From cybersecurity to resilience: the post-normal of digital safety

The world is increasingly digitalized: the now almost generalized adoption of cloud computing, remote working and distance learning, the blockchain that takes hold and then there are the most advanced technologies, the new frontiers of artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computers.

Digitization is growing and consequently the potential cyber risks and vulnerabilities of these new technologies increase. For almost half of the 120 cyber leaders, senior executives of public and private companies from 20 countries - interviewed for the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2022 drawn up by the World Economic Forum Center for Cybersecurity in partnership with Accenture - automation and machine learning will usher in the biggest transformation of cybersecurity in the short-term future. Moreover, in the longer-term one of the most pressing risks is quantum computing, that could unravel the cryptography currently used by most businesses, digital infrastructures and economies.

It is therefore necessary to move from a concept of cyber security to a broader one of cyber resilience, defined as the ability of an organization to overcome (anticipate, resist, recover and adapt to) any stress, malfunction, danger and threat to its IT resources, within the organization and its ecosystem, so that it can safely pursue its mission, spread its culture and maintain its way of operating.

As emerged from the survey, the drive to adopt an IT resilience approach comes from the acceleration of digitalization brought about by the Covid 19 pandemic and the change in our work habits.