Watch out before you transfer money using internet or store your personal details on smartphones. Experts have cautioned that given the pace of rise in the cyber crime in the world, it is expected that by 2025 almost every person hooked to smartphone or connected to a smart device/gadget will be victim of the cyber attack.
And as internet increasingly makes our life comfortable the vulnerability of a possible cyber attack will grow, said cyber security experts during a brainstorming session at the World Internet Conference on Wednesday.
Experts felt that cyber attack is no more going to be limited to mere email, Facebook or Twitter accounts hacking but “it may soon possibly lead to hacking of our bank accounts, certificates stored online, other classified information, passport and travel related details, online trading, online payment information, private and search information of users including whom we talk, what we chat and what we do on internet - almost everything that netizens are hooked to is going to be impacted”.
Besides, there is a bigger threat to the security and infrastructure installations like the nuclear & power plants, railway networks, air traffic control and even shipping sector.
The experts discussed every potential threat to people and ways to safeguards against them. “Driverless vehicles, smart grid, smart cities, smart chopsticks that can detect food contamination, everything will be impacted.
There can also be a situation of malfunctioning of medical devices, traffic congestion, miscalculation of sensitive data,” said Bruce McConnell, senior vice president with the cyber security think tank Eastwest Institute.
“The problem is we have weak data integrity, poor authentification and security systems. And as we move more towards internet integration, the most disruptive phase is coming soon because if one point fails then the entire system will collapse,” McConnell added.
According to Alexander Klimburg, a research fellow in Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, by June 2015, already a damage worth $445 billion has been done by cyber crime out of which $100 billion is from USA alone while $45 billion is from China. “The cyber world is fragile,” Klimburg said
There was a bigger concern for misuse of cyber space by the terror groups and experts felt that the cross border nature of internet poses higher risk in cross border terrorism. Use of cyber space by the terror groups ISIS, Al Qaeeda, Boko Haram for espionage and destruction was also discussed.
“A lot of money that is stolen from banks through e- fraud has gone to the funding of Boko Haram, (Islamic fundamentalist terror group). They have used the money to buy weapons. Money stolen through cyber crime is also used for money laundering. In fact, the london Police has found strong links between money laundering and cyber crime,” said Israeli cyber security expert David Nordel. He added that constant stream of new and sophisticated malwares are regularly adding to the threat. “Protecting critical infrastructure that can kill thousands of people is a bigger challenge for governments now,” Nordel said. He gave an example where a container handling system in Antwerp was hacked and drugs were taken out of a ship without the knowledge of the customs.
Internet security expert Eugene Kaspersky said cyber terrorist activities on internet are not merely limited to communicate, pass encrypted messages, recruit jehadis or spread propaganda. “They have the potential to attack critical plants and installations like nuclear set up, power plants, air traffic control systrems etc. They also can attack and steal critical data relating to finance and defence security and attack on telecommunication system, by hacking our internet and mobile systems,” said Kaspersky, who is chairman and CEO of Kaspersky labs that sells multi-device security solutions, said, all internet related installations will be under threat and there is going to be an integration between online and offline crimes.
Experts displayed how by hacking into retail chains customer information, their identity could be established and how even CCTV cameras can be manipulated and misused. There was concern over websites offering hacking techniques and password recovery or regeneration softwares. Safety of Cloud network and Big Data and JPEG (picture format) privacy was also a new area of concern.
Sale of prohibited drugs, surrogacy, recruiting killers, online blackmailing, damage to intellectual property rights are some new areas according to Yang Peng, director of Information Security executing committee, Tencent.
He said recently We Chat was found to be used for gambling and financial transactional chats. He said user awareness is first step to cyber crime and need to encourage whistleblowers. To avoid such situations, the experts suggest using biometric systems for even online payments while there was stress on enterprises to make secure products.