Experts gather to explore cyber resilience in the AI era, and other cybersecurity news

Earlier this month in Dubai, the World Economic Forum convened more than 500 experts – including 150 top cybersecurity leaders – for the Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity (AMGFCC), which explored how emerging technologies are reshaping digital security and resilience.

"Resilience, trust and secure digital infrastructure have become fundamental or foundational pillars of future prosperity," Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and Future of the United Arab Emirates, said during the event's Opening Plenary.

At AMGFCC, public sessions included The New Cyber Order: Cooperation Amid Turbulence, in which panellists discussed the seismic shifts in technology, geopolitics and the global economy that have reshaped the cyber landscape. In the session, UAE Head of Cybersecurity Mohamed Al Kuwaiti described artificial intelligence as "a new oil" capable of transforming sectors and emphasized the country's five-pillar National Cybersecurity Strategy.

Meanwhile, in another session, Riding Out Cyber Storms, panellists explored the emerging trends that are redefining the future of cybersecurity. The experts highlighted that cybersecurity is largely a governance issue that requires coordinated global action and institutional courage to build resilient digital ecosystems.

Before the event, the Forum released Elevating Cybersecurity: Ensuring Strategic and Sustainable Impact for CISOs, a report positioning cybersecurity as a strategic enabler for organizational growth, trust and innovation. It offers guidance for boards and chief information security officers to align security strategy with business resilience and addresses the evolving, multidimensional role of the CISO amid geopolitical volatility and technological disruption.

Moreover, in an article published after AMGFCC by The Economic Times, I explored how India’s cyber resilience rests on its small businesses.

AI-optimized cybercrime is rapidly increasing in Japan, with criminals leveraging advanced technology to scale attacks and exploit vulnerabilities, reports the Japan Times.

CrowdStrike’s 2025 Asia-Pacific cybercrime report says India, Australia and Japan are the countries most represented on data extortion and ransomware dedicated leak sites (DLSs). These marketplaces enable trading of sensitive data and access, greatly increasing risk for both organizations and individuals.

Earlier in October, Japan's largest brewer Asahi restarted operations at its Super Dry factories after a cyber attack shut down the majority of the group's 30 domestic factories.

The trend highlights urgent need for improved cybersecurity measures and cross-border cooperation to address sophisticated, AI-driven threats in the region.

In her diplomatic debut, Japan's new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pledged to strengthen cooperation on AI and cybersecurity with member states at the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur on 27 October.

The first UN cybercrime treaty has been signed by 65 nations in Hanoi, Viet Nam, establishing a universal framework for combatting online offences and promoting global cooperation, including sharing evidence and protecting victims of online abuse. The Convention against Cybercrime, adopted by the UN in December 2024 after five years of negotiation, represents a major milestone for multilateral action, aiming to empower all nations – especially developing countries – with enhanced training, rapid-response networks and stronger legal protections against digital threats.

Two teenagers have been arrested in the UK for September's cyber attack on a chain of nurseries in London. The hackers were said to have stolen the photographs, names and addresses of around 8,000 children from the Kido nursery chain and had even contacted individual families to further pressure the company into paying out a ransom. Before their arrest, the pair made the decision to delete all of the files to "comfort parents", reports the BBC.

The Jaguar Land Rover cyber attack is thought to have cost the UK around $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion), in what the Cyber Monitoring Centre called the country's “most economically damaging cyber event”. The incident shut down internal systems and production for a month, which impacted a further 5,000 organizations. Car production in the UK also fell by over a quarter as a result of the attack, reports Reuters.

It comes as the Head of the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), Richard Horne, warned that CEOs failing to prepare their companies for cyber attacks are “jeopardizing their business’s future". NCSC, part of the UK's intelligence agency GCHQ, revealed cyber attacks had risen by 50% in the past year.

Verizon’s 2025 Mobile Security Index reveals that 85% of organizations have seen a sharp rise in mobile device attacks. Most firms now view AI-driven phishing and deepfakes as their top mobile risks, but only 17% have security against AI-enabled attacks.

The rapid evolution of technology is outpacing global cyber resilience efforts, especially as quantum computing and AI-driven threats expose a critical shortage of cybersecurity expertise, writes Mauricio Benavides, Co-Founder and CEO of Batuta. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, along with organizations in less developed regions, remain highly vulnerable and require accessible, automated solutions, while proactive strategies – combining AI, automation and posture management – are needed to strengthen endpoint security.

In today’s hyperconnected world, cybersecurity has become a central pillar of resilience, economic stability, sovereignty and national security, writes Jeremy Jurgens, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum. The rise of increasingly sophisticated attacks—coupled with mounting geopolitical tensions—demands a fundamental shift in strategy: cybersecurity must be treated as a critical component of both national defense and global stability.

Around 72% of organizations are reporting an increase in cyber risks and one in three small businesses say their cyber resilience is insufficient, write Luna Rohland, a Forum specialist in Cyber Resilience, and Kirsty Paine,
Field Chief Technology Officer and Strategic Adviser at Splunk. Organizations must embed cyber resilience across their entire body, rather than leaving it as an IT-only issue. But to be effective, cyber resilience needs to be measured with meaningful data.

Only 15% of cybercrimes are ever reported, according to the FBI – leaving law enforcement blind to evolving threats. Reporting also helps protect future victims, says Interpol Director of Cybercrime Neal Jetton. Watch his thoughts from the AMGFCC session, Inside the Cyber Criminal Mind, below.