After natural disasters and extreme weather, cyberattacks pose the greatest danger to humanity over the next five years. This is stated in a new report by the World Economic Forum.
Cyberattacks and database theft have surfaced on the World Economic Forum’s list of the biggest threats to society in the Global Risk Report 2018.
“The number of attacks on companies has almost doubled in five years, and incidents that once would have been extraordinary now feel increasingly commonplace,” WEF writes in the report’s preface.
As an example, the report mentions the global virus campaigns Wannacry and Petya that hit society hard last year. These so-called ransomware programs encrypt the files on the victims’ computers, and they caused major problems and major financial losses worldwide. Everything from hospitals and banks to industrial and transport companies was affected.
Read more: the Swedish Security Service’s seven tips on how to protect yourself online
Another concern is the poor security of many of the connected gadgets that usually go by the collective name internet of things. Surveillance cameras, sensors and streaming boxes often lack basic security mechanisms and are easy targets for hackers, who then use their computing power to spread viruses, send spam or carry out overload attacks.
A third threat is that many control systems in industry and in countries’ infrastructure are connected to the network. Successful attacks on such systems can have major consequences and cause enormous damage. WEF cites the attack on Ukraine’s electricity grid at Christmas 2015 as an example – a cyber attack that cut the power for hundreds of thousands of people for hours, in the middle of winter.
Read more: Expert: New type of destructive IT attacks in progress
A related problem, which ranks fourth on the list, is database theft and the fraud that happens in its shadow. One example is the intrusion into the US credit information company Equifax, which was revealed last year. Sensitive personal data belonging to almost half of the US adult population was stolen – information that can be used for extortion, fraud and the mapping of people’s lives.
The worst of all threats to society in the next few years are extreme weather and natural disasters. On the horizon is also our potential inability to deal with the climate threat.
The five biggest threats in the next five years:
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Extreme weather
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Natural disasters
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Cyberattacks
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Data theft and fraud
For what this means for critical infrastructure, see today’s threat level.
