ISLAMABAD: The World Economic Forum (WEF) has called cyber risks “ever-growing concerns” for organisations and called for global and regional collaboration to tackle these challenges.

In a report on Monday, the WEF said organisations cannot prevent all malicious attacks when embracing digitalisation, and this has led to the rise of the cyber resilience paradigm.

The report ‘Unpacking Cyber Resili­e­n­­ce’ has been prepared by the WEF in collaboration with the University of Oxford’s Global Cybersecurity Capacity Centre and other cybersecurity industry leaders.

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In fast-evolving digital landscape, cyber threats are becoming increasingly complex, and recognising that individuals and organisations cannot prevent all malicious attacks or cyber failures while embracing the opportunities that digital communication brings has led to the rise of cyber resilience, it added.

According to the report, organisations rely on digital technologies to achieve their goals and objectives, such as protecting service delivery, maintaining stakeholder trust, and safeguarding their assets.

The policies and processes that have been developed to achieve assurance up and down the supply chain create a high cost but do not always provide the kind of robust and real-time assurance that organisations need to manage cyber risk.

The WEF report suggested organisations, regulators, and policy-makers at international, national, and regional levels collaborate and develop regulations that support and incentivise cyber resilience. “This needs to take into account the requirement to ensure an appropriate level of consistency between regulatory jurisdictions and to recognise that the cyber resilience imperative may sometimes conflict with other regulatory imperatives such as those relating to competition and pricing.”

The report suggests organisations to develop adaptable strategies and use shared insights from the practical experience of industry peers to navigate the complexities of the cyber landscape. This proactive collaboration and continuous learning will play a vital role in delivering cyber resilience, the WEF report added.

Published in Dawn, November 12th, 2024