A clip from a WEF meeting is interpreted on social media to mean that the “elites” are planning a “catastrophic global cyberwar”.
Also this year, several conspiracy theories emerged in connection with the World Economic Forum (WEF). One of the top 5 false claims for 2023 is that conference organizers condone pedophilia. The claim that WEF celebrities explicitly demand unvaccinated aircraft crews is also false. As well as the fact that those in charge expected “trouble” this year.
And even on the last day of this year’s WEF edition, a false claim is making the rounds on social media. This is a panel on the second day of the conference. The relevant posts state that the WEF is planning a “catastrophic global cyberwar”. But that’s not true.
Statements by the WEF man are reinterpreted
The false claim is publicized in a TikTok clip, for example. It shows a 30-second excerpt from the press conference on the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2023. One of the hashtags used is #worldreset – the creator of the post is referring to a common but unsubstantiated conspiracy theory. Accordingly, the WEF must plan a change in the interest of the WEF participants and want to take away people’s freedom. In that imagination, the pandemic is often seen as intentionally created.
References to the WEF’s alleged bad intentions can also be found in the text above the video and in the comments below the clip. There it says something like: “You plan!” “It” means a “catastrophic global cyberwar”, which one of the participants of the event, Jeremy Jurgens, executive director of the WEF, talks about in the excerpt. Another user prays: “They always say what they’re doing. That’s part of the rules of the game.”
Statement taken out of context
The video excerpt is real, although edited together, as shown by the comparison with the original video. However, the interpretation of what is said in it by users is nonsense. Jurgens did not announce cyber warfare as alleged on TikTok, but he did announce the results of a survey of 300 business leaders from around the world. “The most striking finding is that 93% of cybersecurity professionals and 86% of cyber business leaders believe that global geopolitical instability is likely to result in a catastrophic cyberattack within the next two years,” said Jurgens.
The result “far exceeds anything we’ve seen in previous research,” Jurgens continued. He cites the increasing complexity of aspects related to cybersecurity as the reason. However, this part is no longer part of the excerpt distributed on social networks. Jurgen’s statements about positive developments were also clipped, with companies increasingly investing in cybersecurity and paying far more attention to it than “ever before”. This contradicts claims on social media. The full report can be found here.
Cyber attacks are not a new phenomenon.
As early as 2010, Richard A. Clarke, who was in charge of counterterrorism under US Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and later served as Special Advisor on Cybersecurity at the White House, warned that an enemy cyberattack could cause even greater damage. than a nuclear strike. After all, a successful hack attack by an enemy state could shut down a country’s power and water supply, telecommunications, or financial system all at once.
Russia’s war against Ukraine shows that cyberattacks are now an integral part of modern warfare. In February 2022, Ukrainian sources reported “massive cyberattacks” paralleling Russian troops’ invasion of Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine called on the international hacker community to help the country. Ukraine has been the target of Russian cyberattacks since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. In late December 2015, Russian hackers knocked out power to 700,000 people in western Ukraine’s Ivano-Frankovsk region. Because of such incidents, Ukraine has built a strong cyber defense system that has successfully repelled most cyber attacks in the current war with Russia.
Austria is also repeatedly targeted by cyber attacks. For example, testing labs came under fire during the corona pandemic. The attackers are cybercriminals who “want to make a lot of money with as little effort as possible”, as Pascal Lamia, head of operational cybersecurity for the Swiss Confederation, told “20 Minuten”. “Cyber-attacks are the biggest security risk for companies,” Swissmem president Martin Hirzel said last summer. The federal government has also recognized this. For example, last April, the Swiss army took part in the world’s largest cyber defense exercise “Locked Shields” to train how to defend against such attacks.
Rfi navigation account, time 20 minutes 01/20/2023, 18:34| Act: 01/20/2023, 6:39 pm