Experts Predict the Internet's Imminent Collapse

Experts at the World Economic Forum (WEF) believe large-scale cyberattacks could soon destroy the integrity of the global internet. A study titled “Global Risks – 2018” was presented in Geneva, TASS reports.

” The spread of cross-border malicious cyberattacks could become the most likely trigger for the fragmentation of an internet led by governments into national and regional ‘walled-off sections’,” – warn the specialists.

The authors of the study urge governments of different countries to cooperate in combating international hacker groups, and also to involve technology companies that specialize in studying and preventing attacks. Experts warn that misattribution of the source of cyberattacks could lead to strikes against uninvolved countries, and in the worst case – to the use of conventional weapons.

In this context, the specialists insist on developing legal norms for cyberwars similar to those for armed conflicts. “Well-known concepts such as transparency, proportionality and non-proliferation could be recodified for the cyber sphere,” the report notes.

Furthermore, WEF experts call for considering an international ban on the use of certain classes of cyberattacks.