Cyber crime and the “dark side of connectivity” is one of the
biggest risks to global financial and political stability in 2012, according
to a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
The survey, which points to a bleak outlook just two weeks before the start of
the WEF’s annual meeting in Davos, warns that although the “impacts of
crime, terrorism and war in the virtual world have yet to equal that of the
physical world but there is a fear that this could change.”
The report argues: “Hyperconnectivity is a reality. With over five
billion mobile phones coupled with internet connectivity and cloud-based
applications, daily life is more vulnerable to cyber threats and digital
disruptions… borders have become permeable as power shifts from the
physical to the virtual world. A healthy digital space is needed to ensure
stability and the world economy and balance of power.”
The report argues that cyber attacks are likely to be a big threat this year
because of the expected continued backlash of populations against inequality
after movements like the Arab Spring. The severe disparity in earnings is
top of the report’s threats because it could be unite a “constellation
of risks” that the WEF describes as “dystopia”.
“Bulging populations of young people with few prospects, growing numbers
of retirees depending on debt-saddled states (stoking fiscal imbalances) and
the expanding gap between rich and poor are all fuelling resentment
worldwide.”
Precarious government finances in another likely risk – or “chronic
fiscal imbalances”. Other threats listed included the problem of rising
greenhouse gas emissions and a water supply crisis.
But the WEF warned that a “major systemic financial failure” is
still the biggest threat to the world economy in 2012. Water supply crises;
food shortages; chronic fiscal imbalances and extreme volatility in energy
and agricultural prices are next.