DAVOS: In a bid to safeguard the world from hackers and growing databreaches — especially from nation-states — the World Economic Forum (WEF)on Wednesday announced a new Global Centre for Cybersecurity.
Headquartered in Geneva, the centre will become operational from March.
“Cyber security has been the most pressing issue of our times. We badlyneeds a platform to ward off cyber criminals. The centre will help bringall the stakeholders together in achieving that,” Alois Zwinggi, ManagingDirector, WEF, said during a panel discussion here.
“We need to collaborate with the governments as well as internationalorganisations. To begin with, we will reach out to key industry players andG-20 countries to make this platform a success for dialogue and real-timeaction on cyber threats,” Zwinggi added.
Cyber breaches recorded by businesses are on the rise. In the last fiveyears, these have almost doubled to an average of 130 breaches per businessin 2017.
As a borderless problem, urgent action is needed to create a safe operatingenvironment for new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, robotics,drones, self-driving cars and the Internet of Things (IoT), the WEF said.
“I see across the landscape cyber security threats looming. Threats aregetting bigger in scale. Criminal abuse of virtual currencies is happeningat a faster rate. Data breaches are impacting billions of users,” said RobWainwright, Director, Europol.
“The banking sector is in the firing line. Professional cyber criminals areafter high-value targets like banks while state-sponsored activities areblending with a growing breed of cybercriminals. We need to fight back aswell via building new networks,” Wainwright told the audience.
According to Kim Koro, Senior Vice-President, Qualcomm Tecnologies, theseare powerful times, especially with the smartphone revolution.
“After smartphones, IoT is connecting billion of devices and you canimagine the kind of cyber threats emerging then. Qualcomm is collaboratingwith the industry and equipment manufacturers to address those,” Koro said.
“The global centre will be an excellent opportunity to safeguard verticalslike automotive and health care where wireless connectivity is the key. Wealso need actionable insights as we enter the world of 5G connectivity,”she noted.