In the 16th edition of the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Risks Report, cybersecurity continues to be among the top 10 risks. This has been driven by the rapid digitisation of human interactions in the way we work and live and exacerbated by the pandemic. The report states that as social identities become more defined by online identities, users will be increasingly at risk of exposure to targeted political manipulation, invasion of privacy, cybercrime, financial loss, and psychological or physical harm.
Robert Huber, Chief Security Officer at Tenable, commented, “Cybersecurity failure ranks the fourth highest “clear and present danger” in the World Economic Forum’s Global Risk Report 2021. This should come as no surprise as our global reliance on all things technology went into overdrive in 2020.
Computational power was instrumental in the research and development of vaccines. Operational technology within critical infrastructure continues to underpin the cold supply chain and logistics, facilitating the safe delivery and storage of vaccine vials.
While the power of technology was on full display in 2020, so too were the potential pitfalls. The issue with this kind of reliance is that, if we continue to steam ahead without first ensuring the security of this technology, the threats to our digital economy and very way of life will take hold.
In 2020, we saw that threat actors weren’t afraid to take aim and exploit weaknesses in security practices for financial and even political gain. While regulation and globally accepted frameworks can be effective in raising the importance of cybersecurity efforts, alone neither is enough. Any cybersecurity initiative has to look beyond meeting minimum standard requirements to address the actual risks organisations face. It must elevate cybersecurity’s role as a strategic business function and critical enterprise risk.”
