It wasn’t so long ago that any discussion of security as it pertains to the Internet focused solely on computer viruses, malware and spyware. The Internet had opened a world of information up to private computer uses, but navigating this flood of information meant exposing your computer to malicious scripts that had the potential to hijack your machine in order to serve you with unwanted ads (i.e. spam), keylogging software and other invasive programs. Times were simpler then, because the risk was – relatively speaking – one-dimensional.
But as the Internet has grown and found its way into new corners of our lives, the way that we talk about and consider the risk of malicious files is changing. Indeed, 2015 proved to be the year that the world began to seriously consider the potential vulnerabilities of the so-called ‘Internet of Things’.
Today, journalists are having a heyday with the prospects of hackers gaining access to your life through the technology that populates it. We’ve seen a barrage of fear-inciting articles published recently – covering everything from exploitable technology in cars to hackable pacemakers.
But all of this begs the question: How safe is our wired and interconnected lifestyle?
Defining the ‘Internet of Things’
Before we go any further, it’s probably best to offer a quick definition of the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s a rather vague-sounding term for a reason. The IoT is essentially the network of devices that communicate with us, each other and other applications via the Internet.
The IoT allows you to do things like turn the heat on remotely or view a life feed of your home CCTV on a mobile device. The concept isn’t new, either. One of the very first IoT gadgets was an Internet-connected toaster that debuted back in 1989. In its original iteration, the toaster could be switched on remotely, but a human still had to manually insert the bread. This was resolved a couple of years later with a robotic crane that was also controlled through the Internet.
Can Security Keep Up with the Internet of Things?
The first-generation security threats that were introduced along with the Internet have largely been kept under control. Anti-viral applications effectively keep our machines clean, so long as we remember to update the virus definitions and practice a bit of common sense in what we click on.
Likewise, sophisticated algorithms continue to be developed and improved upon in order to keep spam at bay. Anti-spam products from providers like MailCleaner are highly effective in keeping our inboxes clean. Whilst these platforms don’t stop spammers from sending potentially dangerous emails, they effectively filter them so that the end user doesn’t have to worry about whether a particular message they’ve received is carrying a hidden script.
In the future, security platforms will likely use a combination of strategies to protect our homes and devices from spam and hacking. Those that serve us content will utilise sophisticated filtering strategies techniques similar to those employed by our email clients. This is combined with firewalls and smart ‘gatekeepers’ that will be able to tell the difference between the user and a potential hacker.