Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk

The report identifies a growing 'hidden cyber-resilience deficit' caused by the increased complexity and interdependence of emerging technologies. It argues that current individual defensive strategies are insufficient to handle systemic risks, such as the potential for quantum computing to break asymmetric cryptography or AI to automate sophisticated cyberattacks. The authors call for a paradigm shift toward collective operational security, international policy alignment on liability and standards, and equitable access to cybersecurity capacity for developing nations.

• The rapid evolution of cyberspace is creating a 'hidden cyber-resilience deficit' where the aggregation of cyber risk cannot be properly accounted for due to opaque and entangled supply chains.
• Ubiquitous connectivity, driven by 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), expands the attack surface and introduces systemic risks through shared dependence on a small pool of high-value infrastructure providers.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) is creating an arms race between attackers and defenders; while it enables faster threat detection, it also allows adversaries to automate attacks, increase precision, and use 'deepfakes' to distort truth or create new attack vectors.
• Quantum computing poses a critical threat to the global digital economy by potentially rendering current asymmetric cryptography redundant, creating a 'download now, decrypt later' risk for sensitive long-term data.
• The current global landscape for digital identity is fragmented and suboptimal, requiring a new model for 'transitivity of trust' and globally interoperable governance frameworks to prevent systemic fraud and abuse.
• Existing cybersecurity operational capabilities are not fit for purpose to handle the scale and speed of emerging threats, necessitating new automated defense tools and enriched real-time information-sharing frameworks.
• There is a critical need for international policy interventions to ensure equitable access to cybersecurity capacity, preventing a 'quantum poverty' gap and ensuring that security does not become a barrier to technology adoption in developing countries.
• Enterprise leadership must shift from protecting individual systems to assuring the integrity of interconnected business and social processes, as current supply-chain security attestation models are considered 'broken'.

APA

World Economic Forum (2020). Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Series_Cybersecurity_emerging_technology_and_systemic_risk_2020.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk. 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Series_Cybersecurity_emerging_technology_and_systemic_risk_2020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk |date=November 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Series_Cybersecurity_emerging_technology_and_systemic_risk_2020.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2020cybersecurity, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Cybersecurity, emerging technology and systemic risk}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = nov, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_Series_Cybersecurity_emerging_technology_and_systemic_risk_2020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }