Cyber insurance has emerged as the most in-demand insurance product as escalating geopolitical tensions drive a surge in cyber threats.

With conflicts increasingly extending into cyberspace, organisations are prioritising stronger digital resilience, while insurers focus on providing clearer coverage and faster recovery support to meet the growing complexity of cyber-related risks, reveals a new poll by data and analytics company GlobalData.

The poll, run across GlobalData’s Verdict Media sites during Q3 2025, and had 84 responses, found that 27.4% of industry insiders believe cyber insurance will see the highest increase in demand. This places cyber ahead of political risk insurance (25%), supply chain insurance (23.8%), and business interruption insurance (13.1%). The findings suggest digital security concerns are now outpacing more traditional political and operational exposures.

It comes after the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published its Annual Review, which warned that the cyber threats facing the country and the world continue to escalate. The NCSC revealed it dealt with 204 ‘nationally significant’ cyber-attacks against the UK in the 12 months to August 2025 – a sharp rise from 89 in the previous year.

Of a total of 429 incidents handled, 18 were categorised as ‘highly significant’, meaning that they had the potential to have a serious impact on essential services. This marks an almost 50% increase on incidents of this second-highest level categorisation compared with the previous year, and an increase for the third year running.

NCSC CEO Richard Horne said: “Nobody wants to believe their business could grind to a halt following a cyber-attack. But any leader who fails to prepare for that scenario is jeopardising their business’s future.”

He added: “Cyber security is now a matter of business survival and national resilience.
“With over half the incidents handled by the NCSC deemed to be nationally significant, and a 50% rise in highly significant attacks on last year, our collective exposure to serious impacts is growing at an alarming pace.

“The best way to defend against these attacks is for organisations to make themselves as hard a target as possible.
“That demands urgency from every business leader: hesitation is a vulnerability, and the future of their business depends on the action they take today. The time to act is now”.

Charlie Hutcherson, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, explained: “The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has expanded from conventional battlegrounds into coordinated cyber operations aimed at critical infrastructure and corporate networks. Meanwhile, the growing unrest in the Middle East has contributed to a rise in state-sponsored and hybrid cyberattacks that stretch well beyond localized warzones. Organizations are recognising that cyber incidents increasingly stem from geopolitical escalation and nation-state actors rather than isolated criminal groups.”

The company added these threats can disrupt supply chains, weaken operational resilience, and significantly damage reputations. Such complexities highlight limitations within traditional insurance offerings and reinforce the growing role of cyber insurance as a strategic risk transfer solution.

Hutcherson concluded: “Digital threats are evolving alongside political instability. Insurers are facing growing demand for cyber products that are clearer in coverage and more active in supporting resilience, from real-time threat monitoring to faster post-breach recovery. With budgets tightening across many sectors, buyers will seek policies that deliver tangible value before and after an incident occurs.

“Insurers that collaborate closely with governments and cybersecurity specialists, while strengthening preventative measures such as vulnerability assessments and employee training will be best placed to retain and grow cyber customers. As geopolitical risks continue to move online, cyber insurance will remain a critical tool for protecting organisations from the full scale of emerging threats.”