Preface

| Jeremy Jurgens Managing Director, World Economic Forum

| Paolo Dal Cin Global Security Lead, Accenture

Following decades of relative stability, the world today is marked by increased geopolitical conflicts. The fallout of this turbulence in the digital realm – the growing prowess of cybercriminals, rapid advances in emerging technologies and widening cyber capabilities – have led to a cyberspace that is more complex than ever before. Against this backdrop, the Global Cybersecurity Outlook serves as an indispensable tool to help leaders navigate such complexity and identify essential actions to build resilient ecosystems.

Last year’s report brought to the fore the prevailing inequity between the cyber haves and have-nots. Despite increased executive awareness of cybersecurity risks, the complexity in cyberspace is further exacerbating cyber inequity as resilient organizations pull ahead, while others struggle with limited resources. Amid increasingly interdependent supply chains, this cyber inequity is resulting in systemic points of failure with significant consequences for the overall resilience of the ecosystem.

The transformative potential of AI technologies presents both unprecedented risks and unmatched opportunities for cybersecurity. As organizations race to adopt AI, cybercriminals are moving at breakneck speed to exploit vulnerabilities while enhancing the efficacy of their methods. Cyber defenders, too, are leaving no stone unturned in harnessing the potential of these technologies to shift the balance in this growing AI arms race.

Looking to the future, the level of complexity shows no signs of abating. In a borderless cyberspace, greater collaboration between actors in the public and private sectors is crucial for safeguarding the benefits of digitalization for all. This is a call to action, and the time to act is now.