Cyber risk tops World Economic Forum executive survey Back
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In a year where COVID-19 has been at the forefront of thoughts, it was surprising that cyber-attacks topped the World Economic Forum's (WEF) list of top-10 risks of most concern for doing business in Australia.

Worldwide rankings also saw "spread of infectious disease" come in second.

This was in sharp contrast to previous years when infectious disease risk ranked last.

The other top ten risks remained similar to previous years.

Results were put together following a survey of 12,000 executives worldwide.

Australian risk perception 2020 results from The World Economic Forum's 2020 Executive Opinion Survey (access the interactive map here):

  1. Cyber-attacks                                 
  2. Spread of infectious diseases                   
  3. Fiscal crisis                                                         
  4. Energy price shock                                         
  5. Extreme weather events                             
  6. Data fraud or theft                                        
  7. Unemployment or underemployment
  8. Failure of critical infrastructure                 
  9. Asset bubble
  10. Water crisis                                                        

Worldwide, cyber-attacks came in fourth with unemployment or underemployment ranking first.

Global risk perception 2020 results from The World Economic Forum's 2020 Executive Opinion Survey (access the interactive map here):

  1. Unemployment or underemployment
  2. Spread of infectious diseases
  3. Fiscal crisis
  4. Cyber attacks
  5. Profound social instability
  6. Failure of national governance
  7. Energy price shock
  8. Asset bubble
  9. Data fraud or theft
  10. Inter-state conflict

It was interesting to note that environmental risks ranked higher in Australia, than they did globally.

Conflict and governments also failed to appear in the Australian top ten, in comparison to global concerns.

Read more about the report here.

For advice and support in managing your local governments risks contact your account manager or regional risk coordinator. 

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