Aon highlights the rapid transformation of cyber risk, which is extending beyond IT departments and becoming a direct threat to business continuity and performance. As companies increasingly rely on suppliers, cloud platforms and interconnected digital infrastructures, a single incident can trigger a chain reaction, affecting customers, partners and suppliers. Against this backdrop, the international market is shifting from an approach focused primarily on protection to one centered on cyber resilience – the ability of organizations to anticipate and prevent incidents, respond effectively when they occur, and restore normal operations quickly while limiting the impact on business activities.
Data analyzed by Aon point to intensifying threats worldwide. In 2025, 22,052 incidents were reported, including 12,195 confirmed breaches, across 139 countries. In Europe, DDoS (Distributed Denial-of-Service) attacks accounted for approximately 77% of the incidents analyzed by ENISA, while ransomware remained the threat with the greatest impact. During the first four months of 2026, ransomware incidents in Europe increased by 55.1% compared with the same period in 2025.
Romania is following the same trends. Between 2025 and 2026, more than 25 million security events were reported, while phishing attacks rose 70.6%, account compromises 353%, and ransomware attacks 153%. Furthermore, 42% of the incidents reported in the first half of the year were associated with phone scams and social engineering techniques, highlighting the increasingly sophisticated exploitation of the human factor.
“Cyber risk can no longer be viewed as an exclusively technical issue. A company may have well-protected systems and still be vulnerable through a supplier, a cloud service or the compromise of an employee’s identity. For business leaders, the key question is now how quickly they can continue operating when an essential element of their ecosystem becomes unavailable,” says Eugen Anicescu, CEO of Aon Romania.
From attack to business impact: costs spread across the organization
Ransomware remains one of the most severe threats facing companies. According to Verizon data analyzed by Aon, ransomware was involved in 44% of the breaches examined in 2025, up from approximately 32% in the previous edition of the Verizon DBIR report. For small and medium-sized businesses, ransomware and Business Email Compromise (BEC) account for more than half of all claims and associated costs. The average cost of an incident has reached USD 264,000, up almost 30% from the previous year.
However, financial losses are only one dimension of the risk. An attack can lead to production or service disruptions, lost sales and productivity, system and data restoration costs, forensic and legal investigations, crisis management expenses, and damage to relationships with customers and suppliers. Globally, the average cost of a data breach is estimated at USD 4.99 million in 2026, up 12% from the previous year.
Another important warning sign is the growing exposure to third-party risks: the share of breaches involving suppliers or other third-party organizations has increased from 15% to 30%, according to Verizon data. In an economy increasingly dependent on interconnected digital infrastructures, cyber risk assessments must therefore extend beyond organizational boundaries to include the supply chain, critical suppliers, cloud services and business interruption scenarios.
“Cyber resilience starts with understanding a company’s actual exposure and how an incident could spread across its operations. Companies need to assess not only their own systems, but also their dependencies on suppliers, infrastructure and essential digital services. At the same time, business continuity plans and the ability to respond quickly must be tested before an incident occurs, rather than developed in the middle of a crisis,” says Eugen Anicescu.
In the evolving cyber landscape, resilience is no longer just about preventing an attack. It is about maintaining operations and restoring normal business activities quickly when an attack occurs.
For companies, this shift requires an integrated approach to risk management: assessing cyber maturity and vulnerabilities, analyzing dependencies on suppliers, preparing incident response procedures, developing business continuity plans, and using insurance as a risk transfer tool.
In this context, cyber insurance is becoming a complementary instrument alongside prevention and resilience measures. Depending on the policy structure, it can cover costs arising from incident response and system recovery, as well as losses associated with business interruption or the unavailability of critical suppliers.
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