Cyber-Kinetic Security

Self-help authors and politicians seem to agree on at least one thing: mindset matters. The shelves of bookstores worldwide are awash with motivational books by evangelical writers hoping to convert readers to their gospel of optimism. The central thesis is simple: success depends on approaching life, especially its challenges, with a positive outlook. Politicians and leaders have always appreciated the power of mindset, though less of the positive kind, as attested to by a history of propaganda that dates back to at least 500 BC. More recently, as Covid-19 spread across the globe, language in public discourse showed itself to be carefully selected to shape national mindsets. War metaphors, specifically, became the favoured way of talking about the virus that...

A term first coined by the Japanese government, “Society 5.0” describes "A human-centered society that balances economic advancement with the resolution of social problems by a system that highly integrates cyberspace and physical space." The fifth evolution of the society, enabled by the fifth generation of cellular networking and cyber-physical systems, imagines technology, things and humans converging to address some of the biggest societal challenges. The concept encompasses Industry 4.0, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Smart-Everything World and other buzzwords of the moment. In the society of the future the more the cyber and physical worlds are combined, the greater the benefits we will experience. However, the same is true of cyber threats. The more technology is incorporated into every corner of...

Neil Harbisson calls himself a cyborg. Without the antenna implanted in his skull, he would not be able to see colour of any kind. Born with achromatopsia, a condition of total colourblindness that affects 1 in every 30 000 people, Harbisson's physical faculties are augmented by cyber technology to grant him access to a life of greater meaning and satisfaction. As technological evolution leads to concomitant advances in medical science, we are seeing more and more examples of humans who are integrating devices and sensors into their biological makeup. For some, like those part of the growing "transhumanist" movement, this is a means of artistic expression or exploration of human potential. For others, it is a solution to a medical...

When microwave ovens first arrived on the market in 1967 they were met with public skepticism. Perhaps it was because, not long before, the same technology now promising to safely cook consumers’ evening meals was the backbone of a military radar. Perhaps it was the $495 price tag (more than $3,700 in today’s money). Whatever the reason, in the early 1970s the percentage of Americans owning a microwave was tiny. By 2011, it was 97%. What changed? Trust and convenience. When microwave technology was first released, it was difficult to trust. Cooking without using heat? It was simply too alien. In 1973, Consumers Union stated that microwave ovens couldn’t be considered safe because there was no solid data on safe levels of...

The timeline of human history is marked by inflection points of major technological advancement. The plow, the printing press, the telegraph, the steam engine, electricity, the telephone, the internet: each of these breakthroughs precipitated tectonic shifts in how people lived and worked. Now, in the early part of the 21st century, we stand witness to the birth of a new industrial revolution built on 5th generation cellular technology - 5G network. As the name implies, 5G network follows a developmental chain. First came 1G, the first generation of cellular communication that freed us to make voice calls without being tethered to a physical phone connection. Then 2G augmented this by adding data services like SMS and MMS. 3G gave us...

Not even 30 years separate us from the end of the Cold War. Yet, we appear to be witnessing the emergence of a new one, a technology Cold War between the United States and China. This time, instead of a ‘red under the bed’, the US government has declared there is one at the back door. It accuses Chinese technology companies of deliberately building vulnerabilities into their tech, allowing the Chinese to access and control the 5G critical infrastructure, and through it the connected devices and machinery at will. Headlines are dominated by the case against Huawei, and debate continues to rage about the legitimacy of the US’s claims. Are these well-founded or part of a more comprehensive assault on...

Don’t let the “5G” in the title confuse you. This post is not only about the telcos’ core networks, but about the 5G security and privacy issues in our (very) near, and very different future that 5G will enable. In the 5G-enabled massive Internet of Things (mIoT) world we’re about to find ourselves in, we are expected to have 1000 devices connected for every person… These devices will be the components of the ‘5G operating system’ for our smart cities, our industry 4.0, our smart homes, smart transportation, smart healthcare, and much more. To enable this future, we will need to have a complex symphony of computing going on across devices themselves, “fog” computing, enterprise and telco data centers,...