Study: researchers point the finger at the risks and flaws of … – Humanoides.fr (Blog)

In a new report, the Institute of Engineering Carnegie Mellon Software has assessed the main risks of nearly 2,000 technologies that will make the future.

Unity is strength

a few years ago, hardly anyone saw interest connect any everyday object internet. Today, no tell that connected objects can be useful for some applications. And soon their use became almost inevitable. If it is difficult to perceive the interest of a kettle or log scales, we see taking a step back that connected them to a network, said objects may suddenly find useful. Individually, they have the air of nothing, but together in a much, much larger, they transmit and receive data that can be very valuable. Thanks to algorithms and machine learning, businesses, governments and researchers are able to analyze a mountain of data with finesse and speed never before seen. It is by combining them that can produce extremely accurate and informative studies of consumer habits, climate, management of traffic or even the flaws in the payment of social benefits. The dream of every entrepreneur or employee to manage a complex organization.

Cisco Systems, the leader in computer security, estimated that more than 25 billion connected devices are already circulating in the world and that figure should quickly double by 2020. Gartner, meanwhile, expects to only 20 billion … in 2014, the same firm estimated that each home would involve about 500 of these technological jewels, when others thought this figure rather than 30 … these figures are to be taken lightly since these forecasts, carried out by private organizations at that. But one thing is indisputable: the connected objects will invade our lives in the coming years

A world without flaws

Everyone has heard of large-scale piracy, those of extra-marital dating site Ashley Madison, Sony Entertainment, or even celebrity photos stolen from the cloud. Hacks increasingly huge and the extent of which closely follows the curve of evolution of the population connected to the Internet, increasingly important. But what will it be when it is the number of connected objects that soar?

The data are now the sinews of war between the new companies on the web. The majority of the applications that come on our smartphones now work through them. And their number will only continue to grow as we multiply connected objects. But with this multiplication, just as many potential flaws.

Your inputs and outputs, your meal schedule, your hours of entertainment, and even your fitness, everything can be measured by the thirty connected objects should possess every home by 2025. Yesterday, you were you hack your computer and lose, at worst, your bank data. Today it is part of privacy that you can lose. Tomorrow is potentially all your privacy. As cameras, sensors, thermometers, microphones and other devices of all kinds that will equip your future home will be so many informers in power.

The paradox of a world controlled and measured all sides lies in its ability to self-destruct. If any technology brings a lot of benefits, it brings in as much potential dangers. This is why the research agency for the US Defense DARPA, launched the Cyber ​​Grand Challenge competition, which aims to fight against cyber attacks … thanks to computer programs. But not just any, since it will be artificial intelligences who will take care to ensure the information security of the government and the army.

A study that inspects all the flaws offline

So far, few discordant voices were heard on the issue of connected objects. Until now. Because a new study from the Institute of Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University Software points out the flaws in that system. Commissioned by the Department of Homeland Security (Homeland Security), this report aims to allow the Computer Emeergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) to “ fight for a freer Internet, safer and stronger for all US responding to major incidents, analyzing threats and exchanging cyberintelligence information with our trusted partners worldwide . “

” the most profound technologies are those that reach to disappear. It nest in the daily routine until it melts completely . ” It is this quote from American computer scientist Mark Weiser, thinker of “ubiquitous computing”, which scientists open their report. A good way to explain the outset the difficulty of the task and their incombée behooves us all. The functions of connected objects are always varied and always more when their size is constantly decreasing and therefore be invisible to our eyes. This is called computer ubiquity.

In charge of inspecting systems and emerging technologies through 2025, the research team has developed a list of faults in five key areas : telematic networks, smart medical devices, standalone machines, autonomous vehicles, and commercial drones. But their study runs a considerable number of technologies. To evaluate each technology, they developed a set of criteria taking into account the potential and the degree of injury can cause a fault, the financial losses could result, the degree of protection of personal data, and finally the possible impact on operations, in other words, in spite of an attack for example, is the service still operating properly?

She then based on the list of 2000 technologies identified by Gartner to evaluate them one by one. The results are shown below. The higher the number (1-4), the higher the technology poses a risk in that area. For example, the increase of man, risk omen physical security (4) when digital security omen rather risk on customer transactions (3). The second column indicates whether the confidence in technology was broken when the third anticipates the date of adoption of the technology in question.

what the we retained: intelligent robots stand out as the highest risk devices, with a great risk on the physical health of users and their privacy. As the connected houses and quantum computing poses more financial problems than physical security

what is retained: autonomous vehicles, medical devices and computer networks are among the technologies that are most vulnerabilities in almost all levels. As for the drones, their impact on privacy seems to have been chosen by the researchers, who emphasize the risk of physical injury and operability of the device after its vulnerability was exploited.

What solutions?

Regarding autonomous machines (cars and robots), researchers put forward their operation based on learning and can be perverted. As shown by the example of TayTweets, Microsoft chatbot became racist on Twitter in less than a day. Moreover, it’s connectivity that involves the team, which allows malicious good computer to easily hack, as for the connected home. However, they are quick to point out that the market is still in its infancy and that progress can largely be achieved within 5 to 10 years before their introduction in mass.

Regarding drones, the Carnegie Mellon team, highlights their potential for ubiquity and suggests carrying out impact studies of the flight rules issued by the FAA.

Finally, virtual reality, given the range of possible applications of such technology, the scientists recommend that the various government departments (FAA, FDA, Homeland Security …) involved in the assessment and improvement of this technology, because it fears that its accuracy is not high enough for medical use, for example. Moreover, hackers could not directly threaten the life of the user, but the trick there in disseminating fake images.

Overall, the report highlights the gaps in IT security number these technologies all pass through tele-communication to function. By way of solutions, it proposes to continue research towards more IT and physical security for mobile machines.

Find all the recommendations in the report 2016 Emerging Technology Domains Risk Survey .