World Economic Forum ranks cybersecurity among top global risks

The World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with The Boston Consulting Group, has published a report “Cyber Resilience: Playbook for Public-Private Collaboration” which outlines policy models related to issues like zero-days and vulnerabilities, attribution, botnets, encryption, active defence, liability and insurance, among other. The report warns that threats are outpacing the ability to overcome them, and emphasises the importance of a multistakeholder approach to addressing them. Around the same time, WEF has released its annual Global Risks Report 2018, which recognises cybersecurity as one of the world’s most critical risks, along with environmental degradation, economic strains, and geopolitical tensions. This report positions risks of cyberattacks high in terms of both disruptive impact and likelihood, and links them strongly with risks of massive data frauds, failure of critical information infrastructure and critical infrastructure, as well as terrorist attacks, failure of financial institutions and interstate conflicts.