Cyber risk remains the top concern for property and construction sector leaders, as businesses grapple with an increasingly complex and fast-moving digital threat landscape, according to research by specialist insurance business, Beazley.
Based on a survey of 3,500 global business leaders, including senior executives across property and construction, the findings show how cyber risk has become a business-wide issue, capable of disrupting operations and driving financial losses across supply chains. This is being further intensified by the rapid adoption of AI and other advanced technologies.
However, while cyber risk is firmly established as a leading concern, the data also highlights a disconnect in how businesses perceive their resilience. Many organisations report high levels of preparedness and confidence in their ability to recover, despite recognising the growing scale and sophistication of cyber threats.
Key points, according to the report, include:
- 32% identify cyber risk as the top risk to their business, in line with global findings showing cyber as the number one concern across sectors
- 21% cite technology disruption, with a further 24% pointing to technology obsolescence, particularly where legacy systems remain in place
- 22% highlight intellectual property risk, reflecting the increasing value and exposure of proprietary information
But when it comes to the preparedness of businesses in the property and construction sector, the research highlights:
- 74% say they feel prepared for cyber risk, pointing to a potential gap between perception and reality
- 76% are confident they could recover financially from a cyber attack, despite the growing systemic nature of cyber threats
- 28% plan to increase investment in cyber security and resilience measures
- 19% say data loss, regulatory obligations and fines would have the greatest impact following a cyber incident
Across industries, resilience is increasingly defined not by whether disruption occurs, but by how far it spreads, how long it lasts and how quickly organisations can recover – a definition that contrasts with the high levels of confidence many businesses express in their cyber resilience, Beazley says.
Alessandro Lezzi, group head of cyber risks at Beazley, said: “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. While cyber risk is widely recognised as the number one threat facing businesses globally, 76% of property and construction executives believe they could fully recover financially from a cyber attack, demonstrating many property and construction organisations are overestimating their preparedness to withstand the full impact of an attack across all corners of their operations.
“That gap matters because cyber risk is becoming more systemic – the high profile incidences 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 almost a third of property and construction 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.”
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