These days you can order a ‘’Smart Refrigerator’’ which will keep a track of products in your fridge and autonomously order replacement products when they have either deplete, expired or been consumed. If you told most people five years ago that this would be coming to the market in 2017 they probably would have scoffed and laughed in your face.
Welcome to the new reality of the Third Industrial Revolution, the world is changing as we speak and it is here to stay whether you like it or not. While the younger generation and in fact most of us are going to become very used to this incredible level of convenience, there it is worthwhile considering the security issues and sacrifice of privacy with some of these products using the internet for this.
Crypviser aims see's the problems that are upon us and are developing a real world solution, pushing the boundaries of what a Blockchain can be and how it can be utilised to help secure, what will be our Interconnected Reality.
How’s that new Smart TV you just purchased? You can do Skype calls and your TV can even tell whether you are watching it, but do you know that it is watching you? It is quite feasible for an attacker to infiltrate your TV and record and monitor you continuously and even listen in to your conversations about various subjects, which, for high net worth individuals can be a major cause of concern.
Being somewhat paranoid about this new age, I am quite happy sticking with my dumb LCD thank you.
Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab warned that in a few years Internet-connected fridges and other household appliances may be targets of net viruses, such as ones that could be designed to make your fridge door swing open in the middle of the night, or record that intimate moment with your loved one and perhaps even make you subject to a blackmail attempt to extract cash from that person.
In August 2015, security company Pen Test Partners discovered a vulnerability in the internet-connected refrigerator Samsung model RF28HMELBSR that can be exploited to steal Gmail users' login credentials. Just think about that ‘’your fridge could be hacked and by obtaining your Gmail credentials can wreak all sorts of havoc in your life, as well as potentially identity as well as physical theft.
I’m a firm believer in Privacy, although anyone using the Internet as we currently know it cannot seriously expect to have a reasonable level of online privacy – less so by having these ‘’Smart’’ products in your home. However, with the new BlockChain technology that CrypViser are using takes away all of that headache and concern . . . Forever.
If you are on Social Media, by simply using these applications, you have already willingly suspended a certain amount of your Privacy in exchange for keeping an eye on what your friends are up to and what they are doing – while all the time it is you who is being watched . . .
Take Alexa from Amazon for example, she is not listening unless you say that ‘’Wake Word’’ well that’s fine until you wake her up and ask her something. My question is though – how long does she listen for after you have woken her up, and what does Amazon do with that data? For sure it is used for targeted advertising for their online sales platform.
Alexa uses a clever combination of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) engines that enable a system to instantly recognize and respond to voice requests. One area that interests me very much are Linguistics and how they are implemented within the internet theatre, another area of interest for me is the Weaponization of the Internet.
Amazon says that it keeps approximately 60 seconds of audio in memory for pre-processing so the responses can be situationally aware and "instant." They say the listening is done locally, on the device, not in the cloud. So technically, the audio does not leave the premises. However, when you go online an hour later perhaps, incredibly, there is an advert that pops up advertising that nice new car you and your partner have been talking about the past few days. Coincidence? I think not.
My point is that everything in your home will soon be connected to the internet.
"Anything that can be hacked will be hacked’’
With all this additional convenience and usability comes of course with additional vulnerabilities, anyone who doesn’t believe this is simply kidding themselves. In the pursuit of convenience, we must sacrifice privacy.
In the past few years, there has been a steady increase in the number of Internet-connected home devices. Amazing, right? So much convenience and it makes my life easier you say - However, the huge influx of such devices causes some security problems to the owners of smart homes. Each home device that can be connected to the Internet constitutes a “door to sensitive information” that needs significant protection.
A smart home device that has security loopholes can be accessed and hacked within seconds.
By way of illustration, it took 15 seconds for security researchers from the University of Central Florida to demonstrate how to hack Google’s Nest thermostat.
Business Implications and Vulnerabilities
Having worked in the Cyber Security field for some years now, I have learned that in Business the ‘human element’ is the weakest link in cyber security. No matter the amount of investment in Technology and Process an organization puts into their security posture, an unwary staff member may still be the cause of a major breach. With increased levels of social engineering sophistication in targeted attacks, it is necessary for an organization to build staff vigilance.
Most offices use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) to not only keep costs down, but also to try and increase security, usability and convenience.
However, the simple fact that it is using Internet Protocol makes it extremely vulnerable to being hacked, intercepted and that information potentially used against them or even to eavesdrop on important telephone conversations discussing that future acquisition of their competitors.
For a large conglomerate, this inside information could potentially be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the market before it is made public. Potentially damaging that companies share value, reputation as well as their key customers and lose any advantage that they had.
By removing the ‘’human element’’ using the BlockChain system, this ensures that you can rest in peace knowing that this platform is totally secure as compared to the traditional Internet which is not secure.
Social Media Vulnerabilities
Recent research reveals that identity theft affects millions of people a year, costing victim’s countless hours and money in identity recovery and repair, and perhaps even embarrassment. However, the bad guys are not generally interested in the average person. HighNetworth individuals are regularly targeted by well-funded and organized Cyber Security by way of Defamation, faking of public profiles, or targeted attacks to that individual public profile.
What causes this pattern of online theft and fraud?
It’s a combination of factors: a lack of consumer knowledge regarding protecting your identity online; growing comfort with, and trust in, social platform providers; the need for social platforms to generate revenue; and a lack of standards or policing of these standards. Although this issue is not yet in the mainstream consciousness, it likely will be sooner rather than later.
A persistent and patient attacker can monitor your posts and comments and start to build up a picture of your life and potentially key information such as your Pets name, home address, work address and the places you visit for example.
What has been discussed above are all problems that we face today in the real world, and these problems will not get any better without a solution that will help eradicate these issues that effect pretty much every faucet of our lives, both in the business world and in our personal worlds.
CrypViser I can see as having a viable solution in this space, sure there are many other projects out there that are attempting similar endevours but CrypViser are determined to have the most secure Blockchain and build an ecosystem that far surpasses everything else.
I will go deeper into this in my next article.
Stay Tuned . . .
To find out more about CrypViser and how to invest, click the link below;
You can also ask the devs questions and see whats happening in the community by visiting their bitcointalk thead which can be found here;
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1922625.0