London, August 25, 2026 - Chubb’s latest cyber claims analysis shows that whilst cyber incident frequency has stabilised, the financial impact of attacks against mid-sized firms continues to rise sharply.
Insight from Chubb’s 2026 Cyber Claims Report shows that across the UK and Europe in 2025, the frequency of cyber claims from middle market businesses dropped to a five-year low, while the average claim value tripled between 2020 and 2025.
While AI is helping businesses to better identify and detect cyber vulnerabilities, it is also driving increasingly sophisticated adversarial use of technology that can exacerbate the speed and scope of risk exposure.
Chubb’s Head of Growth, Global Cyber, Jimaan Sané said that for small and medium sized businesses, one of the key areas of increased exposure was a company’s own supply chain, given their greater dependency on third-party suppliers.
“Mid-sized businesses increasingly face the same level of cyber disruption as large corporates, but often without the same operational resilience,” Sané said. ¨As well as identifying and preventing a business's own cyber failures, there is the challenge of financial and operational fallouts when interconnected systems, suppliers and partners are compromised.”
“Consider when a technology provider is struck by ransomware, the consequences rarely stay contained. For the retailers, manufacturers, and service businesses that depend on that provider's systems, the impact can be immediate and severe — sales transactions halted, inventory visibility lost and operations suspended. Though the attack originates outside their walls, the business interruption loss lands squarely on their balance sheet. This growing exposure underscores the critical importance of contingent business interruption coverage in any comprehensive cyber risk strategy,” Sané added.
Aside from increasingly sophisticated AI-driven threats and increasing dependencies on supply chains, social engineering fraud claims, privacy incidents and ransomware attacks continue to present risks according to Chubb’s Vice President – Claims, Chris Collier.
“These types of incidents can be crippling, especially for small and mid-sized businesses who don’t have appropriate cyber coverage and have no way to recover from or pay for the unrecoverable losses,” Collier said.
According to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, only 24% of medium-sized businesses in the UK have a specific cyber policy in place.
Ransomware attacks in particular, continue to pose significant risks for small and mid-sized businesses, often resulting in complex and costly data breaches. Even when initial encryption attempts are thwarted, the exfiltration of sensitive information can trigger extensive notification requirements and remediation efforts.
“Chubb has considerable experience with ransomware claims and provides highly regarded legal, IT forensic, public relations, and other specialised services to help our clients respond and smoothly navigate incidents, minimizing downtime and returning to business,” said Collier.
On the defensive side, businesses and organisations can implement AI-focused risk mitigation tools to respond to these threats and reduce their risk, as well as harnessing greater awareness by making cyber a boardroom priority, not just an IT project.
Online tools like the Chubb Cyber Index, provide real-time access to insights and resources to help evaluate and address the cyber risks your business may face. Chubb also offers its policyholders access to wide range of tools and solutions. This includes support across areas such as cyber protection for small businesses, incident response, vulnerability management, security, managed detection and response, privacy risk management, and user security and awareness. Find out more here.
Chubb’s 2026 Cyber Claims Report is available here.
About Chubb's Cyber Practice
Chubb is a leader in insuring cyber risk. Combining industry-leading underwriting with expert loss mitigation and third-party incident response services, we offer policies that are tailored to the specific needs and risks of our clients to ensure you are ready with the tools and expertise necessary should a cyber incident occur.
About Chubb
Chubb is a world leader in insurance. With operations in 54 countries and territories, Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance and life insurance to a diverse group of clients. The company is defined by its extensive product and service offerings, broad distribution capabilities, exceptional financial strength and local operations globally. Parent company Chubb Limited is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: CB) and is a component of the S&P 500 index. Chubb employs approximately 45,000 people worldwide. Additional information can be found at: www.chubb.com.
Media Contact
Kathryn Coventry, Head of Communications EMEA, Chubb
kathryn.coventry@chubb.com