In this episode of Cyber Security Inside, Camille and Tom review the article they wrote about cybersecurity trends, discussing what’s important right now and topics on the horizon. The conversation covers:
How networks, connectivity, and cloudification are now considered critical infrastructure and how privacy and security are tied to this.
Artificial intelligence being both incredibly helpful and incredibly dangerous.
How we think about trust in the digital world, both related to the computers in our systems and the people behind those computers.
Quantum computing and other things coming in the near future that we should be preparing for now.
...and more. Don’t miss it!
To read the article, go to this link: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2021/12/21/top-cybersecurity-trends-2022/
The views and opinions expressed are those of the guests and author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Intel Corporation.
Here are some key takeaways:
This episode focuses on an article that Tom and Camille wrote about future trends. They talk through the article itself, as well as expand on some of the ideas from the article.
One of the trends they talked about was critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure is now more than just roads, water, and electrical grids. It’s now things like communication and connection and digitivity. Digital security and privacy are now a part of this as well.
We have so many devices and big infrastructure, including things floating around in space and medical devices in your body. How do you protect those things from being hacked? How do you update those things without having something that can be accessed by others?
Artificial intelligence is another topic they focused on. A lot depends on what it is being used for. There is AI in the medical field helping detect anomalies far earlier than human eyes could so that issues can be addressed earlier than they would otherwise. But AI is also being used to find vulnerabilities and attack.
AI is also in its infancy. Soon we will know so much more about how it is used to attack systems and also be beneficial. It is both systemic and personal.
Privacy and information security is something that is deeply related to AI and also other facets of security. Although it might seem like paranoia, these are real things that have happened and could happen. Although it might sound outlandish, these things are likely.
Insider threats is another topic that has been explored, which is deeply tied to trust. As companies are monitoring your computer, how do they know if new and strange behavior is you about to steal or share information you shouldn’t, or an application that has taken over your computer? We need to know both the person sitting behind the device as well as the device itself (both hardware and software), and be able to trust both. We’re starting to learn how to do this.
There was a giant shift to working from home and the cloudification of data and systems. The workforce has distributed in space, and it is a different level of needing to know how to protect devices, systems, and people.
Quantum computing is something that is coming and coming quickly. There are people all over the world working hard to evolve cryptography so that devices and products like cars, planes, and more are protected when quantum computers arrive.
Some interesting quotes from today’s episode:
“Threats are not necessarily big explosions anymore; they can be destabilizing things that make people feel uncomfortable… Like people now are putting some of their genetic information online as they’re doing ancestry tracking. It’s not a problem now, but what happens in 20 years? What could somebody use that for?” - Camille
“When you test for security, you’re oftentimes purposefully testing the device in a way it’s not supposed to be used. That’s the way the human brain is working. And now enter artificial intelligence, there could be classes of attacks that the human brain hasn’t thought of yet.” - Tom
“If you have a neuroprosthetic, for example, that helps you move a prosthetic arm - if humanity gets to the point where they can write that signal - if something like that is hacked, you can move somebody’s arm without their permission… it’s at the very personal level.” - Camille
“But now, what is the information that matters, and how can that information be used in a way that maybe nobody’s considered up until now? But somebody will, and then obviously now that becomes privacy related.” - Tom
“People listening to this may not live in the cybersecurity world and may start saying, “Are we just being paranoid?” And to the folks that maybe haven’t been as deep in some of these topics, these are not outlandish schemes or threats that could theoretically happen but will never happen. These are very real and they’re already happening or they’re right on the cusp of happening.” - Tom
“What about the hardware itself? What are we doing to determine whether or not we have trust of the machine, and is that only happening at the very first rollout of the machine? Or are there protections we can put in place over the course of its lifecycle?” - Camille
“I think the silver lining through a pretty dark cloud in 2020 and 2021 is that people are much more attuned to supply chain in general, and the dependencies they have on a healthy supply chain.” - Tom
“It’s not hyperbole to say that all security that exists today can be easily defeated by a quantum computer. And so, the logical question if that’s true is what are we going to do about it?” - Tom