Businesses are Learning That Cyber Risk is an Ongoing Operational Expense

Cyberattacks are becoming a routine cost of doing business rather than an occasional crisis. According to the Hiscox Cyber Readiness Report 2026, nearly one-third of organizations experienced a cyberattack in the past year.

Organizations that suffer cyber incidents lose an average of 32 hours of operational productivity per attack and face annual cyber-related costs of roughly $52,000. Moreover, attacks can disrupt business operations, damage customer trust, delay expansion plans, and put pressure on leadership teams responsible for managing risk.

Organizations increase investments in cyber resilience

To address these challenges, business leaders are investing more heavily in cyber resilience. This report found that organizations now spend an average of about $51,000 annually on measures such as employee security awareness training, cybersecurity software, specialist expertise, and cyber insurance. Researchers mentioned that enterprises are transitioning from prevention-focused strategies toward resilience models that emphasize preparation, response, and recovery when incidents occur.

However, keep in mind that cybersecurity spending is becoming a permanent operating expense, which requires continuous investment in people, processes, and technology. These investments can reduce disruption and improve recovery outcomes, but they do not eliminate cyber risk. Instead, organizations are being forced to accept cyber threats as an ongoing cost of doing business and balance security investments against other business priorities.

According to this report, businesses are making progress in treating cyber risk as a strategic business issue. However, as cyber threats continue to evolve, organizations may find that long-term resilience depends more on maintaining the resources required to block and recover from them.

What organizations should do?

Organizations should treat cybersecurity as a business risk. As cyberattacks continue to disrupt operations, companies need to make resilience an important part of their business strategy. This includes ensuring that senior leadership is involved in cyber risk management, establishing clear accountability for security outcomes, and regularly assessing how cyber incidents could affect operations, finances, reputation, and customer trust.

Business leaders must invest in a balanced resilience strategy that combines people, processes, and technology. Organizations should provide ongoing cybersecurity awareness training for employees, strengthen security controls and monitoring capabilities, and develop incident response and recovery plans that can minimize downtime. They must also perform regular testing of these plans to respond more effectively during a real-world incident and maintain critical operations.

Lastly, businesses should focus on improving their ability to recover quickly from attacks through measures, including cyber insurance, backup and recovery systems, and continuity planning.