As technology and the digital economy play an increasingly integral role in our society, cybersecurity has become a critical issue worldwide. In its Global Risks Report 2024, the World Economic Forum (WEF) identified AI-generated misinformation/disinformation and cyber insecurity as among the top risks facing governments, industries, and individuals worldwide.

Addressing Today's Challenges Requires a Multipronged Approach

Addressing these types of challenges has been a top concern for Fortinet since our inception nearly 25 years ago. To do this, we have taken a multipronged approach. First and foremost, we have committed our time and resources to innovating a unique portfolio of deeply integrated cybersecurity solutions designed to allow organizations to converge networking and security and deploy fast and effective security everywhere across their distributed environments. Second, we have focused on developing and delivering critical training tools and services to raise cybersecurity awareness and combat the global challenge of the cybersecurity skills gap. And finally, we understand that a global problem of this scale cannot be addressed on our own. It requires collaboration between the private and public sectors, including our industry competitors. These are examples of the many ways we show up as a responsible member of a larger cybersecurity ecosystem.

Cross-Collaboration Is a Top Fortinet Priority

To that end, Fortinet has participated in some of what we believe to be the most essential collaboration efforts in cybersecurity. We are a founding member of the Cyber Threat Alliance, an organization of cybersecurity providers and practitioners focused on sharing critical threat intelligence to raise the level of security for organizations globally. We are also an active member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and a founding member of its Centre for Cybersecurity. We are also a research partner in the MITRE Engenuity: Center for Threat Informed Defense, a member of the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams, and a partner with INTERPOL: Project Gateway and NATO NICP, where we collaborate on intelligence sharing on cyberthreats and respond to breaking requests for intelligence as new cases emerge.

The WEF Centre for Cybersecurity, established six years ago with Fortinet as a founding partner, brings together global leaders from private companies, public agencies, academia, and law enforcement to develop research, share critical insights, and identify and respond to current and future cyber risks. One of its key initiatives was creating the forum's Partnership Against Cybercrime community, which was formed to build trusted threat-sharing relationships between the public and private sectors.

The New Cybercrime Atlas

As a part of that focus, the forum announced the launch of the Cybercrime Atlas initiative at its 2023 Annual Meeting and this week announced the launch of the Cybercrime Atlas interactive platform, led by development efforts from Fortinet, Microsoft, PayPal, and Santander, to assist national and international law enforcement agencies, cybercrime investigators, and global businesses in the gathering and sharing of global threat information, generating policy recommendations, and identifying opportunities for coordinated action to fight cyberthreats and disrupt cybercrime.

The Cybercrime Atlas objective is to enable global leaders to fight cyberthreats by sharing critical threat intelligence to develop insights into criminal operations, structures, and networks-something only possible through private-public collaboration.

But as important as they are, these efforts are just the start. Because technologies and cyber systems are increasingly intertwined, an event anywhere can have far-reaching ramifications. An attack on a supply-chain provider can affect companies and their customers worldwide. When critical infrastructure providers are compromised, the impact can go well beyond financial losses, putting the safety and well-being of people at serious risk. At the same time, cybercriminals are targeting vulnerable individuals and privately owned systems to create launch pads for targeting enterprises and governments.

Because of this, cyber awareness and cybersecurity are now everyone's responsibility. The challenge is raising the bar for everyone-businesses, governments, academic institutions, and citizens alike.

Changing the Threat Landscape Starts with Critical Conversations

To start, we need to open a more extensive dialogue that includes civic leaders to identify the broader challenges and to launch and support initiatives to address them. This has two critical elements.

First, we need to communicate the importance of cyber hygiene and introduce essential cyber hygiene and security best practices to the general population-and in today's world, that includes adding cybersecurity to every child's education. Fortinet has been leading the charge in this area, working closely with schools and universities to add cybersecurity training to their curriculum.  Fortinet, also actively is training veterans to prepare them for careers in cybersecurity as they transition back to civilian life, developing one of the industry's most active professional development training and certification programs through our Network Security Expert (NSE) Training Institute, and providing free cybersecurity training to over a million individuals worldwide.

Second, we need to effectively engineer cyber risks out of the applications, devices, and technologies people use daily. Security must be woven into everything from the beginning rather than as an afterthought. Products should be secure by design, making critical protections transparent to users.

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Is the Right Place to Continue These Conversations

As a long-standing participant in these dialogues, and in the efforts to make the world a safer and more sustainable place, Fortinet has worked to establish platforms and groups composed of esteemed global experts across business sectors, governments, and international organizations. These groups work to convert looming cybersecurity challenges into collective ideas that can have a significant impact on improving the state of cybersecurity. By expanding the conversation and broadening our strategies to include everyone who relies on technology, we can significantly lower the impact of cybercrime-not just on individual users but across the entire global digital ecosystem.

That's why we were pleased to again be part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos. According to Ken Xie, Fortinet Founder, Chairman of the Board, and CEO, "As cybersecurity challenges emerge at an unprecedented pace, public-private partnerships play an increasingly important role in effectively mitigating cyberthreats and bolstering our collective cyber resilience. The World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting brings together global leaders to engage in open and constructive dialogue and collaborate on solutions to solve critical cybersecurity challenges, offering a unique opportunity to affect real advancements for global societies."  

It is in forums like this where engaged members of our society-whether in the public or private sector or just concerned individuals-can come together to address a challenge we all face. When it comes to addressing global cyber risk and combatting cybercrime, there is strength in numbers.