Technology obsolescence is biggest digital threat in 2024 – Beazley

More than a quarter (27%) of global business leaders believe that technology obsolescence – when a product or service is not useful anymore compared to newer technology – is the biggest digital threat impacting their organisations this year, according to new research by specialist insurer Beazley.

Its Risk resilience report: Spotlight on cyber and technology 2024, which surveyed 3,500 business leaders and insurance buyers across the UK, US, Canada, Singapore, France, Spain and Germany, further found that 24% of respondents are unprepared when it comes to managing the pace of technological development.

The report stated: “The advent of new technologies continues at an unprecedented pace, hardly giving businesses time to absorb and adopt one new transformative technology before another comes along.

”While it can be tempting to rush to adopt new transformative technology to gain a competitive advantage, businesses need to adopt a robust risk mitigation strategy and perform diligent horizon scanning when adopting new technology. 

”Worryingly, our data shows that perceived cyber risk preparedness has dropped from 80% in 2022 to 75% this year.”

Beazley’s research additionally revealed that 25% of respondents planned to invest in artificial intelligence (AI) to improve their risk resilience, while 68% are concerned that AI will ultimately replace jobs at their company.

The insurer also noted that AI was increasingly being used by hackers to execute more sophisticated cyber attacks – for example, deepfakes.

A deepfake is a fake image, video or recording that uses AI to make it appear real. 

Insurance plays an ‘important role’

Commenting on the report findings, Paul Bantick, global head of cyber risks at Beazley, said: “With technological innovation set to bring about seismic societal change, the growing regulatory burden for firms and cyber criminals [is] becoming more and more sophisticated [and] businesses are facing a wave of new threats.”

Bantick added that, as a result of this landscape, “the need for robust risk mitigation strategies has never been greater”.

He continued: “Insurance can play an important role.

”By leveraging the vast amount of claims, incident and threat information data we have and translating that into actionable guidance and advising on elevated ‘always on’ resilience for a range of cyber and technology risks, we can help clients to better navigate the risks they face today.”