Cyberattacks have surged by 75% in just five years, heightening vulnerability across essential services and infrastructure worldwide, and prompting the World Economic Forum (WEF) to rank cyber insecurity as a top global risk. Global collaboration has therefore never been more urgent, yet a fragmented geopolitical landscape and rapid technological change pose challenges for coordinated, effective responses. The question is: how can nations and organizations act together now to reduce risks while unlocking the full potential of Cyberspace for all?

Cybersecurity: A Global Concern

Between January 2023 and January 2024 alone, critical infrastructure worldwide was the target of over 420 million cyberattacks. Additionally, global supply chains, which extend across borders and frequently span multiple jurisdictions with differing cybersecurity standards, are an area of concern. Breaches through supply chain partners can cost organizations 12% more than internal incidents, and 54% of large organizations cite supply chain vulnerabilities as the greatest barrier to their cyber resilience, according to the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2025. Such risks can trigger severe operational disruptions with far-reaching geopolitical and economic consequences.

Targeted Responses

No single organization or nation can address these challenges in isolation. A complex cyber threat landscape requires a coordinated multi-stakeholder response. Sector-focused initiatives like the World Health Organization’s (WHO) global ransomware checklists, or the global Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS‑ISAC) show how tailored, cross-border, and industry-specific responses can strengthen cyber resilience.

GCF’s Operational Technology Cybersecurity Center of Excellence (OTC CoE) contributes to these efforts by fostering collaboration among diverse organizations, working together to address risks and harness opportunities in OT cybersecurity and ensure that critical infrastructure is safeguarded against increasingly complex and persistent threats. 

The potential gains of these targeted efforts are significant. Organizations that integrate cybersecurity into their supply chain strategy can achieve up to 71% higher returns on their security investment.

Joining the Dots: Cooperation at the Global Level

In a connected world, cooperation between national, regional, and international bodies is essential to mitigate risks and align on security standards that protect global commerce and societal wellbeing. Recent multilateral initiatives show collaboration is possible, despite geopolitical competition:

• Over 80 nations have endorsed the Paris Call for Trust and Security
• The Budapest Convention on Cybercrime continues to expand its signatories
• The United Nations (UN) Convention against Cybercrime – the first comprehensive global treaty in this area – is advancing toward ratification
• The UN Open-Ended Working Group on ICT security is shaping voluntary norms for responsible state behavior in Cyberspace

Looking Beyond the Inflection Point

These developments demonstrate that diplomatic mechanisms can deliver effective channels to foster cross-border cooperation and trust. However, division in global and regulatory landscapes brings us to an inflection point: How do we strengthen and build on these diplomatic advances to establish frameworks that enable and catalyze a new era of global cyber cohesion?

The answer must include the full spectrum of stakeholders – national, regional, and international across both the public and private sectors – to turn pockets of collaboration into system-level global cooperation. By providing a permanent platform for dialogue, partnerships, and year-round initiatives, GCF aims to advance global efforts - enabling governments, industry, civil society, and academia to tackle shared challenges and strengthen cyber resilience across key priority areas, from child cyber safety to building a more resilient cybersecurity workforce.

Stakeholders from around the world must come together to ensure that global collaboration prevails over the pressures of geopolitical division. As a global community, it is time to move beyond the inflection point – scaling our efforts to strengthen cyber resilience and uplift the capabilities of states and organizations around the world.