’If we can increase the uptake of cyber insurance, it may help improve economic resilience against cyber crime,’ says chief executive

Biba has developed a new cyber insurance directory to help protect UK businesses via specialist accredited Biba brokers.

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The new directory, available on the Biba website, will allow businesses to search for a broker who has been through an approval process.

It comes after recent research highlighted a clear protection gap. Biba’s manifesto outlined that the Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report in 2025 revealed 59% of respondents had experienced a cyber attack in the previous 12 months.

However, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) latest survey shows that only 10% of businesses and 5% of charities had a specific cyber security insurance policy.

Launching the directory at the 2026 Biba Conference, chief executive Graeme Trudgill said: “Cyber threats are on the increase and this is a positive initiative that aims to help raise awareness and close the cyber insurance protection gap by ensuring SMEs can be signposted to a genuine expert.

“We hope insurance brokers will be able to help more businesses engage with them through this new service. If we can increase the uptake of cyber insurance, it may help improve economic resilience against cyber crime events like those we have witnessed in recent times.”

Criteria

Biba engaged with DSIT during the development of the directory criteria, which requires insurance brokers to operate their own cyber security framework that generally meets or exceeds the cyber essentials standard and have standalone cyber insurance for their own business.

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Baroness Lloyd of Effra, parliamentary under secretary of state for the digital economy, said: “By combining the government’s cyber essentials scheme with Biba’s accredited cyber insurance broker programme, we’re giving firms practical tools to understand the risks, protect their data and finances and bounce back quickly if something goes wrong.

“This work matters and we need to keep pushing it further so businesses across the country have the cyber resilience they need to succeed.”

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