Cyber insurance is heading toward mandatory status for doing business as digital threats grow sharper and more disruptive, according to Kennedys.
The two outline five predictions on how cyber risk evolves, who takes the hit, and why boardrooms can no longer treat breaches as technical noise. The tone is blunt.
Cyber insurance, they argue, moves from optional to required, much like public liability cover.
Large organisations will drive the change through procurement. Smaller firms across supply chains will be expected to carry UK cyber insurance cover just to stay in tenders. Demand rises fast. Perception flips. Cyber insurance stops being a “nice to have”.
Supply chains sit at the centre of the threat model. Kennedys say attackers increasingly target smaller suppliers with weaker defences to reach larger corporate targets. One breach, many consequences.
Cyber threat groups know that taking down a crucial vendor, even a small one, can stop the entire operation of a global brand, giving them maximum leverage to demand a ransom.
Regulators reinforce that focus. As governments tighten rules on third-party risk, scrutiny of vendors intensifies. Risk management doesn’t end at the firewall anymore. It spreads outward.
Accountability shifts upward too. Cyber incidents stop being framed as IT failures and start landing squarely on the C-suite. Regulators such as the UK’s ICO are expected to pursue Directors and Officers directly, asking whether boards funded security properly, embedded the right culture, and tested suppliers rigorously.
Kennedys warn that fines and lawsuits targeting individual executives become more common. Personal liability enters the conversation.
Cybersecurity turns into a fiduciary duty and a standing board agenda item, not a quarterly update.
Attack tactics harden as well. As firms grow more resilient and less willing to pay ransoms, threat groups respond with pressure that feels closer to extortion than hacking. Psychological tactics escalate.
The report predicts more intimidation aimed beyond corporate systems, including doxing, threats against executives and families, and attempts to induce fear outside the network perimeter. It’s ugly. And deliberate.
AI compounds the risk. Deepfake tools allow attackers to fabricate convincing videos of CEOs or plant forged evidence inside breached data sets.
Law enforcement pressure has also changed the threat landscape. The takedown of large groups such as LockBit fragmented the ecosystem. What’s left looks less organised and more chaotic.
Smaller, less-skilled groups now attack opportunistically. Companies of any size become targets simply because they’re there. No one gets a free pass for being small.
On regulation, the UK stands out. Beinsure expect a targeted ban on ransomware payments by publicly funded bodies to become one of the most significant regulatory changes ahead. That move alone reshapes incident response playbooks.
The message running through the report stays consistent. Cyber risk isn’t niche anymore. Insurance, governance, and board accountability are moving together. Ready or not.
According to Beinsure, the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, now moving through Parliament, marks a hard reset in how the country protects its digital economy.
Public debate sticks to transport networks and hospitals. That misses where the pressure really lands. Small and Medium-sized Businesses inside the UK fintech stack.
Many founders still assume size equals safety. It doesn’t. The Bill largely skips the smallest firms on paper, yet expands accountability across Managed Service Providers and third-party suppliers. That shift drags SMBs into scope indirectly, and fast. The supply chain is no longer a boundary. It is the perimeter.
The legislation widens regulation far beyond the old NIS framework, which focused on Operators of Essential Services.
