Cyber-attacks are the biggest concern for businesses in Europe, Asia and North America, according to a new survey of executives by the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The report, which included responses from more than 12,000 business leaders from 140 countries, found companies fear the action of hackers will threaten their businesses over the next ten years.

The concern over cyber attacks has been growing in the last two years following a string of high profile attacks on companies such as BA, Ticketmaster and HSBC.

“Cyber-attacks are seen as the number one risk for doing business in markets that account for 50pc of global GDP,” said Lori Bailey, a member of the WEF’s Global Future Council on Cyber-security.

“This strongly suggests that governments and businesses need to strengthen cyber security and resilience in order to maintain confidence in a highly connected digital economy."

When WEF conducted the survey last year, cyber-attacks was the top risk in only two regions, East Asia and the Pacific and North America. In 2016, only North America was concerned by the risks.

The report found the top five risks for European businesses were: cyber-attacks, asset bubble, failure of national governance, failure of financial mechanism or institution, and finally unemployment or underemployment.