World Economic Forum: Cyber Security Could Save Trillions

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According to a new report released by the World Economic Forum, failure to improve cyber security on a global scale could cost the world economy trillions of dollars in economic value and lead to more frequent cyber attacks.

The report, Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World, written in collaboration with McKinsey & Company, examines the need for new approaches to increase resilience against cyber attacks.

Released this week during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, the report draws on knowledge and opinions derived from over 300 global executives, government figures, civil society and experts from different business sectors.

According to statistics cited by the World Economic Forum, technology trends such as cloud computing and big data have the potential to create between $9.6 trillion and $21.6 trillion in value for the global economy. However, the reports notes, if attacker tactics outpace the capabilities of defenders, more destructive attacks will result and spark a wave of new regulations and corporate policies that could slow innovation with a massive economic impact.

According to Security Week the report outlined three different scenarios for how things could look in 2020, based on the conceivable value created from innovations in technology that could be affected by global organizations’ ability to defend against cyber attacks.

In what some may suggest is a casting of fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), the report illustrates a scenario where the frequency of attacks significantly escalates, and international cooperation to combat the proliferation of cyber weapons proves elusive. As a result, the report predicts that government “cyber resilience regulations” would become more directive, and disturb adoption of innovative technologies. Under this scenario, the World Economic Forum projected that as much as $3 trillion in value created by adopting these technological innovations would remain unrealized.

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

In a less gloomy scenario, if attackers retain an advantage over defenders, but defenders are able to respond to cyber threats reactively, but successfully, adoption of innovative technologies would slow—but not to the level as the scenario above. Under these conditions, the threat level increases incrementally as more sophisticated cyber weapons leave defenders behind attackers. In this scenario, as much as $1.02 trillion in value from technological innovation would be left unrealized over the next five to seven years, the report said.

In a best-case scenario, the report suggests that proactive action and successful cooperation between the public and private sectors would limit the proliferation of cyber weapons and attack tools, build institutional capabilities and stimulate innovation. As a result, technological innovation would be enabled, “accelerating digitization and creating significant economic value over the remainder of this decade.”

In the public sector, leaders should establish a comprehensive, transparent national cyber strategy that integrates procedures across all policy domains and ensure that law enforcement and the state have a comprehensive and flexible legal code and capabilities to take action when needed.

“Cyberattacks have the potential to change the nature of warfare and international relations, almost past the level of the Cold War,” said the CIO of a European aerospace and defense company.

Cyber events are changing the nature of interstate relations, and nations should establish a national cyber doctrine to define and express their positions on the use of cyber resilience tools and weapons for national purposes, the World Economic Forum report suggests.

The 40-page report from the World Economic Forum includes additional survey data on cyber resilience capabilities, and provides a 14-point roadmap for collaborative actions that organizations can take to gauge their current level of cyber risk capability and improve their readiness.