Explore how technologies like blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, smart contracts, NFTs, AI and Web3 are transforming the business landscape – and how the right cyber insurance can keep organisations trading when things go wrong.
Across every business sector, the way organisations run is shifting onto new kinds of digital infrastructure. Payments that settle on blockchains, customer memberships issued as digital tokens, AI copilots helping teams code, market and serve – and data moving everywhere on cloud platforms. In short, each organisation increasingly relies on digital infrastructure it does not own or fully control. That creates real opportunities — and new points of failure. Here’s how the landscape is evolving, where risks are emerging, and how working with a specialist like Costero Brokers can help you build a tailor-made cyber insurance programme that fits how organisations operate today.
The business landscape is changing fast
Consider the next generation of digital business infrastructure. Customers tap their phone or wristwatch to pay. Business teams collaborate in the cloud. Marketing leans on AI to personalise campaigns. Finance teams explore tokenised assets or crypto rails for faster settlement. This isn’t tomorrow’s world; it’s happening now.
This new infrastructure can create real commercial advantage:
- Speed and automation with smart contracts: Blockchain-based “smart contracts” can automate routine business steps (say, paying a supplier once goods are confirmed), helping cash flow and reducing manual error. For many businesses, this means faster settlement and fewer reconciliations. (Source: IBM)
- Building trust with tokenisation: Tokenised assets and Web3-style memberships can enable 24/7 commerce and new customer engagement models. Global institutions and policymakers are actively exploring tokenisation in payments and capital markets, signalling a durable shift in how value moves. (Source: McKinsey)
- Productivity at scale with AI: For most organisations, AI has rapidly moved from a business experiment to an indispensable enterprise tool. From triaging service tickets to drafting content, AI is now embedded in day-to-day workflows. (Source: UK National Cyber Security Centre)
For most organisations, these benefits are becoming too significant to ignore. The question isn’t if or when businesses will use this next-generation digital infrastructure – it’s how to adopt it safely.
With great digital power comes new risks
While these benefits are considerable, organisations placing reliance on this new digital infrastructure will face new risks and challenges:
- Single points of failure in the tech supply chain: When a critical third-party tool breaks, the knock-on effects can be huge. In July 2024, a faulty update to the widely used CrowdStrike security platform triggered crashes on more than 8 million Windows systems, grounding flights and disrupting banks worldwide. This wasn’t a malicious hack – it was dependency failure at massive scale. (Source: The Verge)
- Losses in crypto/Web3 ecosystems: Poorly designed code, compromised keys or attacks on cross-network bridges and external data oracles can drain funds rapidly from crypto systems. During the first half of 2025, a total of over USD $2 billion worth of cryptocurrency was stolen worldwide – mostly in one mega-heist but also numerous smaller incidents. This underlines that the risk is real for any organisation utilising blockchain and digital assets. (Source: Chainalysis)
- AI-specific exposures: AI can leak sensitive data, enable convincing phishing scams, or infringe IP if not governed well. That’s why governments are publishing secure-by-design guidance and, in the EU, introducing the AI Act with phased compliance. Organisations must now treat AI as a core business capability that needs risk controls – not a side project. (Source: EU AI Act)
- Rising governance expectations. For organisations that operate in or serve the EU financial sector, the new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) raises the bar on incident reporting, vendor risk and operational resilience. Even outside financial services, board-level cyber accountability is becoming the norm. (Source: EIOPA)
The pattern is clear: business value creation increasingly relies on digital infrastructure, code, data and third party systems. Outages and exploits now translate directly into interrupted revenue, regulatory exposure and brand damage.
How cyber insurance is responding to the changing landscape
The right cyber insurance can be a powerful shock absorber when digital infrastructure stumbles. The market response to a fast-evolving business world has focused on three practical areas:
- Explicit protection for key dependencies: Organisations need to increasingly look for cyber insurance policy wording that responds even when internal systems still work – but a critical third-party (such as cloud, payment gateway, security tool or content delivery network) fails and the business can’t operate. Some markets now offer parametric cover — a transparent, trigger-based approach that pays when, say, a named cloud service suffers defined downtime.
- Clearer treatment of large-scale and state-linked cyber events: Following market guidance, many policies now include model clauses that clarify how state-backed cyber attacks or truly systemic events are handled. Understanding these wordings — and what they mean for your balance sheet — is essential.
- Readiness and response built in: Beyond indemnity, strong cyber programmes should include access to forensics, legal counsel and crisis communications, plus readiness and response preparation. That shortens downtime and helps you meet regulatory timelines in the event of an outage.
How a cyber insurance specialist helps you turn risk into resilience
Costero’s Cyber, Media & Technology (CMT) team is focused on exactly these next-generation exposures. From venture-backed Web3 projects to multinational retailers and financial institutions, we design tailor-made cyber programmes that match how each organisation operates — and where dependencies sit. Cover is placed at Lloyd’s of London, across international markets, and with leading global reinsurers.
We translate tech into business impact. Together we map “where revenue meets risk”: which cloud services, payment rails, security agents, AI/LLM platforms and blockchain providers your operations rely on – and what happens to turnover if each goes down. The key question “What would stop the business trading?” anchors the right limits, sub-limits and deductibles.
We tailor coverage to the real world. Programmes can include:
- Third-party technology failure and dependent-business-interruption cover (including cloud/CDN/payment outages).
- Crypto/Web3 extensions where insurable (for example, theft following private-key compromise, social engineering, post-incident costs).
- AI-related media/IP and privacy cover, plus regulatory defence and investigation costs aligned to regimes like the EU AI Act and DORA.
Find cyber cover for digital business innovation
Whether you’re a business leader, or an insurer or broker with corporate clients, it’s time to explore the latest cyber insurance solutions for exploiting new digital business infrastructure with confidence.
To find out more and discuss your goals, please get in touch with our expert Jonathan Olley at Costero Brokers.
