At Davos, cybersecurity climbs to top of agenda

When the World Economic Forum returns to Davos from 19 to 23 January, it will do so under the banner A Spirit of Dialogue. Yet conversations unfolding in the Alpine this year are expected to be less ambiguous than in previous years. Amid geopolitical fragmentation and rapid technological acceleration, cybersecurity has moved from the margins to the centre of this year’s debate. 

Within this setting, digital security stands out as a cross-cutting priority. It is no longer just a tech issue, but a prerequisite for trust, economic stability and institutional resilience. 

That framing underpins the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, which was prepared for the Forum in collaboration with Accenture. Based on 804 respondents from 92 countries, the report serves as a reference point to assess how cyber risks are reshaping the defensive posture of both states and businesses.

The risk landscape 

For many business leaders surveyed, cyber-enabled fraud now ranks above ransomware as the most immediate cyber risk. Unlike headline grabbing cyberattacks, fraud seeps into daily life, eroding trust incrementally and often invisibly. 

AI sits at the centre of this transformation. It is both accelerant and countermeasure. In the past year, vulnerabilities linked to AI grew faster than any other risk category. Most respondents reported an increase in AI related threats, and nearly all expect AI to be the single most influential factor shaping cybersecurity in 2026.

Concerns raised in the report focus on data leakage, opaque decision making in generative systems and the speed at which adversaries can now adapt their tactics. At the same time, organisations are moving to integrate AI into their own defences. A growing share of companies now conduct formal assessments of AI security, signalling a recognition that automation will be indispensable in managing scale and complexity.

Geopolitics, long a backdrop to cyber debates, has become an operational variable. Nearly two thirds of organisations surveyed now explicitly factor geopolitically motivated cyber activity into their risk planning. Among large companies, adjustments to security posture in response to international tensions are no longer exceptional but routine.

Yet confidence in national preparedness remains uneven. Almost a third of respondents express limited trust in their country’s ability to respond effectively to a major cyber incident, with wide disparities across regions.

Supply chains add another layer of vulnerability. As discussions in Davos increasingly focus on industrial resilience, the report highlights third party risk as the single greatest obstacle to cyber resilience for large organisations. Dependence on complex networks of suppliers, software providers and service platforms has created exposure that few firms can fully map, let alone control.

This exposure is compounded by concentration risk. Disruptions affecting major cloud or connectivity providers can cascade rapidly across interconnected systems, magnifying the impact of isolated failures. In such an environment, resilience is no longer just about individual defences but about the stability of shared digital infrastructure.

The growing gap in cyber resilience

Perhaps the most consequential finding is the growing divide in cyber resilience. Smaller organisations are roughly twice as vulnerable as larger ones. In many regions, shortages of skills and capital leave gaps that can quickly become systemic weaknesses. 

Cyber insecurity, the report suggests, risks becoming another form of structural inequality.

Heading into Davos, the report’s conclusions are clear. Incremental improvements and siloed initiatives are no longer sufficient. Raising the collective baseline of security will require deeper intelligence sharing, greater alignment on standards and sustained investment in people and capabilities.

Image credit: World Economic Forum Annual Meeting – Impressions by Boris Baldinger (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0), via World Economic Forum / Flickr — https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/52630791695