Brigid Graumans report on Cyber -space presents the risks and threats associated with the rising use of the internet to access personal and professional information. This report is made up of a survey of some 250 leading authorities worldwide and of interviews carried out in late 2011 and early 2012 with over 80 cyber-security experts in government, companies, international organisations and academia. It offers a global snapshot of current thinking about the cyber-threat and the measures that should be taken to defend against it, and assesses the way ahead. It is aimed at the influential layperson, and deliberately avoids specialised language. For the moment, the “bad guys” have the upper hand – whether they are attacking systems for industrial or political espionage reasons, or simply to steal money - because the lack of international agreements allows them to operate swiftly and mostly with impunity. Protecting data and systems against cyber-attack has so far been about dousing the flames, although recently the focus has been shifting towards more assertive self-protection.