Page 70 - WEF Reoprt 2020

REUTERS/FRANCOIS LENOIR

A new digital arms race. Digital preparedness efforts. It has also raised the
dependency is changing the nature of question of whether the participants in critical
international and national security, raising information infrastructure are trustworthy.
three urgent issues: how to protect critical The fragmentation of cyberspace will
infrastructure, uphold societal values and render those efforts moot and create
prevent the escalation of state-on-state possibly insurmountable technological
conflicts. Digital technologies increasingly incompatibilities for law enforcement to
feature in asymmetric warfare, enabling cooperate across varying systems.
attacks by smaller countries and non-state
actors on larger states. Viruses developed Economic risks
as cyberweapons have been re-purposed It is no surprise that technology hardware
by adversaries after being released into supply chains have driven recent research
cyberspace. Cyberspace has become an and development (R&D) and trade debates
extension of the military domain, triggering between major global economies.
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new technological arms races. 42 Many countries are heavily scrutinizing
investment in—or acquisition of—technology
In 2019, several countries agreed to pursue companies by foreign investors. Countries
the establishment of guiding principles are increasingly looking at foreign
for the use of lethal autonomous weapons investment in universities to assess risks of
systems. However, key military powers intellectual property—in the form of research
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are resisting international legal regulation and its potential commercial applications—
in this area, increasing the risk of serious vanishing abroad. Technology transfers in
future mishaps. exchange for market access have become
a contested part of trade negotiations.
Interruption of international
interconnectivity. Increased intelligence- These issues highlight the trade-offs
sharing between government cybersecurity countries are making between near-term
agencies and infrastructure operators has economic gain at a time of slow growth
strengthened the appreciation of challenges and longer-term security in an increasingly
related to cyberattacks and improved challenging geopolitical context. Europe’s

The Global Risks Report 2020 65