The Fragility of Homo Interneticus
In 1969, Apollo 11 was the first spaceflight to land Mankind on the moon, aiding Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins in this endeavour was the Apollo Guidance Computer. Weighing in at about some 30 Kgs and roughly the size of a shoebox, this technological marvel of the time boasted storage for 36,864 words in Read Only memory and 2,048 words in RAM (Random Access Memory). This translates to about 32 kB (kilobytes) of storage and 4 kB of RAM, and likely at the time cost several thousands of dollars to make. Compare this with the smartphones of today. One hundred euros gets you 32GB (gigabytes) of storage and 4GB of ram. One million times the capacity (One GB is 1 Million kilobytes), and it comes in a nice lightweight package with a pretty interface to boot.
We have come leaps and bounds over the last number of decades and it has enabled us to use our phones and our computers for pretty much everything. Nearly every facet of our lives has now become intertwined with it, people are using Facebook and Twitter as not only a space to voice their thoughts and share updates but as a source for the latest news and to keep up with the latest trends. We pay our bills and manage our bank accounts online. We have light bulbs and thermostats linked to home hubs that respond to the sound of our voice, even the latest 'smart fridges' have mini computers in them that can notify you if the door is open or the ice supply is low.
This does beg the question. Are we over reliant on technology and if so what dangers lurk out there from cyberattacks and cybercriminals? If tomorrow we went back over 50 years to a time when computers were only able to be used to work out complex mathematics and were programmed using punch cards would we survive? I have my doubts!
When our lives are entwined and depend on technology, cyberattacks pose a serious risk. I would wager that most people reading this will have experienced some kind of cyberattack. Have you ever received an email instructing you to open a suspicious looking file or link? A text from your "bank" informing you there is malicious activity on your account and to login to the link provided in the text, but when you look closely you see the link is not the official banking URL. What you have just experienced is a phishing attack, this isn't something that just happens to people working at big companies. An attacker is attempting to steal your information by luring you into entering it on a fake website or trick you into installing malware onto your computer. It is quite prevalent and unfortunately many people fall victim to it every day.
We also face huge risks in the area of IoT or Internet of Things devices. Our thermostats, fridges, light bulbs, smart TVs, home hubs and even our coffee machines are all interconnected, constantly talking to each other and our devices, and most notably they are all connected to the internet! Many of these devices utilise the cutting edge of the latest technology and protocols, however that is not always a good thing. According to Cyber Security Firm Kaspersky over 1.51 Billion IoT cyberattacks took place from January to June of 2021, "Most of these attacks are preventable, that’s why we advise smart home users to install a reliable security solution, which will help them stay safe". A "reliable" security system is required as many of these protocols are not implemented with security in mind and even worse in some cases cannot be patched.
The risks posed by cyberattacks hit home for a lot of Irish people earlier this year when the Irish Department of Health and Health Services Executive (HSE) fell victim to the one the largest criminal cyber attacks in the history of the state. The HSE suffered what is known as a ransomware attack, in which the data is encrypted by a malicious party (making it unusable) and a ransom is demanded to decrypt it. The attack on the 14th of May forced the HSE and hospitals connected to it to shut down its systems completely across the country for a number of days resulting in thousands of cancelations of treatments for patients and the impact of this attack is still being felt to the current day. While there has been no evidence of large scale leakage or selling of HSE data online, given the nature of ransomware attacks and that the HSE did not end up paying the ransom it is still not out of the question for this data to appear in the “dark web” in the future.
As a final word, technology is great, it has improved exponentially in a short period of time, it provides services that enhance, simplify and interconnect our lives in ways that we never thought possible, but as with anything there are risks, the more devices we connect to the internet and the more data we have on the internet, the greater the risk, and in this day and age we decide to do both in an unprecedented abundance. What will the new man of the internet age look like? What hope do we have for this Homo Interneticus? Will he bequeath upon his heirs a world more secure or one plagued with potential vulnerabilities?
Enda Sugrue,
November 2021.
