In its seventh edition, the World Economic Forum´s Global Risks Report features more refined risk descriptions and rigorous data analysis covering 50 global risks. It aims to improve public and private sector efforts to map, monitor, manage and mitigate global risks. It is also a “call to action” for the international community to improve current efforts at coordination and collaboration, as none of the global risks highlighted respects national boundaries.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2012 report, in fact, is based on a survey of 469 experts from industry, government, academia and civil society that examines 50 global risks across five categories: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.
As usual, technological category attracted my attention and I decided to analyze risks that are of greatest concern in the area of current and emerging technology.
The report lists 10 technological risks:
1. Critical systems failure: single-point system vulnerabilities trigger cascading failure of critical information infrastructure and networks.
2. Cyber-attacks: state-sponsored, state-affiliated, criminal or terrorist cyber attacks.
3. Failure of intellectual property regime: ineffective intellectual property protections undermine research and development, innovation and investment.
4. Massive digital misinformation: deliberately provocative, misleading or incomplete information disseminates rapidly and extensively with dangerous consequences.
5. Mineral resource supply vulnerability: growing dependence of industries on minerals that are not widely sourced with long extraction-to-market time-lag for new sources.
6. Massive incident of data fraud/ theft: criminal or wrongful exploitation of private data on an unprecedented scale.
7. Proliferation of orbital debris: Rapidly accumulating debris in high-traffic geocentric orbits jeopardizes critical satellite.
8. Unintended consequences of climate change mitigation: Rapidly accumulating debris in high-traffic geocentric orbits jeopardizes critical satellite infrastructure. Attempts at geoengineering or renewable energy development result in new complex challenges.
9. Unintended consequences of nanotechnology: The manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular level raises concerns on nanomaterial toxicity.
10. Unintended consequences of new life science technologies: Advances in genetics and synthetic biology produce unintended consequences, mishaps or are used as weapons.
Technological risks range from cyber attacks, highlighted as having the highest likelihood and a high impact, to critical systems failure having the highest impact and lower likelihood, and to the unintended consequences of nanotechnology, which has a lower impact and lower likelihood.
The World Economic Forum’s Global Risks 2012 report, in fact, is based on a survey of 469 experts from industry, government, academia and civil society that examines 50 global risks across five categories: economic, environmental, geopolitical, societal and technological.
As usual, technological category attracted my attention and I decided to analyze risks that are of greatest concern in the area of current and emerging technology.
The report lists 10 technological risks:
1. Critical systems failure: single-point system vulnerabilities trigger cascading failure of critical information infrastructure and networks.
2. Cyber-attacks: state-sponsored, state-affiliated, criminal or terrorist cyber attacks.
3. Failure of intellectual property regime: ineffective intellectual property protections undermine research and development, innovation and investment.
4. Massive digital misinformation: deliberately provocative, misleading or incomplete information disseminates rapidly and extensively with dangerous consequences.
5. Mineral resource supply vulnerability: growing dependence of industries on minerals that are not widely sourced with long extraction-to-market time-lag for new sources.
6. Massive incident of data fraud/ theft: criminal or wrongful exploitation of private data on an unprecedented scale.
7. Proliferation of orbital debris: Rapidly accumulating debris in high-traffic geocentric orbits jeopardizes critical satellite.
8. Unintended consequences of climate change mitigation: Rapidly accumulating debris in high-traffic geocentric orbits jeopardizes critical satellite infrastructure. Attempts at geoengineering or renewable energy development result in new complex challenges.
9. Unintended consequences of nanotechnology: The manipulation of matter on an atomic and molecular level raises concerns on nanomaterial toxicity.
10. Unintended consequences of new life science technologies: Advances in genetics and synthetic biology produce unintended consequences, mishaps or are used as weapons.
Technological risks range from cyber attacks, highlighted as having the highest likelihood and a high impact, to critical systems failure having the highest impact and lower likelihood, and to the unintended consequences of nanotechnology, which has a lower impact and lower likelihood.
No comments:
Post a Comment