Context: Recently, the World Economic Forum’s ‘Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022’ was released during its online Davos Agenda summit.
About the Report

• It is the first Global Cybersecurity Outlook flagship report released by World Economic Forum.
• The report identifies the trends and analyzes the near-term future cybersecurity challenges. 
• The accelerated shift to remote working during the COVID-19 pandemic coupled with recent high-profile cyberattacks have resulted in bringing cybersecurity top of mind among key decision-makers in organisations and nations.

Key takeaways from the report
Rising cyber-attacks

• The accelerating pace of digitalisation, fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic, has led to a record-breaking year for cybercrime with ransomware attacks rising 151 per cent in 2021, and an average of 270 cyberattacks per organisation being faced

Cost of breaching

• Each successful cyber breach cost a company USD 3.6 million (nearly Rs 27 crore) last year, while the average share price of the hacked company underperformed NASDAQ by nearly 3 percent even six months after the event in case of the breach becoming public.

Dangerous ransomware

• The WEF said the global digital economy surged on the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, but so has cybercrime and nearly 80 percent of cyber leaders now consider ransomware a 'danger' and 'threat' to public safety.

Cyber resilience

• Some 92 per cent of business executives surveyed agree that cyber resilience is integrated into enterprise risk-management strategies, but only 55 percent of cyber leaders surveyed agreed. 
• This gap between leaders can leave firms vulnerable to attacks as a direct result of incongruous security priorities and policies
• Less than one-fifth of cyber leaders feel confident that their organisations are cyber resilient.

Weakest Link

• Nearly nine in ten see SMEs as the weakest link in the supply chain.

Challenges

Response time

• Companies need 280 days on average to identify and respond to a cyberattack.

Lack of skill set

• Nearly two-thirds would find it challenging to respond to a cybersecurity incident due to the shortage of skills within their team.

Retaining skilled force

• The dearth of staff security positions is a major threat to business continuity and even to national defence. 
• The survey found that 50% of all respondents would find it challenging to respond and recover from a cyberattack due to the shortage of skills within their team, and less than 25% of companies with 5,000 to 50,000 employees, have the people and skills they need today.

Poor Prioritisation

• The survey indicates that whereas about 85% of cyber leaders agree that cyber resilience is a business priority for their organization, one of their most prominent challenges is to gain decision-makers’ support when prioritising cyber risks, against a plurality of other risks. 
• These discordant results indicate that highlighting cyber resilience as a business priority alone is necessary but insufficient.

Road Ahead

• In a world that is so deeply interconnected by digital technology, cybersecurity and global security are the same thing. 
• No single organisation, public or private, can have a complete view of the entire cyber landscape. 
• Senior leadership must insist organisations share information to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
• Organisations need to work more closely with ecosystem partners and other third parties to make cybersecurity part of their ecosystem DNA, so they can be resilient and promote customer trust.