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Tag: CYBERSECURITY

5G Security Privacy
Don’t let the “5G” in the title confuse you. This post is not only about the telcos’ core networks, but about the 5G security and privacy issues in our (very) near, and very different future that 5G will enable. In the 5G-enabled massive Internet of Things (mIoT) world we’re about to find ourselves in, we are expected to have 1000 devices connected for every person… These devices will be the components of the ‘5G operating system’ for our smart cities, our industry 4.0, our smart homes, smart transportation, smart healthcare, and much more. To enable this future, we will...
Smart City 5G Privacy
More than half of the world’s population lives in cities. The UN estimates that by 2050 that proportion will be 68% - more than 6 billion people living in high-density conditions. This raises significant challenges. What is the best way to ensure that human needs are met in a fair and equitable way? How will we face challenges like resource strain, waste and pollution management, traffic congestion and connectivity? In response to these wicked problems, cities are increasingly relying on smart technologies to foster greater efficiency and sustainable growth. These interventions do not, however, come without their own complications. Just...
Cybersecurity IoT 5G Cyber-Kinetic Risks
Getting smart about security in smart systems Smart used to be something we called people or pets. It wasn't a term one would use to describe one's hairbrush. That is changing, of course, in an era of accelerating digital transformation. Now we have smart homes, smart cities, smart grids, smart refrigerators and, yes, even smart hairbrushes. What's not so smart, though, is the way the cybersecurity and cyber-kinetic security risks of these systems are often overlooked, and with new horizon technologies like 5G, these problems are set to grow exponentially. Cyber-physical systems and the smartification of our world Cyber-connected objects have become...
IoT Cybersecurity Framework Government
The human brain is programmed to keep us safe and secure. Yes, we are separated from the rest of the animal kingdom by our advanced capacities of sense-making and decision-making, but at the core of our grey matter remains some primitive but powerful tech tasked with keeping us alive. If your amygdala senses danger, it makes a split second decision and triggers the fight-or-flight response, flooding your body with hormones like adrenaline that prepare you for battle. This overrides the cortex – the sophisticated part of the brain we rely on for problem-solving and strategic thinking – making it...
IoT Bomb Stuxnet
While Stuxnet is gone, the world now knows what can be accomplished through cyber-kinetic attacks. As we approach the 10th anniversary of when Stuxnet was (likely) deployed, it is worthwhile to examine the effect it still has on our world. As the world’s first-ever cyberweapon, it opened Pandora’s box. It was the first true cyber-kinetic weapon – and it changed military history and is changing world history, as well. Its impact on the future cannot be overstated. Stuxnet’s beginnings Stuxnet is believed to have been conceived jointly by the U.S. and Israel in 2005 or 2006 to cripple Iran’s nuclear weapon development...
Cyber-Kinetic
The attacker stepped out from behind a hedge in the upper-class suburban neighborhood, being careful to stay in the shadows. Across the street, the last lights shining through the windows of the house had just flickered out. She tugged the bottom of her black hoodie into place and pulled the hood up over her head, casting her face deeper in shadow. Her target sat in the driveway at the front of the house, a bright red and completely decked out SUV. Glancing up and down the street to ensure no one was looking, she slipped across the street into the...
Regulation IoT 5G Cybersecurity
In one of those strange inversions of reason, The Internet of Things (IoT) arguably began before the Internet itself. In 1980, a thirsty graduate in Carnegie Mellon University’s computer science department, David Nichols, eventually grew tired of hiking to the local Coca Cola vending machine only to find it empty or stocked entirely with warm cola. So, Nichols connected the machine to a network and wrote a program that updated his colleagues and him on cola stock levels. The first IoT device was born. Things have moved on somewhat. Today, the world is home to 8 billion connected devices or “things”, with...
Stuxnet Cyber-Physical Weapon
Stuxnet was the first true cyber-kinetic weapon, designed to cripple the Iranian – and perhaps also the North Korean – nuclear weapon programs. It succeeded in slowing the Iranian program, although it was discovered before it could deal the program a fatal blow. Its significance goes far beyond what it did. It marks a clear turning point in the military history and cybersecurity. Its developers hoped for a weapon that could destroy strategic targets without civilian damage possible in traditional warfare. Instead, it opened the door to cyberattacks that can deliver widespread disruption to the very civilian populations it was...
Maritime Cybersecurity
The open seas have long attracted those who yearned for adventure. The risk of pitting oneself against a vast and unforgiving sea has tested sailors’ mettle for millennia. It’s not surprising that the maritime industry is one that thrives on facing – and overcoming – risks. But, as technology increasingly dominates it, growing risks exist that the industry dare not ignore. Its growing effort to increase efficiencies through digitization and automation has made it an inviting target for 21st century pirates whose weapons are not cutlasses, but computers. Vulnerabilities in maritime systems and security practices threaten to inflict huge losses...
Cyber-Kinetic Threat
A growing number of today’s entertainment options show protagonists battling cyber-attacks that target the systems at the heart of our critical infrastructure whose failure would cripple modern society. It’s easy to watch such shows and pass off their plots as something that could never happen. The chilling reality is that those plots are often based on real cyber-kinetic threats that either have already happened, are already possible, or are dangerously close to becoming reality. Cyberattacks occur daily around the world. Only when one achieves sufficient scope to grab the attention of the news media – such as the WannaCry ransomware...
Cyber-Kinetic Attacks History
The fact that cyber-kinetic attacks rarely appear on mainstream news doesn’t mean they don’t happen. They happen more frequently than you would think. Many, for various reasons, aren’t even reported to agencies charged with combatting them. This hinders security experts in understanding the full scope and recognizing the trends in this growing problem. We’ll highlight examples of cyber-kinetic incidents and attacks in this chapter. Some were malfunctions that, nonetheless, demonstrated cyber-physical system vulnerabilities. Some were collateral damage from hacking or computer viruses. The vulnerabilities these exposed inspired a growing number of targeted cyber-kinetic attacks in recent years. The Beginning of Cyber-Kinetic...
Cyber-Kinetic Timeline
Below is a timeline of key historic cyber-kinetic attacks, system malfunctions and key researcher demos targeting cyber-physical systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Control Systems (ICS) resulting in kinetic impacts in the physical world. I tried to select only those that were first-of-the-kind or that significantly increased general awareness about a particular type of an attack or incident I know that the list is incomplete. That’s where you come in. If you are aware of an incident or a research that demonstrated something new regarding cyber-kinetic threats or helped significantly raise the awareness, please contact me. For a more...
Blockchain Cybersecurity
You may have heard, over the last year or two, about the new technological miracle that is the blockchain. It seems that every banker, insurer, manufacturer, artist, lawyer and cybersecurity professional is shouting about blockchain from the highest peak and telling us how it will be used to secure everything against anything for all time, additionally removing those embarrassing blemishes from our skin and freshening our breath at the same time. Clearly some large portion of the blockchain-related content we see in the media is hyperbolic, at best, but it is an important technology nonetheless. Let’s take a look...
Chinese cybercrime
Western publications often picture the People’s Democratic Republic of China (hereafter China) as the world’s chief propagator of cyberattacks. But the picture is much more complex than such broad-brush claims suggest. Few Westerners realize that China and its neighbours in the Greater China region (Taiwan, Macau and Hong Kong) have, over last few years, became the most technologically advanced region in the world – ahead of the West in the adoption, and in many cases even in the development of advanced technologies. Countries in the region were always close to the top of the list of victims of cyberattacks. Factors, such...
Cyber-Kinetic Robot
The attacker stepped out from behind a hedge in the upper-class suburban neighborhood, being careful to stay in the shadows. Across the street, the last lights shining through the windows of the house had just flickered out. She tugged the bottom of her black hoodie into place and pulled the hood up over her head, casting her face deeper in shadow. Her target sat in the driveway at the front of the house, a bright red and completely decked out SUV. Glancing up and down the street to ensure no one was looking, she slipped across the street into the...