Security News > 2021 > February > World Economic Forum calls cybersecurity one of the "key threats of the next decade"

Cybersecurity took center stage in the 16th edition of the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report alongside the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, and debt crises.

The analysts behind the report called cybersecurity failure among the "Highest likelihood risks" of the next 10 years and IT infrastructure breakdown "Among the highest impact risks of the next decade."

In a survey of experts included in the report, 39% of respondents said cybersecurity failure was a critical threat to the world right now and ranked as the most pertinent risk on the list after infectious disease, extreme weather events, and livelihood crises.

Hitesh Sheth, president and CEO at cybersecurity firm Vectra, said the only surprise in the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report is that cybersecurity failure wasn't ranked higher.

Vulcan Cyber CEO Yaniv Bar-Dayan explained that there is a direct correlation between cybersecurity, digital inequality, IT infrastructure breakdowns, and terrorist attacks as well as weapons of mass destruction because the traditional definitions of both 'terrorism' and 'weapons' are becoming more related to cybersecurity in our digital world.

"Fortunately, we have more control over cybersecurity risks than we do over other threats like infectious diseases and extreme weather events. But the IT security industry must be much more diligent and proactive in improving the cyber hygiene of our digital infrastructure," Bar-Dayan noted.

News URL

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/world-economic-forum-calls-cybersecurity-one-of-the-key-threats-of-the-next-decade/#ftag=RSS56d97e7