The year is 2030. The world is full of smart mega cities, digital surveillance is openly ubiquitous, cash transactions no longer exist, wired connections remain for only the most demanding data flows, the “Internet of Things” age is over and the “Everything is Internet” age is here, and we churn out data with every heartbeat – literally – contributing to the Yottabyte Era.
It all sounds daunting or even dystopian. But such a future is not unrealistic at all; therefore, we must consider the cybersecurity risks that come with that future.
Attack Surface, What Attack Surface?
The digital age of the near future will undoubtedly retain one characteristic of today’s networks and systems: it will remain inherently insecure. You see, decisions made long ago had downstream consequences. Namely, the free exchange of information was prioritized over the secure exchange of information.
To be clear, the issue at hand is not about suppression, censorship or restriction of information; rather, the issue is how we exchange that information.
Consider the postcard versus the letter in an envelope. Both have a stamp, and an address from sender to receiver and travel over the same infrastructure. But anybody with access to the infrastructure can read a postcard, whereas opening the envelope requires some tampering.
The future inherits that problem: the mail system is still the same. That means:
Postcards can — and will — still be mailed (think little gadgets and insecure devices)
Some letters will be in envelopes (e.g., encryption), but the envelope security is challenged
Some will opt for special handlers (think private couriers as proprietary technology), but not everybody can use or afford these options.
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