The world economy stands a risk of crashing due to the risk of losing billions of dollars to cybersecurity challenges if they are not addressed globally.

The warning was given by the Executive Director of the Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO) COP. Mrs. Maame Yaa Tiwaa Addo-Danquah, when she addressed students and staff at the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU).

The EOCO Executive Director suggested that figures available from the World Economic Forum indicate that nobody or no institution is spared if practical measures are not taken to address the situation by all.

“The 2019 Global Risks Report of the World Economic Forum indicates that cybersecurity attacks are currently among the top risks globally, and they result in multibillion-dollar losses in the business sector, especially when servers of banks, hospitals, power plants, and smart devices are compromised.”

“The World Economic Forum’s (WEF) estimation for the market value of cybersecurity is expected to increase from US$120bn to US$300bn by 2024. The WEF claims that cybersecurity, in general terms, incorporates a huge domain, which ranges from structuring robust systems that can resist attacks to designing methods and systems that can contribute to detecting threats and anomalies, as well as assuring the resilience of a system and declaring system responses to any attack,” she said.

COP Tiwaa noted that the shift into a digitized space by economies and society generally fuelled cybercrime to another level.

“The adoption of digitalization for economic development has led to the emergence and rise of cybercrime. While digitalization presents opportunities for development, there is a major setback that undermines the full realization of its benefits for economic transformation. Thus, cyber-attacks continue to undermine the economic gains of countries by targeting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of ICT assets.”

“Africa’s digital economy potential can reach USD180 billion by 2025, or 5.2 percent of the continent’s GDP. Indeed, the growing rate of digital transformation within Africa is facilitating the emergence of new attack vectors and opportunities for cybercriminals.

The rest of the world is no exception to this phenomenon. For both individuals and companies, the impact of cybercrime can be profound – primarily financial damage, but also loss of trust and reputational damage.”