The following below is my personal opinion on what the three most significant threats are in regards to the information we are sharing today. Data sharing and data privacy dominate the news these days as companies are being investigating for their policies and people are beginning to crack down on their habits. This is my personal opinion and I would be happy to discuss in further detail if wanted.
Governments Will Step Up Their Demands For Information From Companies.
This problem is one that has already manifested its way into general public conversation. Starting with the San Bernardino case, a highly profile case where the FBI demanded Apple to unlock an iPhone to help with its investigations. Secondly, companies such as WhatsApp are making it clear how they feel about those situations and publicly choose to encrypt all conversations that are had on its app. While many people feel differently about these situations it does bring up the concern of how much privacy should users have with their devices and information. Companies like Facebook and Google, already gather and store countless information on each and everyone of us and sell it to advertisement. Although the government would have different intentions, how comfortable are you with knowing that they can keep tabs on every aspect of your life?
Lax IoT Security Will Become Apparent.
This problem is one that has contributed to a large amount of breaches within the last couple of years. For instance, in Lappeenranta, Finland a DDoS attack took out the heat in at least 2 properties by overwhelming heating systems that were connected to the internet. While this lead to much inconvenience, it shows how dangerous IoT attacks can be. Today, most devices connect to the internet, including medical devices located in hospitals. Most of these devices lack proper firewall and antivirus software to protect it. There could be massive damage done if attackers were able to control medical devices and/or strip personable identified information from them. It is worth mentioning the DDoS attacks that took down DYN were caused by unsecured devices connected to the internet, such as surveillance cameras.
Convenience Will Continue to Trump Privacy and Security.
Convenience is a problem that affects each and every one of us everyday. Whether it is password selection, or physical security of devices, we are all guilty of making ill advised decisions based on convenience. Some examples of this include choosing to have the same password for every application, leaving computers on and unattended, or even leaving doors physically unlocked when not around. As I mentioned in this week’s discussion post, I tend not to secure my technology as much as I should be due to the lack of convenience it may cause. I find often that the desire of convenience can quickly promote a lazy lifestyle which is detrimental to security and protecting privacy. Security is something that needs to be actively work on. If it was easy to come by, there would not be as many human caused breaches occurring in the world.