In a post for the World Economic Forum (WEF), three key trends have been identified as shaping the future of cyber leadership. Ongoing geopolitical shifts are resulting in decreased international cooperation in cybersecurity, which will influence the cyber leadership agenda for years to come. Additionally, the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies is transforming the cybersecurity landscape at an unprecedented rate. As millennials and Generation Z increasingly dominate the workforce, cyber threats are evolving to target decentralized platforms, cryptocurrency exchanges, and interactive media.
Citing the WEF’s Global Cooperation Barometer that gave a stark warning to global cyber leaders, William Dixon, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), and Filipe Beato, lead for Centre for Cybersecurity at WEF, wrote in a post last week. “Significant macro trends are impacting their ability to act as effective stewards of building digital resilience.”
The report outlined how a wave of geopolitical, economic, and technological upheaval has left peace and security cooperation falling for seven consecutive years.
This sets a challenging context for the global cyber leadership community when more, not less, international cooperation is needed – from interoperable global security standards to protecting cross-border data flows and collectively securing shared systemic infrastructures.
The authors also flagged that recent geopolitical tensions and domestic trade pressures have upset the current global cybersecurity alliances, funding for cyber and federal agencies, and commitments to international law-enforcement cooperation.
“Cyber resilience is unlike traditional security domains. Shifting political dynamics are more difficult to unpick when the digital and physical continue to converge and there are seemingly ever-increasing global supply interdependencies,” Dixon and Beato wrote. “Even then, geopolitics and a shifting domestic agenda are one of three major strategic macro trends, alongside transformative technology and key demographic shifts, that could shape the future of the cyber leadership agenda for years to come.”
The latest WEF Global Cybersecurity Outlook identified ‘geopolitics’ as the number one challenge facing the cyber community, given it leads to state-sponsored attacks, and data sovereignty conflicts and hinders cooperation.
Amid the early days of the new U.S. administration, geopolitics has already manifested in the domestic cyber domain. It shows a potential cyber blueprint others will follow globally, with cyber policy set to change on several fronts.
“Firstly, regarding international cooperation, cyber capacity-building efforts will be curtailed, and the cyberspace and technology supply chains will see further division. A push to diversify suppliers, reshoring production and strengthening local infrastructure, will continue at pace,” according to Dixon and Beato. “Secondly, an expected retreat on regulatory and governance measures, such as relieving pressure on the technology giants, software liability, and pausing minimum industry standards, will cascade across the ecosystem. Finally, adopting a ‘peace through strength’ foreign policy could inadvertently exacerbate existing conflicts and contribute to more instability in the cyber domain.”
The authors recognize that the rapid adoption of frontier technologies contributes to new vulnerabilities and threats but at a much faster pace than many envisaged.
“Challenges are inherent in securing complex applications and their transformative business processes, but the release of the DeepSeek app only highlighted again how aggressive the timelines are for the new tools, security principles, and necessary capabilities,” they added. “Cyber leaders must also move beyond traditional information security practices to ensure fairness, adversarial robustness and explainability, which underpin the trust that the C-suite now demands of their AI investments.”
The Global Cooperation Barometer also highlighted how growing global supply chain complexity makes risks harder to predict, just as millennials and Generation Z become the majority of the global workforce.
Dixon and Beato noted that the past decade has focused on securing enterprise networks in traditional industries such as banking, manufacturing, and healthcare. “Now, hundreds of millions of digitally native consumers and workers interact with many decentralized, cloud and edge infrastructures in newer nascent industries in their cyber journey. Consequently, cyber leaders will need to address new points of risk.”
They observed that cybercriminals are already riding this trend. “The online gaming industry alone now sees half of all global DDoS attacks. An epidemic of direct hacking of global cryptocurrency exchanges has resulted in another year exceeding billions of dollars in losses.”
The authors added that at times of global tension, economic headwinds, and rapid technology adoption, more rather than less dialogue is needed.
“The cyber resilience in industries community is in a trusted and unique position. It can be central to ensuring a multistakeholder and global pathway can be found for a prosperous, resilient digital future even amidst a complex risk landscape,” Dixon and Beato wrote. “They can identify what is critical and imperative to the ecosystem despite heightened tension between the major powers, especially regarding international capacity building and global interoperable minimum standards in industry. They can also focus on convening the technical, business and policy communities towards the safe and secure use of emerging technologies, especially artificial intelligence.”
Furthermore, the authors emphasized that cyber leadership should focus on enhancing the resilience of emerging digital ecosystems and industries, which are becoming increasingly vital yet remain underprotected. “Collectively, these initiatives can help secure our digital future.”
Last month, the WEF underscored the increasing challenge of securing software supply chains, particularly against hidden dependencies. As businesses depend more on third-party suppliers and open-source solutions, they encounter significant security hurdles that affect not only IT but also OT (operational technology) and ICS (industrial control systems), raising risks for critical infrastructure. This situation highlights the urgent need for strong strategies to mitigate risks and protect against vulnerabilities in the interconnected digital landscape.
