Top Global Risks 2025: Cyberattacks, Business Interruptions and Emerging Challenges

Introduction

In an interconnected world where digital flows underpin most human activities, cyberattacks are emerging as a major systemic peril in 2025, capable of disrupting global supply chains and generating massive business interruptions. Inspired by the collaborative dynamics observed in natural ecosystems, such as herds that collectively detect peripheral threats, Pericology highlights the significance of these risks, which, once amplified, can lead to cascades of economic and social failures. For example, the July 2024 global incident involving a faulty software update paralyzed entire industries, illustrating how a simple malfunction can spread globally, affecting millions of businesses and highlighting the inherent vulnerability of interconnected digital systems.

Background to Peril

Cyberattacks in 2025 are characterized by increasing sophistication, incorporating artificial intelligence for automated offensives like deepfakes or adaptive malware, while business interruptions often result from ransomware or distributed denial of service ( DDoS) attacks, which drain resources and stall critical operations. Warning signs include an increase in zero-day vulnerabilities in black markets and an explosion of Internet of Things (IoT) threats, with billions of unsecured devices serving as potential entry points. These systemic dynamics promote positive loops, where an initial breach amplifies disruptions via interconnected supply chains, potentially leading to a tipping point such as a widespread outage of critical infrastructure, supported by data indicating a 25% increase in multi-vector attacks in the first half of 2024 and projections of cybercrime costs reaching $10.5 trillion annually.

Complex Systems Analysis Framework

Complex systems analysis offers a lens for mapping the interdependencies between the human, technological, and operational components of cyber threats , without aiming to solve crises but to model their propagation. Inspired by food webs in nature, where disruptions at one level ripple throughout the food chain, these models reveal how a vulnerability in a third-party provider can spread across global digital ecosystems, amplifying the risks of disruptions. This approach highlights critical nodes, such as digital supply chains, where flaws propagate via cascading interactions, promoting an understanding of vulnerability dynamics without advocating immediate interventions.

Systemic Implications

The potential impacts of cyberattacks and business interruptions extend to interconnected systems, where critical thresholds are crossed when local disruptions, such as an attack on a key sector such as healthcare or transportation, trigger domino effects on the global economy. Inspired by natural dynamics where an imbalance in an aquatic ecosystem can alter all surrounding biodiversity, this interconnection reveals how quantum threats or AI vulnerabilities could erode the stability of critical infrastructures, with consequences for the continuity of essential services and socio-economic balances, without exploring remedies but highlighting points of systemic fragility.

Conclusion

Given the scale of cyberattacks and business disruptions in 2025, the urgent need is heightened vigilance to detect dynamics leading to systemic tipping points, thus preserving the balance of interconnected ecosystems. This proactive anticipation, rooted in peripheral observation of emerging signals, reaffirms the pericological principle : “See first, stop first.”

References

• World Economic Forum. (2025). Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025. Available at: https://reports.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Global_Cybersecurity_Outlook_2025.pdf

• SentinelOne. (2025). 10 Cyber ​​Security Trends For 2025. Available at: https://www.sentinelone.com/cybersecurity-101/cybersecurity/cyber-security-trends/

• Viking Cloud. (2025). 197 Cybersecurity Stats and Facts for 2025 . Available at: https://www.vikingcloud.com/blog/cybersecurity-statistics

• University of San Diego. (2025). Top Cybersecurity Threats [2025] . Available at: https://onlinedegrees.sandiego.edu/top-cyber-security-threats/

• Check Point Blog. (2024). 2025 Cyber ​​Security Predictions . Available at: https://blog.checkpoint.com/security/2025-cyber-security-predictions-the-rise-of-ai-driven-attacks-quantum-threats-and-social-media-exploitation/

Jean Bourdin, Founder of Pericology, 2025, © all rights reserved.

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