When the financial crisis of 2008 hit, many shocked critics asked why markets, regulators and financial experts failed to see it coming.
Today, one might ask the same question about the global economy's vulnerability to cyber attack. Indeed, the parallels between financial crises and the threat of cyber meltdowns are striking.
Although the greatest cyber threat comes from rogue states with the capacity to develop extremely sophisticated computer viruses, risks can also come from anarchistic hackers and terrorists, or even from computer glitches compounded by natural catastrophe.