Popular Mechanics (South Africa)
SMART CITY, SAFE CITY ?
EVERYTHING IS connected. Many of our appliances, cars, computers and wearables have the ability to speak to each other, but what happens when your smart fridge becomes the accused perpetrator in a global phishing attack? It almost sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, where hackers spoof traffic lights, road data and even electrical infrastructure to manipulate user data … but as our devices become smarter, and keep talking to each other through sensors and the internet, the threat of becoming infected with malware becomes bigger.
‘Most “Internet of Things” devices are Linux-based computers with limited functionality,’ says Vladimir Dashchenko, Head of ICS CERT Vulnerability Research Group at Kaspersky Lab. Technology is evolving, but many businesses still use old architecture.
‘Systems are vulnerable by design and with easy, guessable credentials [your device] will be hacked. That means malicious software such as that which can send out spam or cryptocurrency-mining software. We have also seen a lot of cases where a huge group of devices have become infected. This is a huge issue – a group of hacked smart devices could take part in DDOS attacks.’
New, internet-connected appliances don’t have malware protection. Here, Dashchenko is talking about Mirai, malware that can turn networked (such as Internet of Things) devices into remotely controlled ‘bots’, which can be linked up as part of a larger botnet. The botnet army of ‘zombie’ devices then perform large-scale network attacks on computers via tasks like overloading a website with traffic – a DDOS attack – or, in the case of the rogue refrigerator, sending out hundreds of thousands of spam emails.
‘A smart city is essentially like a massive smart home where a lot of different technologies communicate with each other. Many different companies provide these technologies. They might not know each other, but they have to collaborate not only in terms of building a brighter future, but also securing it,’ adds Dashchenko. ‘We see a lot of tiny little companies building amazing technology which is really useful … but also vulnerable because they do not think about security or the bigger picture. In a smart city, if one such technology is hacked, the connected devices will also be attacked. An entire Internet of Things ecosystem is put at risk.’
For smart cities, it’s no longer about security, but immunity. The cybersecurity industry is quite primitive – a number of companies just collect traffic information and send the data away for analysis. To make a system where data protection is a priority, an immune system where users cannot inject dangerous malware, is tough work.
‘Immunity means you’re walking through a dangerous street but they can’t attack you. This is the future of cybersecurity,’ ends Eugene Kaspersky, Kaspersky Lab’s CEO.