“Prognosticating the same old same old with more mobile malware, APTs giving cybercriminals backdoor access to their intended victims and even more data breaches of Fortune 500 companies as most industry pundits are,” is not being bold says IID (Internet Identity) president and CTO Rod Rasmussen. “Those threats are well understood, and being addressed today. The more interesting thing from our perspective is what’s next? And how will the industry respond?”
The ‘what next’ for 2014 that he predicts is a cyber terrorscape; and one of the main problems will come from the internet of things. He points to the pacemaker that can be tuned remotely, the internet-connected car that can have its control systems altered, and the IV drip that can be shut off ‘with a click of a mouse.’ “That’s horrifying,” continued Rasmussen. “Killings can be carried out with a significantly lower chance of getting caught, much less convicted, and if human history shows us anything, if you can find a new way to kill, it will be eventually be used.”
Part of the response will be solving the impasse to the Cybersecurity Act to allow greater threat sharing among enterprises and between enterprise and government, and Rasmussen expects that Congress will enact “new cybersecurity legislation that provides safe harbor protections enabling enterprises and government institutions to share intelligence without such fears in the coming months.”
What this needs to counteract is almost as terrifying as the ‘murder by interconnected devices.’ IID also predicts a rise in cyberwarfare, “with nation states openly engaging in acts of cyber-espionage and sabotage,” and at least one successful penetration of a major infrastructure component “like a power grid that results in billions of dollars in damage.” And then there’s the drones. Imagine terrorists taking control of military assault weapons and re-programming the target. All of this is, according to Rasmussen, is heading our way in 2014.
| Editor's Note: |
| The news reporter on this story would respectfully suggest that readers also look at an earlier news story: A cyber terrorist ate my hamster. |