Posted on Aug 21, 2015
Will our reliance on technology be our downfall?
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Computers and/or computer based technology have inundated our lives, from the vehicles we drive to the cell phones we use and the next big push is "the Internet of things". If it can be connected to the Internet it will be, from the thermostats that control the HVAC to the refrigerator in our home.
While designed to make our lives easier, it exposes us to risk/vulnerabilities to some miscreants, but also makes us reliant on these technologies.
What can we do to protect ourselves?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2970352/security/ten-scary-hacks-i-saw-at-black-hat-and-def-con.html#tk.rss_all
While designed to make our lives easier, it exposes us to risk/vulnerabilities to some miscreants, but also makes us reliant on these technologies.
What can we do to protect ourselves?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2970352/security/ten-scary-hacks-i-saw-at-black-hat-and-def-con.html#tk.rss_all
Security
Network Security
Internet
Privacy
Safety
Posted 9 y ago
Responses: 8
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LTC (Join to see) I agree that we have been overwhelmed by the use and the technology, but that is part of growing as a society and enhancing our abilities to utilize more of our brainpower as human beings. We have evolved and will continue to evolve. Education and understanding how to use that technology is something we need to continue in our schools and with our youth. If you look at today's youth and their ability to work with computers and then you look back at (us - me and you) the end of the baby boomers look at what we have learned and where we came from with bag phones, rotary dial, and CRTs that were like giant boxes sitting on a desk! I don't think the technology will stop. I think we will see cyber wars in the future and nations toppled by technology and computers if we don't continued to learn and build for those types of future threats. There is danger when you walk out your front door in the morning or when you drive down the road in your car. We learn, we adapt, we overcome, and we move on down the road. Just image what technology will look like 40 or 50 years from now?
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LTC (Join to see)
COL Mikel J. Burroughs I guess I am worried about the rush to get products to market before the security bugs are worked out. When I was in a tactical unit, our radios were the only technology we had. Now we rely on the Blue Force Tracker, smart bombs, UAVs and all manner of technology that as the Iranians proved, can be hacked and either disabled or possibly used against us.
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs
LTC (Join to see) All great and valid point you make, but if you will remember as we learned the enemies TTPs, they developed new ones to counter, and we had to develop on the run when it came to fighting the IED campaign. We improvised on the Hummers with armor, until we could roll out new vehicles that could be used, so on and so forth. There will always be bugs and issues that we'll have to work out in our business, sometimes through the "school of hard knocks!” The enemy isn't going to take a break and allow technology testing and all the bugs to be fixed. I don't know if we will ever have that luxury in these current days and times. I'm not saying its right, but I think the OTEMPO won't allow that to happen. I'm not the expert on it either, so maybe others on RP can elaborate better than I can.
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There is no real way to protect yourself other than constant vigilance and monitoring. For every protective measure there are at least two hacks to get in. And it cost way more money to protect than to break into, hence why many very good hackers are actually working for the government as contractors rather than being sent to prison. Tech is our best friend, and as we've seen in recent years, one of our worst enemies.
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LTC (Join to see)
SSG Warren Swan I understand what you are saying, but the vulnerabilities still cause me concern.
When one can cut power or water to a region of this country from a keyboard half way around the world...
When one can cut power or water to a region of this country from a keyboard half way around the world...
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SSG Warren Swan
LTC (Join to see) - You should Sir. They've proven that they can send a plane, a cargo ship, and recently cars off course through the use of a cell phone. Stuxnet had it been used against us, would've been crippling to our infrastructure. We are beginning to take cybersecurity seriously, but not seriously enough. And our adversaries do not have the same kid gloves on that we do; hence the Russians and Chinese are always in our back yards. But we are not sitting idly by either. We are definitely inside their homes too. It just doesn't make the news on a regular basis.
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Sure having all this technology around is dangerous but so if everything else in life. The alternative, removing all technology, is out of the question. The best way to protect yourself is to educate yourself. Learn what can happen and what can be done to lessen your chances of that happening.
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LTC (Join to see)
SGT Ben Keen I agree that we need to educate ourselves and am not advocating a return to the stone ages. I am concerned about the undiscovered or unreported risk in technology and how that can negatively effect our lives.
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SGT Ben Keen
LTC (Join to see) - I'm not implying that you are advocating a return to the stone age, although it is funny that those that are advocating for that are using the very thing they want to kill by using it to spread the word on their cause.
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As others have noted on this thread, education is the key to resolving this issue/problem.
What bothers me about the article and the attitudes displayed by a number of our current counterparts is the apparent shifting of blame to past generations of designers and programmers. From my standpoint, instead of blaming the past, they should look at user's implementation of past technology design and programming, and the recommendations given then and now to resolve these issues.
One of the biggest security items that is apparently ignored is the closed system concept or something akin to the closed system concept that would limit access to those system through controlled portals. What is interesting from this point of view is that this type of hacking issue was ably demonstrated in the 1983 movie "WarGames".
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, Reason in Common Sense (1905-1906)
What bothers me about the article and the attitudes displayed by a number of our current counterparts is the apparent shifting of blame to past generations of designers and programmers. From my standpoint, instead of blaming the past, they should look at user's implementation of past technology design and programming, and the recommendations given then and now to resolve these issues.
One of the biggest security items that is apparently ignored is the closed system concept or something akin to the closed system concept that would limit access to those system through controlled portals. What is interesting from this point of view is that this type of hacking issue was ably demonstrated in the 1983 movie "WarGames".
"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana, The Life of Reason, Vol. 1, Reason in Common Sense (1905-1906)
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We are using drones' advanced technology to fight ISIS. That is our main gig.
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We do have to be careful, but as our security of technology increases (something that is also getting harder though) we can be more assured of it.
We use a quote regularly, "your technology will fail you" as a means of remembering to have a backup. In our context we usually mean the network will be down, the projector won't work, or that versions of a program won't be compatible. However, the exact same concept applies to a very advanced electronic targeting system on a rifle that could have been fired with an iron sight. We do have to make sure we don't make things overly complicated for no reason, which seems to be a hard battle to fight.
We use a quote regularly, "your technology will fail you" as a means of remembering to have a backup. In our context we usually mean the network will be down, the projector won't work, or that versions of a program won't be compatible. However, the exact same concept applies to a very advanced electronic targeting system on a rifle that could have been fired with an iron sight. We do have to make sure we don't make things overly complicated for no reason, which seems to be a hard battle to fight.
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LTC (Join to see)
Technology is great but I agree that we rely too much on it. Do we really need smart refrigerators, televisions, and coffee machines? WiFi in our cars? As an IT professional I agree that things are going too far!
Technology is great but I agree that we rely too much on it. Do we really need smart refrigerators, televisions, and coffee machines? WiFi in our cars? As an IT professional I agree that things are going too far!
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LTC (Join to see)
PO1 John Miller as a fellow geek, I too question the necessity for connecting everything to the internet.
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