The World Economic Forum (WEF) is taking the next step after listing cyber security as one of its top global risks for 2018 with the launch of a new Global Centre for Cybersecurity in the Spring.
The new center, announced Wednesday at the WEF’s annual forum in Davos, Switzerland, will be based in Geneva and function as a global think tank for governments, businesses and law enforcement agencies to collaborate on cyber security solutions.
“If we want to prevent a digital dark age, we need to work harder to make sure the benefits and potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are secure and safe for society. The new Global Centre for Cybersecurity is designed as the first platform to tackle today’s cyber-risks in a truly global manner,” Alois Zwinggi, WEF managing director, said in a statement.
WEF named cyber security as one of its top global risks in a report published Jan. 17.
Global cyber crime costs are expected to exceed $500 billion annually and the surface vector for potential attacks will accelerate as the number of Internet of Things devices balloons from 8.4 billion last year to 20.4 billion by 2020, according to WEF officials in their latest report.
“Most attacks on critical and strategic systems have not succeeded—but the combination of isolated successes with a growing list of attempted attacks suggests that risks are increasing,” WEF officials wrote in their report. “And the world’s increasing interconnectedness and pace heightens our vulnerability to attacks that cause not only isolated and temporary disruptions, but radical and irreversible systemic shocks.”
Officials said the new center will build on WEF’s private-public partnership approach to deliberate on approaches to future cyber concerns.
The new center will focus on consolidating existing WEF cyber initiatives, work to establish a set of best practices, and bring partners together build a regulatory framework for cyber resiliency.
“We believe that closer, cross-border collaboration between the public and private sectors, in the form of sharing threat information and best practice, is critical if we are to succeed in combating cyber crime,” said Gavin Patterson, chief executive of U.K. telecommunications company BT Group, in a statement.