The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents a fundamental change in the way we live, work and relate to one another. It is a new chapter in human development, enabled by extraordinary technology advances commensurate with those of the first, second and third industrial revolutions. These advances are merging the physical, digital and biological worlds in ways that create both huge promise and potential peril. The speed, breadth and depth of this revolution is forcing us to rethink how countries develop, how organisations create value and even what it means to be human. The Fourth Industrial Revolution is about more than just technology-driven change; it is an opportunity to help everyone, including leaders, policy-makers and people from all income groups and nations, to harness converging technologies in order to create an inclusive, human-centred future. The real opportunity is to look beyond technology, and find ways to give the greatest number of people the ability to positively impact their families, organisations and communities.
Cybersecurity
5 urgent actions in the fightback against ransomware
Ransomware attacks have become more frequent and more damaging during the pandemic – which is why a new coalition to combat them has been formed
Fourth Industrial Revolution
Lessons from Haiti: applying innovative, affordable, and replicable solutions using drones and spatial data
As Haiti enters the 2021 hurricane season, it is essential that new technologies are applied to protect and support the country, write three World Bank experts.
Fourth Industrial Revolution
Equitable vaccine delivery will fuel better global health processes
Making parallels between a reusable rocket and the application of COVID-19 vaccines can offer insights on reaching global health goals.
Manufacturing and Value Chains
These 3 countries are 3D-printing new homes
Faster and cheaper to build and more sustainable, too – could this technology be a solution to meeting the world’s housing needs? Three countries show the way.
Geographies in Depth
COVID-19: how Indian doctors abroad are using technology to help their country
Technology means doctors are able to carry out online consultations with people in India, to take the strain off the workforce and offer support through COVID-19.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity has much to learn from industrial safety planning
By analyzing attacks in terms of safety scenarios, cybersecurity teams can both make their responses more robust and more easily communicate threats across an organization
Fourth Industrial Revolution
The world’s data explained: how much we’re producing and where it’s all stored
Each day on Earth we generate 500 million tweets, 294 billion emails and 4 million gigabytes of Facebook data, which is only a small portion of all data.
Cybersecurity
Is your cybersecurity ready to take the quantum leap?
New quantum algorithms will soon be capable of cracking current public-key cryptography – so government, academia and industry must prepare now
Health and Healthcare Systems
Balancing data rights is about protecting human rights
How we tackle privacy and safety will shape how we solve the biggest social issues of our time.
Emerging Technologies
Blockchain in capital markets: Here’s what we’ve learned after 5 years of experimentation
There are inefficiencies, challenges and risks associated with what underlies capital markets: key question is whether DLT is the tech to address them.
Emerging Technologies
What these researchers discovered after studying the internet for 6 years
Research, published in the Public Library of Science, is the first to reveal some long-term trends in how businesses compete in the age of the web.
Fourth Industrial Revolution
We’re polluting our future home – before we even live there. Here’s why we need to clean up our space junk.
Space junk is rapidly proliferating, which imperils space exploration. Here's how we can clean up existing debris and prevent future generation of it.