Cyberattacks are the eighth risk the world will face in 2023.
The latest Global Risks Report from the World Economic Forum lists the top risks the world will face in the next decade, including the cost of living and environmental issues. The report uses data from the Global Risk Perception Survey 2022-2023 to understand the risks the world is likely to face in the next 10 years.
Within the list of the 10 global risks, both in the short term (2 years) and in the long term (10 years), cybercrime and generalized cyber insecurity occupy eighth place.
In this regard, Israel Gutiérrez, CTO of the global company specialized in cybersecurity A3Sec, comments that cyberattacks will be increasingly common, not only against people's information, whether it is identity theft or digital assets such as email accounts or social media, companies will be increasingly attacked, "we start from the digitization that we are experiencing, little by little companies are changing their processes, many of them are digitized and either that information is stored in the company's own computers or servers or Hosted in the cloud, this completely increases the attack surface and increases the potential windows that cybercriminals can find.”
According to IBM, nowadays the average cost of a cyberattack for a company reaches 4.35 million dollars, the data also shows that ransomware or data hijacking increases by 41%, which raised the cost of containment by up to $150,000 dollars, the industry that is most exposed is healthcare, the cost of a breach in the healthcare sector has increased 42% since 2020 and for the 12th consecutive year has the highest average cost of a data breach of any industry.
“For companies, it is not a question of if a data breach or hijacking will occur, but of when it will happen, it should be noted that this can happen more than once. The important thing here is to have the necessary protection to detect them faster, react at the right moment and be able to recover from threats, in the best possible way. In organizations that use Artificial Intelligence and automation, the breaches had a 74-day shorter life cycle and saved an average of 3 million dollars compared to those that do not use them,” says Israel Gutiérrez.
The World Economic Forum Report indicates that the growing interrelation of technologies with the critical functioning of societies exposes the population to direct internal threats, including those of the functioning of society. Along with the rise in cybercrime, attempts to disrupt critical technology resources and services, with anticipated attacks against financial systems, public safety, transportation, energy, and communication infrastructures, technology risks are not limited to just criminals. Sophisticated analysis of large data sets will enable the misuse of personal information through legitimate legal procedures, undermining digital sovereignty and the right to privacy, even in well-regulated democratic regimes.
It should be noted that cybersecurity is more important for companies, as it ranks fourth in importance at the business level, whereas for governments, it ranks ninth.
