World Economic Forum warns cyber risk, space & COVID will add to to climate change threat

The latest report released by the World Economic Forum warned about the ongoing and upcoming challenges created by cyber fraudsters, climate change and space technology. According to the report released on January 11, cyber security and space were among the most emerging risks sectors to the global economy besides the ongoing COVID pandemic. The report said that the COVID had swiftly changed the mode of working-- from office to work from home, resulting in an increased threat from cybercriminals. The cyber expert noted that online threats have been grown dramatically in the past two years and added the mechanism to counter those threats that have not been developed as per the required pace.

"We are at the point now where cyberthreats are growing faster than our ability to effectively prevent and manage them," said Carolina Klint, a risk management leader at Marsh, whose parent company Marsh McLennan co-authored the report with Zurich Insurance Group and SK Group. According to the WEF report, the online attackers are now targetting vulnerable people more aggressively than earlier as they developed advanced technology and created new ways to cheat people. "Malware and ransomware attacks have boomed, while the rise of cryptocurrencies makes it easy for online criminals to hide payments they have collected," the report said.

Besides, cyber threats, the World Economic Forum has equally stressed the deteriorating climate change and highlighted how these changes will alter the target set by the respective countries. "Adopting hasty environmental policies could also have unintended consequences for nature. There are still many unknown risks from deploying untested biotechnical and geoengineering technologies," the World Economic Forum report noted.

COVID created big difference between rich and poor

The report also highlighted the critical effect of the COVID pandemic on society. It said the pandemic has created a big difference between the rich and the poor. "Big differences between rich and poor nations’ access to vaccines mean their economies are recovering at uneven rates, which could widen social divisions and heighten geopolitical tensions," noted the WEF report. "By 2024, the global economy is forecast to be 2.3% smaller than it would have been without the pandemic. But that masks the different rates of growth between developing nations, whose economies are forecast to be 5.5% smaller than before the pandemic, and rich countries, which are expected to expand 0.9%," added the report.

(With inputs from AP)