Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World

The report argues that cyber resilience is a strategic socio-economic issue essential for realizing the full economic value of technological innovations. It finds that most large institutions possess only nascent risk management capabilities and that attackers are currently outpacing defenders. The document outlines three future scenarios for 2020, warning that a failure to build a robust cyber resilience ecosystem could result in up to US$ 3.06 trillion in unrealized economic value. To mitigate this, it proposes a multi-stakeholder approach focusing on institutional readiness, public policy, community action, and systemic responses.

• Cyber resilience is viewed as a strategic risk by a majority of companies, with financial institutions being particularly sensitive; approximately 80% of them consider it a "strategic risk".
• There is a widespread belief among executives that attackers are evolving faster than defenders. Approximately 69% of interviewees state that the pace or sophistication of attackers will increase more quickly than the ability of institutions to defend themselves.
• Most large companies lack mature processes for managing cyber risk. A survey of 100 companies revealed that 90% had risk management capabilities categorized as either "nascent" or "developing".
• Cybersecurity concerns are causing measurable delays in the adoption of new technologies. About 78% of surveyed companies reported that security concerns delayed the adoption of public cloud computing by one year or more, while 43% experienced similar delays for enterprise mobility capabilities.
• Cybersecurity controls are negatively impacting employee productivity. Nearly 90% of institutions report that controls protecting information assets have at least a "moderate" impact on front-line employee productivity.
• Technological innovations could create between US$ 9.6 trillion and US$ 21.6 trillion in value by 2020, but this is threatened by different cyber resilience scenarios. In a 'backlash' scenario where attacks escalate and cooperation fails, the global economy could lose up to US$ 3.06 trillion in unrealized value.
• The report identifies four critical pillars for improving the cyber resilience ecosystem: institutional readiness, public and international policy, community responses, and systemic responses.

APA

World Economic Forum (2014). Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RiskResponsibility_HyperconnectedWorld_Report_2014.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World. 2014. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RiskResponsibility_HyperconnectedWorld_Report_2014.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World |date=January 2014 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RiskResponsibility_HyperconnectedWorld_Report_2014.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2014risk, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Risk and Responsibility in a Hyperconnected World}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2014}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RiskResponsibility_HyperconnectedWorld_Report_2014.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }