The rise in home-grown Islamist extremism "presents an unprecedented threat" to businesses, according to a major new report out today.
Lloyd's of London, the world's largest insurance market, and the International Institute of Strategic Studies, has warned that any organisation can find itself caught up in an episode as terrorists focus on causing mass casualties and major economic damage.
Lord Levene, chairman of Lloyd's, said: "No-one should be in any doubt that home-grown terrorism has the potential to disrupt business significantly.
However, although most business leaders are increasingly worried about it, they have also told us that they currently understand very little about what home-grown terrorism risk means for their business."
The report added that:
• Some businesses are more vulnerable than others to terrorism. These include organisations that have a very high profile or are an obvious part of critical national infrastructure.
• The risk for all businesses of becoming caught up in an indirect attack is "significantly higher", yet often overlooked.
• Terrorists are eager to wreak mass havoc in new and creative ways - chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and cyber-terrorism are all avenues that have been considered to varying degrees.
The report said businesses may not be attacked directly, but they should take practical steps.
It said security officers and other senior executives should bear in mind a number of basic factors when considering the physical location of their business.
These include investigating who are your neighbours are, training someone to turn off ventilation and having a "safe room" in the building with as few glass windows as possible when evacuating is not necessarily the best option.
Mr Levene added: "The business community urgently needs to close the gap between growing awareness of the risk, and a lack of understanding of what it means in practice."
