A “New Cyber Order” is here; for every human identity there will be 80 agentic AI identities, and small businesses and states will need a type of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for cybersecurity, according to a discussion at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Today, the WEF kicked off its Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity in Dubai, UAE with a session called, “The New Cyber Order: Cooperation Amid Turbulence.”
Part of this new cyber order, according to Palo Alto Networks CEO for Europe, Middle East, and Africa Helmut Reisinger is the rapid advancement of agentic AI, which will become ubiquitous.
“In the future, there will be for every human identity, there will be about 80 machine-based identities”
Helmut Reisinger, WEF Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity, October 2025
“With AI comes another term of machine, which is called the agent who will create an outcome for you, to whom you delegate,” said Reisinger.
“In the future, there will be for every human identity, there will be about 80 machine-based identities, so that’s a whole new plethora for potential inroads.
“Therefore, I believe one needs to really go about real-time cybersecurity, having effective sharing of practices, knowledge, public-private, law enforcement together,” he added.
With 80 machine-based identities corresponding to one human identity, will agentic AI be yet another excuse to rollout digital ID worldwide?
“We’ll need new approaches similar to Digital Public Infrastructure for cybersecurity […] a kind of public infrastructure to Small-Medium Enterprises and smaller states that don’t necessarily have those capabilities”
Jeremy Jurgens, WEF Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity, October 2025
During the same session, WEF managing director Jeremy Jurgens said that we were definitely in a new order, and that cybersecurity required cooperation among various stakeholders.
On the topic of protecting Small-to-Medium Enterprises (SMES) and smaller governments, Jurgens said that a type of Digital Public Infrastructure for cybersecurity would be required.
Said Jurgens, “I think we also need to take into account the full range of Small-Medium Enterprises. How do we make sure that their protected? What’s their role?
“We’ll need new approaches similar to Digital Public Infrastructure for cybersecurity. One of the tools and capabilities that we make available as a kind of public infrastructure to Small-Medium Enterprises and smaller states that don’t necessarily have those capabilities.”
DPI is a civic technology stack that consists of three main components: Digital ID, fast payments systems, and massive data exchanges between public and private entities.
“I’d say we’re definitely in a new order here […] When we look at cybersecurity, we say, ‘OK. This is not something that can just be an IT challenge […] It actually requires cooperation. It requires interdisciplinary approach'”
Jeremy Jurgens, WEF Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity, October 2025
Global threats to cybersecurity are leading to cyberwarfare, according to panelists, but as of right now there isn’t a clearly defined battlespace.
“We may call it cyber war, but we don’t have a defined battlespace. We don’t have defined parties to the conflict. We don’t have declared hostilities,” said Royal United Services Institute Director-General Rachel Ellehuus.
“We’re just in this persistent state of disruption and change,” she added.
“A lot of the organizations […] whether that’s the United Nations, that’s NATO, that’s the European Union — those are not really working anymore because they’re large, multilateral institutions that were created decades ago”
Rachel Ellehuus, WEF Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity, October 2025
Institutions like the UN, NATO, and the EU, according to Ellehuss, “need to adapt to the nature of the threats.”
For her, “going back to the failure of those large, unwieldly, antiquated multinational systems” needs to be offset with “minilateral relationships,” which are “regional relationships that are perhaps more trusted or understood.”
Giving his two-cents on the nature of cyberwarfare, the UAE government Head of Cybersecurity Mohamed Al Kuwaiti explained that kinetic wars like those occurring between Ukraine and Russia, India and Pakistan, and Iran and Israel were fading, but that cyber war was accelerating, especially with regards to attacks on critical infrastructure.
“We are in cyber war […] If you look at the cyber war, it’s actually at least 10 if not 20 times busier [than kinetic war] in trying to either hack, ransomware, wipe, or destroy each others’ infrastructure”
Mohamed Al Kuwaiti, WEF Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity, October 2025
However, a major challenge to cybersecurity and cyber warfare will be the day quantum cryptography becomes fully realized.
When asked by the moderator if there wasn’t anything that couldn’t be hacked, Reisinger said that one of the biggest fears is that people are already hacking into systems and harvesting data right now, so that they will later be able to decrypt all that data once quantum cryptography comes online.
“The big D-Day that might be out there is the famous quantum day when quantum crypto could be come an issue […] This is why we prepare now because the big fear is there are people harvesting data to decrypt later”
Helmut Reisinger, WEF Annual Meetings of the Global Future Councils and Cybersecurity, October 2025
The special joint session of the WEF “Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils and the Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity” convenes more than 500 experts from business, government, civil society, academia and media, alongside 150 of the world’s foremost cybersecurity leaders from October 14-16 in Dubai, UAE.
October 14 saw only one session, but many more are to follow the following days.
You can check out today’s full discussion below.
Dubai is also where the WEF launched the Great Narrative Initiative in November 2021 to serve as a sequel to the Great Reset, which was announced in June 2020.
Image Source: Screenshot from WEF session on The New Cyber Order: Cooperation Amid Turbulence from the Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils and the Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity, October 14, 2025
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