Technology Has the Potential to Profoundly Alter Our Lives - It's Our Obligation to Stay on the Right Side of it.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, a more interconnected future is on the horizon. Today is the time of the future when technology is connected between people and their devices. You have the ability to turn off the air conditioner in your living room from the corner office of your office. To avoid having to wait in traffic, your driverless automobile connects with GPS. Future prospects are very bright, which is evidence of how much the sophisticated human brain is capable of.
The human mind has the capacity to imagine, devise, implement, and achieve, but it also has the slyness to plot, wreck, and demand ransom from others. It won't just be your computer online if someone has malicious intentions in the linked future; it might be pretty much your entire quintessence. Does it have an apocalyptic vibe about it? We should awaken from our self-induced lethargy as a result of the current ransomware attacks.
WannaCry ransomware, which was the cause of one of the most infamous computer infestations in history, is still in use by cybercriminals. In its early years, it also completely destroyed a number of global networks, including national banks, entire healthcare systems, and telecommunications corporations. It is still deadly enough to be used right now, and reports of it turning up throughout the pandemic have increased.
Without a doubt, we are heading toward a connected future. A future, where humans and the devices they use will be interconnected. From the corner office of your office, you will have the power to turn off the air conditioner in your living room. Your driverless car will communicate with GPS to ensure you don’t have to sit through a traffic jam. The future looks truly promising - a testament to what the complex human brain can possibly achieve.
However, the same human mind, that has the power to dream, innovate, execute, and accomplish, also has the cunning ability to connive, destruct, and hold others to ransom. If someone with devious intentions sneaks through the loopholes of your connected future, it won’t be your computer that’ll be on line, it can pretty much be your entire being. Sound dystopian? Well, the recent ransomware attacks should wake us up from our self-induced slumber.
WannaCry is the biggest cyberextortion attack yet, affecting over 200,000 devices around the world. The reason it has garnered mainstream media is it isn’t restricted to a single country or continent; it spread like a virulent disease to become a global pandemic. Although the “authorities” are now claiming that the infection has brought “under control”, it sure is a wake-up call for each one of us as we head into a connected future.
When the Internet of Things (IoT) becomes all-pervasive, an attack of this scale may turn into a global catastrophe. Hospitals, banks, flights, railways, and a litany of essential services may become vulnerable to an extortion of this scale. Therefore, it is pertinent to invest in safeguarding our important institutions from cyberattacks of all kinds.
Three major lessons have emerged for businesses looking to safeguard themselves.
- Ransomware assaults will become far more regular.
- The attack could have been avoided if companies had been more diligent in implementing basic cybersecurity practises, such as patching software vulnerabilities and training employees to detect phishing emails, which appear legitimate but contain links or files that deploy computer viruses if opened.
- Companies that do not take reasonable precautions to prevent assaults may face costly regulatory enforcement actions or private litigation.
Securing IoT devices and its connected components is going to be a Herculean task - according to research carried out by Future Market Insights, spending on IoT security products market will witness a 16.5% CAGR through 2020. This is an encouraging statistic, but considering the behemoth expanse IoT will encompass, it will take a concerted effort to prevent future attacks.
One of the key reasons why WannaCry became so massive is that users around the globe had been pretty lax about updating their operating system and antivirus security. While Microsoft fixed loopholes in its newer versions, the fact that many users put off updating their software put their systems at risk. Although the malware seems to have been contained, more lethal variants may be in “development phase”.
The answer to these threats is not to back off and live primitively, but to better prepare for exigencies that may arise when everything is connected to each other. And, the best way to do this is to collaborate, invest on R&D, and carrying out regular upgrades.
IoT ransomware is increasing cyber intelligence from threat actors planning for the next generation of attacks because of the Internet of Things' broad and expanding attack surface. It seems to imply that this is the Wild West of hacking.
The debating point is, "Can security keep pace with it?"
Technology has the power to transform our lives drastically - the onus is on each one of us to be on the right side of it.
