These days privacy has become something of a wistful dream, one made near impossible with organizations such as the National Security Agency bringing to mind a wizened mob boss as he spits out the words “we’ll be watching you” from greasy lips while lighting a cigar. But could there be more to fear? Each day we grow increasingly dependent on technology to file our taxes, to document our every thought and feeling and to entertain our children. What if these systems were compromised and manipulated by someone with more vicious intentions than simply to monitor?
According to former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who first coined the term “cyber Pearl Harbor” in Oct. 2012 to describe the looming possibility of a cyber attack by foreign agencies, this attack could “dismantle the nation’s power grid, transportation system, financial networks and government” in Panetta’s words, as reported by The New York Times.
And while the idea of our water supply being compromised or our power grid shut off by foreign agents sounds like the plot of a spy movie, there do exist vulnerabilities in the systems around us, and these systems are taking notice and taking action.
Last July witnessed the aptly named “Quantum Dawn 2,” a drill involving about 50 international banks who underwent controlled cyber attacks in order to test their security defenses. The financial sector finds itself especially vulnerable to cyber criminals since banks deal with money flow in real time and have an almost immediate effect on the world’s markets.
I’ll admit that this still sounds like something from a film involving James Bond and a villain with an eye patch. However, we’re now finding ways that hackers could affect us more directly. A Forbes article relates the findings of an $80,000 grant from a branch of the Pentagon used by two security engineers to root out defense vulnerabilities in automobiles. These backseat “hackers” were able to use a laptop to override the car’s GPS, trick the speedometer into inaccuracy and violently jerk the steering at any speed.
These problems become considerably smaller compared to finding hackers in the backseat of your car, but a separate report by computer scientists at the University of San Diego and the University of Washington proves that hacking could be done externally as well.
In this report, hackers were able to control the vehicle in the same ways through the use of the car’s internal computer, doing so by inserting malicious software into the car’s OnStar system, Bluetooth and even its internal CD player. Imagine the ease of stealing a car in these conditions: one could dismantle the car’s defenses, unlock the door, turn on the engine — all from a computer — then simply drive away.
The collapse of these systems will probably not happen tomorrow or the next day, but on a smaller scale, it’s already happening. Hackers find ways to infiltrate the products and programs we use each day, such as illegally downloading music and jailbreaking iPods.
I’m not advocating a return to the “old days of antiquity,” a denouncing and renouncing of all that’s electronic. But as members of a world that’s growing increasingly wireless, it’s our responsibility to be aware of the consequences. Complete privacy may not be a reality, but knowledge certainly can be.