A spate of cyberattacks on freezers in Europe has exposed the “blurred boundary” between digital and property exposures, according to insurer MS Amlin.

Lead cyber underwriter Monica Tigleanu says the hacks are a “reminder that cyber incidents can result in direct physical losses. While the immediate consequence was spoilt stock, the incident also had the potential to create wider building safety risks.

“It highlights the increasingly blurred boundary between cyber and property exposures, and the importance of understanding how different policies and wordings would respond.”

Hackers targeted French blood banks last week in one of the latest incidents.

Ms Tigleanu says the “common thread is that many operational systems were built to run for decades and were only later connected to the internet to enable remote monitoring and management.

“In some cases, the cyber controls around these systems may not have kept pace with their increasing connectivity, creating potentially significant exposures.”

Hospitals, hotels, pharmaceutical and vaccine cold chains, and food manufacturers could all face comparable exposure, according to Ms Tigleanu.

“Operational technology remains something of a blind spot for both businesses and insurers.

“Cyber underwriters do not always have sufficient visibility of these systems through company-level portfolio analysis, making it harder to assess physical loss potential. That needs to change.”

She says businesses have an important role to play preventing cyber breaches from developing into physical loss.

“They should not wait for an incident to test either their operational resilience or their insurance cover. They need to understand which systems are exposed, who can access them and whether independent safeguards would prevent a cyber intrusion from becoming a physical loss.”