy and utilities firms, with many companies being “dangerously overconfident” about how resilient they really are against global threat actors.
According to Beazley, whose survey covered 3,500 global business leaders, including senior executives across the energy and utilities sector, 29% of energy sector professionals now see cyber risk as the number one threat facing their business as digital systems, AI and connected supply chains become increasingly exposed to disruption.
“Despite the growing threat, almost 80% of firms said they felt prepared for a cyber-attack, while 78% claimed they could recover financially from a major incident,” Beazley said, while warning that confidence may not match reality.
As per the insurer, cyber threats are becoming more systemic, with attacks now spreading rapidly across interconnected supply chains and critical infrastructure. Technology disruption was highlighted by 23% of respondents, followed by ageing systems and technology obsolescence (24%). Another 23% now see intellectual property (IP) risk emerging as a major concern as businesses digitise operations and deploy more AI-driven systems.
“Around 30% of companies said they plan to increase spending on cybersecurity and resilience measures over the next year,” Beazley stated.
The survey also highlights the increasing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in shaping both opportunity and exposure. Some 80% of the respondents expect AI to improve financial performance, while 72% believe it will replace jobs within the next 18 months, up from 66% in 2025. Beazley points out that as AI adoption accelerates, organisations must scale governance and oversight alongside technological capability, as both success and failure can move more quickly.
Alessandro Lezzi, Group Head of Cyber Risks at Beazley, said, “What stands out in this year’s Risk & Resilience survey findings is a growing misalignment between cyber and tech risk concerns and perceived perception of resilience to these risks. While cyber risk is widely recognised as the number one threat facing businesses globally, 78% believe they could fully recover financially from a cyber-attack, demonstrating many organisations are overestimating their preparedness to withstand the full impact of an attack across all corners of their operations.”
“That gap matters because cyber risk is becoming more systemic – the high-profile incidences in 2025 only prove this. As businesses become more interconnected and adopt technologies such as AI, disruption can spread faster across organisations and supply chains, making incidents harder to contain. It’s encouraging to see, however, that a third of businesses plan to invest in stronger cybersecurity, including access to specialist expertise to help them better understand their exposure, strengthen incident response and plan for realistic disruption scenarios across the organisation,” he concluded.