Cyber risk is now firmly at the top of the international agenda as high-profile breaches raise fears that hack attacks and other security failures could endanger the global economy. The World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Risks report 8, included this rather stark warning: “Cybersecurity risks are also growing, both in their prevalence and in their disruptive potential. Attacks against businesses have almost doubled in five years, and incidents that would once have been considered extraordinary are becoming more and more commonplace. The financial impact of cybersecurity breaches is rising, and some of the largest costs in 2017 related to ransomware attacks, which accounted for 64% of all malicious emails. Notable examples included the WannaCry attack—which affected 300,000 computers across 150 countries—and NotPetya, which caused quarterly losses of US$300 million for a number of affected businesses.

Another growing trend is the use of cyberattacks to target critical infrastructure and strategic industrial sectors, raising fears that, in a worst-case scenario, attackers could trigger a breakdown in the systems that keep societies functioning”.

Cybersecurity is also key for the digitazation of services, both private and public and for the development and expansion of e-government as many identity theft ranks among the top fears of Europeans when asked about live in the digital world.