The Internet of Insecurity- Fear as the Key.

Watch Your Wearable 

In the world of internet of things, (IoT) inter-connected smart household devices would have / abet surveillance capabilities. This could intrude privacy. These inter-connected devices are  vulnerable to hacking. 

• As IoT knits together automobiles, electricity, air-conditioners, dishwashers, refrigerators, alarm systems etc., their security features could be broken into by a determined impostor or a group of criminal 'infiltrators'.
• Hackers could access networks through pilfered user authorisations. Stealing identification, tracking down locations of a community of individuals etc. would be possible.
• Hackers could intercept / read/ analyse signals emanating from the newly networked devices, Hardware could be easily penetrated and web connected machines stand exposed.   
• Political strategy to accentuate the division of sects  has technological repercussions. The  fragmented groups  may have opened a new war zones with web warfare. As they become fragmented, it becomes difficult to track. 

Evolving threats identified by establishment agencies all around are:

1. Individual criminals;
2. Extremist Groups like the Islamic State using online hacking as a weapon ;
3. Clandestine, detached groups using them;
4. Online hacking - breakdown threats to www; 
5. Using social media to eavesdrop/ influence; 
6. Money laundering using internet fund transfer;
7. Financing of disruptive terrorist activities using systems;
8. Potentially ne'er-do-well states using them in frustration ;
9. Power seeker nations seeking to destroy competitor's systems T

These 'infiltrators' could indulge in:

• spying, 
• deliberate placement of disinformation, 
• theft of identity and data, 
• open and subtle propaganda of their belief systems 
• stealth attacks on data in singular or multiple patterns.  

Together, these negative approaches have immense destruction capabilities. The future of online security lies in the ability to proactively stall potential criminals through offensive and defensive mechanisms.  With authorities in the US suggesting that Russia and China may have more sophisticated cyber programmes, an on line warfare seems to be in the offing to substitute the cold war era.  

These 'infiltrators' could easily listen into or tap the millions of signals which would follow the internet of things. 

The Age of Insecurity is here.

Excerpts from a forthcoming book by the author