WEF Tells Public to Prepare for Major ‘Shock Event’ This Year

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The World Economic Forum (WEF) is now warning countries across the globe to prepare for “an era of shock events” as the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches.

The report, titled “4 global risks to look out for in the post-pandemic era,” outlines what the world can expect in the “post-pandemic” era.

“Make no mistake – the US-driven post-Cold War era ended a while ago (and realistically America’s 2024 election won’t change this). Enduring global leadership, democratic ideals, globalization and liberal values have all been notably challenged and superpowers are overstretched,” Maha Hosain Aziz, a New York University professor and WEF’ risk expert,’ wrote.

“This is a global legitimacy crisis as argued in my book and our past crowdsourced research since 2017. This period of muddling through means anything can happen in our post-pandemic era. Look for global risks to be further exacerbated by unexpected, destabilizing shock events,” Hosain Aziz continued.

Hosain Aziz cited a new global extremist group leveraging AI tools, climate change, and AI tools as the “three shock events to consider.”

“Perhaps the most concerning line in the article is in reference to intentional cybersecurity attacks,” Steve Bannon’s War Room co-host Natalie Winters noted.

From the WEF:

Briefly, here are three shock events to consider that may impact global stability:

  1. A new global extremist group emerges: with the world distracted with multiple major wars and leadership in decline, this could be an opportunistic time for a new extremist group to make its mark – and maybe not face as many consequences. Perhaps, it will even leverage AI tools to kick off a new phase of terrorism.
  2. A cyber pandemic – that is intentional: the massive global IT outage in July was not terrorism, but simply a faulty software update from a cybersecurity firm. Yet, it cost Fortune 500 companies $5.4 billion in damages and shut down flights, banks, hospitals, retailers and other services worldwide. Imagine if a bad actor did this – on purpose and an even grander scale?
  3. Climate change claims its first island nation in the pos-pandemic era: The COP28 plan to phase out fossil fuels may take decades and it’s unclear if world leaders will follow through. What’s more probable is that in the meantime certain island nations (who emit only 0.3% of global emissions) will keep fighting their cause, whether it is through international law or new climate funds. But, if these islands do succumb to climate change, sinking a lot faster than we expect, how will climate activists and world leaders react?

In July, a “software update glitch” took down the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike, causing outages among information technology industries.

Those affected included airlines, banks, media outlets, and medical facilities.

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From the Associated Press:

Long lines formed at airports in the U.S., Europe and Asia as airlines lost access to check-in and booking services at a time when many travelers are heading away on summer vacations. Hospitals and doctors’ offices had problems with their appointment systems, and cancelled non-urgent surgeries. Several TV stations in the U.S. were also prevented from airing local news early Friday.

Saskia Oettinghaus, a member of the German Olympic diving team, was among those stuck at the Berlin Airport.

“We are on our way to Paris for the Olympic Games and now we are at a standstill here for the time being,” Oettinghaus said.

Other athletes and spectators traveling to Paris were delayed, as were their uniforms and accreditations, but Games organizers said disruptions were limited and didn’t affect ticketing or the torch relay.

“This is a very, very uncomfortable illustration of the fragility of the world’s core internet infrastructure,” said Ciaran Martin, a professor at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and former Head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre.

Cyber expert James Bore said real harm would be caused by the outage because systems people have come to rely on at critical times are not going to be available. Hospitals, for example, will struggle to sort out appointments and those who need care may not get it — and it will lead to deaths, he said

The World Economic Forum has been predicting a worldwide cyberattack for years now.

Klaus Schwab said COVID-19 would be a minor disturbance comapred to what is coming.

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The ‘Cyber Polygon’ training exercise has simulated a global outage.

CrowdStrike is a former ‘Technology Pioneer’ of the World Economic Forum.

The next Cyber Polygon training event takes place Sept 10-11, 2024.

Per CrowdStrike in 2015:

CrowdStrike Inc., provider of the first true Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based next-generation endpoint protection platform, today announced that it has been recognized as a Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum (WEF). CrowdStrike has been honored as one of the world’s most innovative companies for pioneering groundbreaking technology in the cybersecurity industry and for driving visionary leadership and long-standing market value.

CrowdStrike has dramatically advanced organizations’ ability to fight off persistent and sophisticated cyber threats by enabling them to detect, prevent and respond to attacks, at any stage – even malware-free intrusions. The company’s next-generation endpoint protection platform, CrowdStrike Falcon®™, identifies and thwarts nation-state and organized criminal adversaries, saving its customers millions of dollars in potential damage and preventing the theft of valuable assets and personally identifiable information (PII).

“Being the first endpoint protection company recognized by the World Economic Forum as a Technology Pioneer is an incredible honor and a true testament to the innovation and impact of our CrowdStrike Falcon®™ platform and our record-breaking customer acquisition and corporate growth,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder and chief technology officer of CrowdStrike. “Every day, we detect, prevent, and thwart cyber attacks across some of the largest and most targeted organizations worldwide, protecting intellectual property, guarding innovation, economic growth, and fair business practices.”

“We’re glad to see CrowdStrike make it to the selection,” said Fulvia Montresor, head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “CrowdStrike is part of a group of entrepreneurs who are more aware of the crucial challenges of the world around them, and who are determined to do their part to solve those challenges with their company.”

The Technology Pioneers were selected from among hundreds of applicants by a selection committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact, working prototype, viability and leadership.

WATCH:

From Cyber Polygon:

The next Cyber Polygon online training is set to take place on September 10–11, with registrations for participants opening in June.

The training will run in conjunction with where we will host a Cyber Polygon booth. In parallel, BI.ZONE experts will take part in panel discussions and other activities. MENA ISC 2024 is one of the world’s leading cybersecurity conferences to be held in Saudi Arabia. The conference will bring together cybersecurity experts and vendors from different countries on one platform.

This year, the training is dedicated to the investigation of a sophisticated targeted attack on an organization. The teams will investigate a potential infrastructure compromise and data leaks using classical forensics and threat hunting techniques. Organizations will join the exercise from around the world, and visitors to MENA ISC will be able to track the progress in real time at the Cyber Polygon booth.

The training is being implemented on BI.ZONE Cyber Polygon Platform designed for mastering and assessing cyber defense skills. Meanwhile, visitors at the event will be able to test themselves through individual exercises. BI.ZONE Cyber Polygon Platform offers tasks based on real cyber incidents.

Our experts will conduct workshops and join panel discussions on strategic cybersecurity issues.

Cyber Polygon is the international initiative of BI.ZONE aimed at raising global cyber resilience. In 2021, more than 200 teams from 48 countries participated in the training. The event was keynoted by Mikhail Mishustin, Prime Minister of the Russian Federation; Herman Gref, CEO, Chairman of the Executive Board, Sber; Professor Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman, World Economic Forum; Steve Wozniak, Co-founder, Apple Computer, and other participants.