The World Economic Forum (WEF) has warned that cybersecurity risks will have a major impact global businesses and countries over the next few years.

Issues such as digital inequality, over-crowding of space satellites and cybersecurity risks must be major factors to be considered moving forward.

The new WEF Global Risks Report 2022 has highlighted top issues facing organisations and governments over the next two to five years.

Issues such as cross-border cyberattacks, growing digital inequality and misinformation are among the most serious, the WEF stated.

Additionally, the report explored areas such as a disorderly climate transition and migration pressures, which require global coordination for successful management.

Ransomware and nation-state-backed attacks are becoming more common as we become more digitally enabled and organisations become more reliant on technology.

Over the last 18, months, as industries have undergone rapid digitalisation, cybersecurity risk has expanded.

Data revealed that, in 2020, malware and ransomware attacks increased by 358% and 435% respectively — and are outpacing societies’ ability to effectively prevent or respond to them.

According to data from the report, 19.5% of respondents believe that problems with cybersecurity will become a “critical threat to the world” over the next two years, while 14.6% believe it will happen over the next five years.

To mitigate such threats, artificial intelligence, space exploration, cross-border cyberattacks, and misinformation are some of the most developed areas internationally.

The report encourages leaders to “think outside the quarterly reporting cycle” and create “policies that manage risks and shape the agenda for the coming years”.

Commenting on the report, Carolina Klint, Risk Management Leader, Continental Europe, Marsh, said: “As companies recover from the pandemic, they are rightly sharpening their focus on organisational resilience and ESG credentials.

“With cyber threats now growing faster than our ability to eradicate them permanently, it is clear that neither resilience nor governance are possible without credible and sophisticated cyber risk management plans.

“Similarly, organisations need to start understanding their space risks, particularly the risk to satellites on which we have become increasingly reliant, given the rise in geopolitical ambitions and tensions.”

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To resolve these systemic issues, global leaders must adopt a coordinated multi-stakeholder response, even as room for cooperation narrows, the WEF said.

A lack of collaboration between countries was highlighted, with development of rules of behaviour in cyber space and best practices in security that can be shared across industries and economies being low priorities.

The WEF said that world leaders should start focusing on initiatives around blockchain, quantum computing and AI.

“Unless we act to improve digital trust with intentional and persistent trust-building initiatives, the digital world will continue to drift towards fragmentation and the promise of one of the most dynamic eras of human progress may be lost,” the report said.

The WEF is right to be concerned about the threat of cybersecurity to countries worldwide as we move into 2022.

Recent global statistics on cyberattacks by Check Point revealed that, in 2021, the world saw a 50% increase in cyberattacks per week on corporate networks compared to 2020, peaking in December.

The industry, education and research sectors were the most targeted by threat actors, with data showing that cyberattacks on these areas increased by 75% last year.

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