Cyber risk promises less of a potential impact on the global economy than risks such as spread of infectious disease, water crises, weapons of mass destruction, fiscal crises, unemployment, underemployment, or worldwide conflict, but it ranks quite highly in both likelihood of attack and effect, according to the World Economic Forum.
Cyber attacks also represent a new and fast-rising source of peril, according to thought leaders who convened in Davos, Switzerland last week to share ideas, concerns, and possible solutions to the threats facing humankind. Also unveiled during the event was a report developed by Marsh & McLennan Cos. And Zurich Insurance Group on the most significant global threats in 2015 and beyond.
“The Global Risks Landscape, a map of the most likely and impactful global risks, puts forward that, 25 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, ‘interstate conflict’ is once again a foremost concern,” stated the authors of the report. “However, 2015 differs markedly from the past, with rising technological risks, notably cyber attacks, and new economic realities, which remind us that geopolitical tensions present themselves in a very different world from before. Information flows instantly around the globe and emerging technologies have boosted the influence of new players and new types of warfare.”
Data fraud and cyber attacks ranked ninth and 10th on the list of likely global risks. Breakdown of critical infrastructure, which could be triggered by any number of risks but has been increasingly held up as a possible consequence of a cyber attack, ranked seventh in terms of global impact in the report.
Emerging technologies, while promising in many ways, carry obvious as well as unforeseen risks, the report noted. Researchers also highlighted the growing interconnectedness of geopolitical risk and economic risk.
