Companies that fail to fully understand the risks of the fourth industrial revolution and how this transition will impact on countries, economies and people at a time of persistently sluggish growth, will not benefit from the “new source of [economic growth]”.

World Economic Forum (WEF) global competitiveness and risks head Dr Margareta Drzeniek-Hanouz on Tuesday said there was a considerable wave of new technologies being developed that would be commercialised over the next few years.

However, along with the revolution – a merger between physical, biological and technological aspects – society also now faced risks related to changing employment patterns, widening income inequality and rising cyber dependence.

In its 2016 Global Risk Report, the WEF outlined that managing the paradigm shift and transition would be critical to securing stable economies and, ultimately, thriving societies.

“Achieving this calls for greater resilience as the key imperative for action. Collaboration across countries, areas of expertise and stakeholder groups is necessary to effectively address global risks and deliver on the resilience imperative.

“Yet, across every sector of society, decision-makers are struggling to find common ground as they are faced with heightened volatility, uncertainty, interconnectedness and pace of change,” the report stated.

Speaking at the Deloitte Africa Risk Conference, in Johannesburg, Drzeniek-Hanouz said that, for this revolution to drive growth, the risks, including cyberattacks, must be addressed.

Data theft and fraud were top-ten risks identified by the WEF.

Cybercrime cost the global economy an estimated $450-billion in 2014 – close to the gross domestic product of Switzerland.

Other significant risks included the failure of climate-change mitigation – third highest on list for the likelihood of the risk taking place and first on the list for risk impact.

Other technological risks that were identified include adverse consequences of such advances and the breakdown of critical information and infrastructure and networks.

CYBERATTACK PREPAREDNESS
With the increased occurrence of cyberattacks, many businesses are ill-equipped to deal with the potential threat, owing to outdated systems and strategies.

Deloitte cyberrisks services risk advisory Africa leader Derek Schraader said that while cybersecurity was a global issue, there were subtle differences from country to country.

“One of the things that we need to address is the fact that we do not have enough data to quantify how big this problem is on the continent,” Schraader said, adding that education was key to counter these risks, but that companies were hesitant to share incidences of cyberthreats as it held the risks of reputation loss and customer loss, which had financial consequence.

South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were identified as the countries in Africa most prone to cyberrisk.