Cyber attack is the biggest business risk in Australia, according to an annual World Economic Forum (WEF) survey of leaders.

About 54% of local respondents listed cyber as the top danger, followed by 47% who picked spread of infectious diseases.

Fiscal crises placed third (40%) while energy price shock and extreme weather events shared fourth spot (32%). Next was data fraud or theft (26%) and unemployment or underemployment (21%).

Globally, concerns over rising unemployment emerged as the biggest risk, followed by the spread of infectious diseases and fiscal crises.

Cyber threats and profound social instability placed fourth and fifth respectively to round up the top five global threats that business leaders say they are most worried about for the next 10 years.

The Regional Risks for Doing Business survey is based on responses from more than 12,000 company leaders in 127 economies, who were asked to pick their five biggest threats from a list of 30 choices.

It is developed in partnership with Zurich, Marsh & McLennan and South Korea’s SK Group.

The survey findings were released ahead of the WEF’s inaugural Jobs Reset Summit on October 20-23.

Click here for the interactive data.