New research compiled by Beazley found that cyber risk remains the single top concern for leaders within the retail and manufacturing sectors, following a series of devastating incidents last year.
UK retail powerhouses Marks & Spencer and the Co-op faced crippling attacks last spring, losing hundreds of millions of pounds each, while Jaguar Land Rover saw production halted for several weeks, with losses estimated to be as high as £1.9 billion.
Beazley’s survey of 3,500 global business leaders, which included senior executives working across wholesale and food & beverage, revealed that 32% identified cyber risk as the top security concern for their company, ranking as the number one issue across all sectors polled.
A resounding 87%, however, said they felt prepared for cyber risk, with the London-based insurer pointing to what it described as a “potential gap between perception and reality”.
A further 82% indicated they were confident they could recover from a potential cyber attack, despite the significant financial setbacks suffered by high street stalwarts Marks & Spencer and the Co-op.
Interestingly, only 34% told Beazley that they were planning to increase investment in cyber security and resilience measures.
“What stands out in this year’s Risk & Resilience survey findings is a growing misalignment between cyber and tech risk concern and perceived perception of resilience to these risks,” said Alessandro Lezzi, group head of cyber risks at Beazley.
“While cyber risk is widely recognised as the number one threat facing businesses globally, 82% of retail and manufacturing executives believe they could fully recover financially from a cyber attack, demonstrating that many retail organisations are overestimating their preparedness to withstand the full impact of an attack across all corners of their operations.”
Lezzi continued: “That gap matters because cyber risk is becoming more systemic. The high-profile incidents 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 retail and manufacturing businesses plan to invest in stronger cyber security, including access to specialist expertise to help them better understand their exposure, strengthen incident response and plan for realistic disruption scenarios across the organisation.”
With many firms rapidly adopting AI and transitioning to more advanced technologies, 23% of those surveyed cited technology disruption as a major worry, while a further 20% pointed to technology obsolescence, particularly where legacy systems remain in place.
Close to a quarter (24%) additionally highlighted intellectual property risk as a key pressure point, reflecting the increasing value and exposure of proprietary information.
In its report, Beazley also underlined the emerging threats associated with widespread AI adoption, which - despite helping to drive productivity and growth - can introduce new vulnerabilities and require businesses to scale governance and controls in line with technological advancement.
