Will your commercial insurance still be valid if you use Windows 10 after 14th October 2025?

Will your commercial insurance still be valid if you use Windows 10 after 14 October 2025?

Possibly valid — but conditional.

Your policy likely won’t be void automatically, but if you suffer a cyber incident, data breach, or business interruption, the insurer may refuse to pay out depending on the cause of the issue and your adherence to basic security standards.

Here's what matters most:

1. Policy Wording

Check for clauses like: "Reasonable precautions" or "Duty of care"

Most commercial insurance requires you to take reasonable steps to protect your assets. "Software maintenance" / "Security standards" / "Patching obligations"

These often mean using up-to-date and supported software. Continuing to use unsupported Windows 10 might be interpreted as a failure to meet these terms, especially if it's a known risk.

2. Cause of Incident

If a cyber attack or data breach is traced to an unpatched Windows 10 vulnerability (which won’t be fixed post-October 2025), your insurer could argue:

The breach was preventable and your system was non-compliant with industry best practices. Therefore, no compensation is due.

3. Cyber Insurance vs General Commercial Insurance

Cyber insurance is more likely to have explicit exclusions for unsupported or out-of-date software.

General business insurance (e.g., property, liability) may not care about your OS — unless the event involves IT systems (like data loss, ransomware, or business interruption caused by a cyber event).

4. Regulatory Non-Compliance = Higher Risk

If your business also handles personal data, using unsupported software after 14 Oct 2025 could mean:

• Breach of UK GDPR
• Regulatory fines
• Reputational damage

Most insurers won’t cover fines or losses due to regulatory breaches caused by avoidable IT failures.

Want a sample email to your insurer?

Here’s a simple message you can send to your insurance provider:

Subject: Clarification Request: Use of Windows 10 After End-of-Life

Dear [Broker/Insurer Name],

We are reviewing our IT systems and would like to confirm whether continued use of Windows 10 after its official end-of-support date (14 October 2025) would affect our commercial or cyber insurance coverage.

Specifically, could you confirm:

Whether use of unsupported operating systems impacts our policy validity or any exclusions

Whether a claim would be affected if a cyber incident is linked to such systems

Any steps we should take to remain compliant with our insurance obligations

Kind regards,

[Your Name]
[Your Business Name]