Ransomware headlines still dominate boardroom conversations. The numbers tell a different story now. Cyber-enabled fraud has overtaken ransomware as the top cybersecurity concern for CEOs worldwide. That finding comes from the World Economic Forum’s Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026, produced with Accenture. It signals a real shift in what threatens organizations today. Boards still treating ransomware as the primary risk are missing where the damage is actually happening.
Why Cyber-Enabled Fraud Has Become the Top Boardroom Concern
Cyber-enabled fraud is no longer a niche problem. It reaches executive suites, household budgets, and everyday transactions alike. Seventy-three percent of survey respondents said they or someone in their professional network had been personally affected by cyber-enabled fraud in the past year. That single statistic should reset most risk priorities. Fraud is no longer background noise. It has become a defining economic and reputational risk that boards cannot afford to ignore.
Phishing, vishing, and smishing led the list of attack methods, affecting 62% of those touched by fraud. Invoice and payment fraud followed at 37%. Identity theft trailed at 32%. Each of these vectors targets people directly, not just systems. That distinction should shape how organizations respond to cyber-enabled fraud going forward.
The Numbers Behind the Cyber-Enabled Fraud Surge
Personally affected by fraud
73%
Global annual cost
$1.1T
Share of global GDP
3%
Saw AI risk rise fastest
87%
A $1.1 Trillion Problem
The global cost of cyber-enabled fraud now sits near $1.1 trillion a year, roughly 3% of global GDP. Few threats reach that scale of economic disruption. The figure rivals the annual output of entire mid-sized countries. That puts cyber-enabled fraud ahead of the yearly budgets of many nations combined.
Regional Exposure Varies Widely
Fraud exposure is not evenly distributed across the globe. Sub-Saharan Africa reported the highest rate, at 82% of respondents. North America followed closely at 79%. These figures suggest that no region or industry is immune to cyber-enabled fraud. Attackers move quickly across borders and platforms, regardless of where a company is headquartered.
The Gap Between CEOs and CISOs on Cyber-Enabled Fraud
A revealing pattern emerged from the WEF’s full findings. CEOs now rank cyber-enabled fraud as their top concern. CISOs, however, still prioritize ransomware and supply chain resilience. This gap between the boardroom and the front line creates real exposure. Security teams may keep building defenses against last year’s threat while fraud losses climb quietly in the background.
This disconnect is not simply a communication problem. It shapes budget decisions, staffing priorities, and incident response planning. If security leaders do not adjust their focus, cyber-enabled fraud will keep outpacing organizational defenses. Closing this gap requires boards to ask sharper questions about fraud controls, not just ransomware readiness. Coretelligent’s cybersecurity managed services are built around exactly this kind of layered oversight.
How AI Is Accelerating Cyber-Enabled Fraud
Artificial intelligence is reshaping both sides of this fight. Eighty-seven percent of respondents said AI-related vulnerabilities grew faster than any other risk in 2025. Meanwhile, 94% of leaders expect AI to shape cybersecurity outcomes most in 2026. Attackers now use AI to write convincing phishing messages, clone voices, and automate impersonation scams at scale.
This capability shift explains much of why cyber-enabled fraud has grown so quickly. AI removes many of the old warning signs people once relied on to catch a scam. Poor grammar, awkward phrasing, and obvious impersonation attempts are disappearing fast. As a result, employees and consumers face more convincing attacks with far less time to react.
What Boards Should Do About Cyber-Enabled Fraud Now
Boards need to treat cyber-enabled fraud as a distinct risk category, separate from traditional cyberattacks. That means asking different questions during risk committee meetings. How is the organization detecting payment fraud in real time? What controls exist around vendor and invoice changes? How is employee training addressing AI-driven impersonation attempts?
Financial controls matter as much as technical ones here. Dual approval for wire transfers, verified callback procedures, and account takeover monitoring all reduce exposure to cyber-enabled fraud. Coretelligent’s managed and co-managed cybersecurity services build these layers into daily operations, not just annual reviews.
Strengthening Defenses Against Cyber-Enabled Fraud Today
Geopolitical fragmentation adds another layer of complexity to this picture. Sixty-six percent of organizations changed their cybersecurity strategy because of geopolitics in 2026, down from 93% in 2023. Still, geopolitics remains the top factor shaping cyber risk mitigation decisions. Combined with rising AI capabilities, this creates a threat landscape that shifts faster than most security programs can adapt.
Confidence in national infrastructure protection also remains low, at just 31%. That is a modest improvement from 26% the previous year, but it is far from reassuring. Organizations cannot wait for governments to close this gap on their own. Building internal resilience against cyber-enabled fraud, through layered detection, employee awareness, and tested response plans, is now a genuine business necessity. Coretelligent’s data and application security services support exactly this kind of incident readiness.
Making Cyber-Enabled Fraud a Board-Level Priority
The shift from ransomware to cyber-enabled fraud is not a temporary trend. It reflects how attackers have adapted toward faster, cheaper, and more scalable ways of stealing money and data. Boards that update their risk models now will be better positioned than those waiting for the next headline-grabbing incident. Turning awareness of cyber-enabled fraud into practical, measurable protection is the work ahead for every leadership team.