Securing the digital walls

The 2020s have been a rather contradictory decade thus far. Even though the world is becoming ever more interconnected in economic and communications terms, this decade’s political development has been defined by the rise of forces advocating for more borders, more tariffs, less immigration and less integration. These trends are quite out-of-step with our socio-economic realities and needs and are now actively making our lives less safe. A new World Economic Forum (WEF) report says that global cybersecurity challenges have become more profound and complex due to geopolitical tensions. According to the ‘Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025’ released last week, almost 60 per cent of organisations stated that geopolitical tensions have affected their cybersecurity strategy. A third of all CEOs covered in the report also cite cyber espionage and data or intellectual property theft as their top concern and 45 per cent of cyber leaders expressed concerns about the disruption of operations and businesses. Many cyber leaders also expressed a lack of confidence in the countries in which they are based to respond to major cyber incidents targeting critical infrastructure, particularly in the Global South. Only 40 per cent of organisation leaders in Asia were ‘confident’ or ‘very confident’ in the ability of their country to respond to such attacks.

The picture that emerges from the report is one of organisations increasingly concerned about cyber security risks and geopolitical tensions feeding into these perceptions. And while the WEF report does not focus on specific countries, we know that cyber security risks have only been escalating in Pakistan. According to a report by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, cyber threats targeting Pakistan’s financial sector have seen a dramatic rise in 2024. The firm reported a 114 per cent increase in banking and financial malware attacks in the January-October period, adding that such threats may well continue in 2025 as well. These attacks point to weaknesses in the country’s cyber security infrastructure that could be exploited by malicious geopolitical actors. The risk such attacks pose will only increase as the digital transformation of society continues and Pakistan begins adopting more new cyber technologies such as 5G and cryptocurrencies.

In this regard, it is somewhat reassuring to see the government actually trying to engage with and regulate new technologies rather than leaving them in the black and creating potential blindspots. The recently introduced virtual assets bill aims to create a structured set of rules and regulations for the issuance, use, trading and management of virtual assets within Pakistan. This is the first step towards building both legitimate and secure challenges, but it will not be enough. Cyber-security requires human resources to work – an area in which many countries are short. The WEF report finds that 49 per cent of public-sector organisations believe they lack the necessary talent to meet their cybersecurity goals. For a country like Pakistan, where the best engineers often head abroad, this may emerge as a key problem. The country needs to focus on education if it is to produce the kind of people that can ensure cybersecurity. On a more global scale, it may help everyone if there were more cybersecurity laws and treaties to reduce the potential of geo-politically motivated attacks.