Tech trust disappears
DANGERS: SMART TVS, FRIDGES, CAMERAS, WI-FI ROUTERS CAN BE HACKED
This will become far worse once we can’t even trust appliance makers – expert. Arthur Goldstuck
and security standards in the hopes that manufacturers see IT [information technology] security as a competitive advantage. I don’t think voluntary certification by itself is enough, but it’s a solid first step,” he said. “At the same time, there is a growing debate about ‘software liability’ in many European countries. I think over the next five years we will see tighter and clearer regulation regarding IT security in general.” In the meantime, it is not only the home user who is at risk, said Preuss. “It affects everyone from consumer to small and medium businesses, to enterprises. “There is no limit in this whole environment, because more and more gets connected. In Germany, you have smart connected production facilities and public infrastructure like power plants and water supply that gets more and more connected, so that one can control what power needs to be produced to keep the network as stable as possible.”
The danger will escalate as energy production shifts from “classic nuclear and coal power plants” to solar and wind-based energy systems, which all depend on smart connected systems to pull their energy into the grid and keep it stable, he said.
“Every company is an IT company nowadays, whether they’re working with wood or stone or clothes,” said Preuss. “You’re an IT company because all your machines are connected, your manufacturers are connected and all your customers are online and connected. You have all this customer information digitalised.”
He outlined a wide range of potential cyber attacks in this environment, from ransom attempts by encrypting company data to stealing company information, to pretending to have cracked an account through password leaks and demanding payment not to publish sensitive information.
“The borders between consumers, small and medium business, enterprise and government are less and less visible, and everyone of us is now a node in the whole network,” said Preuss.
“On the internet, there is no longer a difference anymore between personal and business life.
“When I am private on a social network, I can still be targeted by people trying to get into my company. Everything is connected.”
The best-known example of a potential danger is the idea that smart fridges can be accessed by hackers and pulled together into a massive network, or “botnet”, that launches what is known as a distributed denial of service attack. This happens when a large number of computers attempt to connect to the same computer at the same time, causing it to crash.
The most widely distributed software used for this is called Mirai (see above), which looks for unprotected internet of things devices. It is available as open source software for any hacker to download. Preuss said: “Mirai was automated to spread on web cameras connected to the internet by using default username and password combinations.
“In most cases, users don’t change the default username and password or don’t know how or are not aware that they should.”
Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Follow him on Twitter and Instagram on