Introduction to Certified Artifical Intelligence & Big Data: Uses and Benefits

24

September

2022

No ratings yet.

To Be Sure That You’re Secure

Artificial Intelligence (AI) coupled with Big Data Analytics allows more data to be processed, analyzed and aggregated than any human will ever be able to do. This present us with unprecedented situations and possibly limitless boundaries with what we are able to do with data, how we use data, the insights we can gain, and the decisions which we can make based on these data.

Seeing as businesses and individuals are already using these technologies on a grand scale and looking to integrate the these technologies evermore, care must be taken to handle the security-related concerns which may arise (bsigroup, 2022). An example of this are ecossytems which eventually will emerge in the automotive industry where incumbents will use AI and Big Data with their value chain partners to gather, analyze, and leverage customer data to improve their value proposition towards customers based on their analyzed needs (Walton, 2019).

Source: (Walton, 2019)

One Standard for AI and Big Data

An internationally agreed upon defined sets of standards defined by stakeholders such as field experts, specialists, and government institutions. This is what an iso certification entails. It helps to set boundaries and provide best practices to all industries available. The standards facilitate a way to internationally collaborate based on uniform principles for domains such as technologies, processes, and manufacturing to ensure that industry regulations, societal safety and ethical concerns will be met (bsigroup, 2022; Gasiorowski-Denis, 2019).

The benefits and uses for AI and Big Data

Knowing whether you can trust a partner and how they work fosters greater collaboration capabilities and innovations. Practical examples are the medical field where bias in AI for organ transplants will be limited and a more trustworthy selection process can ensue, developing AI applications, the assessment of machine learning classification performance, and the data life cycle of AI where the quality of governance and data measurements are also factored in (Gasiorowski-Denis, 2019; ISO/IEC TS 4213, 2022; iso, 2022).

Sources

bsigroup. (2022). How standards support emerging technologies. Retrieved from bsigroup: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/standards/Information-about-standards/standards-and-new-business-areas/

Gasiorowski-Denis, E. (2019, November 11). Embracing the power of technology. Retrieved from iso: https://www.iso.org/news/ref2451.html

iso. (2022). Standards by ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 42: Artificial Intelligence. Retrieved from iso: https://www.iso.org/committee/6794475/x/catalogue/p/0/u/1/w/0/d/0

ISO/IEC TS 4213. (2022, 10). Retrieved from iso: https://www.iso.org/standard/79799.html?browse=tc

Walton, B. (2019). Disruption in the automotive industry. Retrieved September 17, 2022, from https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/uk/Documents/ConsumerIndustrialProducts/deloitte-uk-consumer-industrial-products-how-digital-is-changing-car-sales.pdf

Please rate this

Twitch Data Leak – Are Platforms Doing Enough To Secure Our Data?

9

October

2021

Data Security: Recent Twitch data leak shows how confidential information can be accessible for anyone through data breaches. Are platforms doing enough to prevent this?

5/5 (1)

Three days ago, another platform and its users became victims of a data leakage. This time it was Twitch, a highly popular (game-)streaming platform owned by Amazon with approximately 8.07 million active streamers/users just last month (Clement, 2021). The top streamers on the platform gather millions of viewers around the world and subsequently get paid by Twitch for providing their users with entertainment through streams. Last Wednesday, for the first time in Twitch history, confidential company information and streamers’ earnings were leaked as it became clear how much the top streamers have earned in revenue. And it was not a small leak either: BBC has reported that it was due to a massive breach of over 100GB in data (Tidy & Molley, 2021).

2021: Record-breaking amount of data leaks?

Unfortunately, this data leak of a widely-used platform is not the first and certainly not the last. According to The Identity Theft Research Center, the number of (publicly announced) data breaches so far this year has already surpassed the total number in 2020 by 17%, with nearly 281.5 million people being affected by these breaches in 2021. There have been 1,291 breaches so far, compared to 1,108 breaches last year. The report also states that we could be headed towards a record-breaking year when it comes to total amount of data leaks, with the current all-time high of 1,529 breaches being set in 2017 (Morris, 2021).

More data = more data security?

Whether this year will mark the most amount of data breaches or not, it illustrates that data security is becoming increasingly more important in order to prevent these breaches from happening. With the growth in data produced and collected by almost every business or organisation, the likelihood of the (increasingly valuable) data being leaked or systems being breached naturally increases. To put the increase of data into perspective: In 2010, the world created about 2 ZB (zettabytes) of digital information. Last year, this increased to a whopping 44 ZB in that year alone (Saha, 2020).

Needless to say, more data requires better data security. Especially considering the increase in breaches/leaks this year, companies should look to invest more in protecting their (users’) data. According to a cybersecurity market report, the global cybersecurity market size is projected to grow from 217.9 billion USD in 2021 to 345.4 billion USD by 2026 (MarketsAndMarkets, 2021). Although the cybersecurity market is increasing, will it be enough to significantly decrease data leaks/breaches?

Data equals money

Not only does a data leak hurt a platform’s reputation or its users’ privacy, it can also cost the concerned organization a lot of money. According to the annual Cost of a Data Breach Report, 2021 had the highest average cost in 17 years as data breach costs rose from 3.86 million USD to 4.24 million USD: “the highest average total cost in the 17-year history of this report” (IBM, n.d.). When looking at the example of Twitch, source code was leaked alongside revenue information of top streamers. Therefore, its competitors (e.g. YouTube Gaming) now have access to their rival’s source code and revenue information about the platform’s most valuable asset: their content providers. With the added privacy aspect of the leak, this might result in a significant loss of competitive advantage and thus loss of revenue for Twitch.

Discussion: is it enough?

Now you know how much is invested in cybersecurity and how much an average data leak actually costs, do you think companies should invest even more? In addition, do you think 2021 will go into the history books as the “least safe” year for online platforms so far? And do you think this particular breach will mark the end of Twitch’s dominant competitive position in its industry?

Let me know your thoughts and perspective.

References

Tidy, J. & Molloy, D. (2021). Twitch confirms massive data breach. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-58817658

Clement, J. (2021). Active streamers on Twitch worldwide 2021. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/746173/monthly-active-streamers-on-twitch/

Morris, C. (2021). The number of data breaches in 2021 has already surpassed last year’s total. Available at: https://fortune.com/2021/10/06/data-breach-2021-2020-total-hacks/

Saha, D. (2020). How The World Became Data-Driven, And What’s Next. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/googlecloud/2020/05/20/how-the-world-became-data-driven-and-whats-next/?sh=2161cb1d57fc

MarketsAndMarkets. (2021). Cybersecurity Market with Covid-19 Impact Analysis by Component (Software, Hardware, and Services), Software (IAM, Encryption, APT, Firewall), Security Type, Deployment Mode, Organization Size, Vertical, and Region – Global Forecast to 2026. Available at: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/Market-Reports/cyber-security-market-505.html#:%7E:text=global%20Cybersecurity%20market%3F-,In%20the%20post%2DCOVID%2D19%20scenario%2C%20the%20global%20cybersecurity,9.7%25%20from%202020%20to%202026.

IBM. (n.d.). How much does a data breach cost? Available at: https://www.ibm.com/nl-en/security/data-breach

Please rate this

Author: Roël van der Valk

MSc Business Information Management student at RSM Erasmus University - Student number: 483426 TA BM01BIM Information Strategy 2022

Security consequences of AI

5

October

2021

No ratings yet.

Companies store more and more data, because data is valuable. However with the increase in data also comes the responsibility to keep the data private. There is a necessity for companies to secure their data, to make sure it does not fall into the hands of malicious third parties. The old protections systems based on software designed and operated by humans might not be enough anymore, as can be seen from some high profile data leaks. Some examples are the 500 million LinkedIn profiles that got scraped of the database of the company in April of this year and the cyberattack on EasyJet where over 9 million customers were affected [1].

New technologies however, may bring change for the good or bad of companies. Especially AI is promising when used in both security and hacking of a company’s data.

Hacking with AI

Getting hacked by AI systems may seem far away in the future, but there are already real world examples of AI software that would be capable of hacking. There currently exist hacking events composed of AI systems that compete against each other. In 2016, DARPA ran a hacking event where the AI systems of one hundred teams had to try and hack software that was not analysed or tested before [2]. To keep it short, the results were that the winning AI system was still worse than the human hackers that competed with the winning AI system. The gap between AI and humans is getting smaller however. The most worrying thing is that AI systems seem particularly good at finding vulnerabilities, which is one of the most often used ways to get to data of companies [2].

AI in security

There is a silver lining however, AI systems can also be incorporated in the security systems of companies. There are already a multitude of AI systems that companies utilize. Some of these include modelling user behaviour, antivirus products, automated network and system analysis and email scanning [3]. These AI systems will also be improved upon over time and might be able to hold of the AI systems build for hacking.

[1]https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/14-of-the-worst-data-leaks-breaches-scrapes-and-security-snafus-in-the-last-decade/

[2] https://www.schneier.com/academic/archives/2021/04/the-coming-ai-hackers.html

[3] https://cisomag.eccouncil.org/hackers-using-ai/

Please rate this

Risks of home automation

22

September

2021

5/5 (4)

Smart homes are on the rise people around the world are using technology to improve the way of living, smart homes can improve security, comfort, and energy usage. It is estimated that nearly 90 million people will be living in a smart home soon. Smart home environments are prime examples of the Internet of Things (IoT) because they use cyber-physical systems that generates and distributes complex data via multiple sensors, applications, and systems to create a smart environment. Smart home systems can control the house occupied and unoccupied on behalf of the humans that control this system, this automatically brings risks to usage of smart home systems regarding safety and privacy.

https://digitaltechnologysolutions.com/home-automation-3/

Research has shown that the biggest threat comes from software vulnerabilities in the mobile application as it is in almost all systems containing software. These vulnerabilities allow third parties to control the home automated system which could result data theft and a violation of privacy. Another result could be the fact that the system can be physically breached when homeowners are not present which will lead to home which is vulnerable for burglary. This results in a high risk for using home automated systems. There is a high need for secured coding and meticulous testing of the software for potential penetration points. Another important point of interest is the fact that security must be priority number one when developing home automation systems and a risk analysis should be conducted. Software engineers share known vulnerabilities in a public CVE (Common Vulnerability and Exposure) database. This helps engineers to easily mitigate security patches in new and old systems. Engineers can create a more safety in home automation by sharing and contributing to the CVE database which results in situational awareness.

Another risk in home automation are human actors, humans are always a weak link in software-based systems. The biggest threat is the lack of security this could be a weak password or no password at all, this is mainly the problem at the in-house gateway which could give you access to the complete system in case of a hacking attack. Engineers should add password requirements and double verification for instance a multi-factor-authenticator which would add a whole layer of extra security.

The conclusion from this information is that smart home allows consumers to collect a lot of date about the household, it could improve security, comfort, and energy usage but people are not aware that there are multiple risks which could violate privacy of occupants. It is important for engineers to be aware of the risks and conduct risk analysis and test the software severely before launch. Timely patching will enable the systems to be secure for the long term. Summarized, home automation shows huge potential for household but corresponding risks are mainly unknown for users.

References

Business Insider (2020).How IoT devices & smart home automation is entering our homes in 2020. Retrieved from https://www.businessinsider.com/iot-smart-home-automation?international=true&r=US&IR=T

Jacobsson, A., Boldt, M., & Carlsson, B. (2016). A risk analysis of a smart home automation system. Future Generation Computer Systems, 56, 719-733.

The Internet of things: Manage the complexity, seize the opportunity, white paper by Oracle, 2014. Available at: http://www.oracle.com/us/solutions/internetofthings/iot-manage- complexity-wp-2193756.pdf 

Please rate this

Does Uber have a future?

30

September

2019

5/5 (1)

Uber has updated its app in a way that CEO Khosrowshahi has branded as the beginning of Uber’s step to becoming the ‘Amazon of transportation’ (Hawkins, 2019). The app includes new elements such as Bike lane alert, Improved Real-Time ID check and Verify your ride (Vasile, 2019). Besides new safety features, the app will now integrate UberEATS so riding and ordering can be done in one app, under the same Uber umbrella. More about the safety features later, first let’s take a look at why the company decided to also integrate public transit information into its app and why it believes that this will be useful since we already have an app for this (Google Maps, anyone?).

Uber is trying to expand from simply being an app to becoming a true platform business, targeting city life and transportation. As Khosrowshahi put it: “We want Uber to be the operating system for your everyday life” (Nuttall, 2019), meaning that it is attempting to build a complete experience for their consumers and aims to become a city life partner on all fronts: food, ride-hauling and even public transit. In a recent interview with The Verge’s reporter Andrew Hawkins, Uber’s CEO revealed the company’s ambitions in providing a platform that not only provides information but allows you to take action, advancing previous CEO Kalanick’s goal to brokerage all human movement in cities (Hawkins, 2019). However, what makes the Uber app more special than for example Google Maps or Citymapper? Khosrowshahi demonstrates the app and explains how it will be a comparable experience but provide all services in one place and allows customers to take action in the application, increasing app engagement which will provide more business (read: data) down the road (Hawkins, 2019). The choice to integrate public transit information, and eventually ticketing, into the app was not motivated by money: Khosrowshahi simply explains that it hopes to complement transit, offer Uber users all options and therefore cater to the individual user’s needs, whether that be timeliness or budget. Khosrowshahi says the company aims for profitability in the long run, achieved by creating “the right solutions for consumers, even if it’s not making them money” (Hawkins, 2019).

The decision to incorporate transit information is not entirely random, as Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps have been proven responsible for declining rates of public transit usage; both rail and bus ridership falling by 1-2% after the entrance of a ride-hailing app into the market (Graehler et al., 2019). As clarified by the CEO, Uber wants to complement transit, beside the fact that it has competition anyways, it merely wants to provide its users with all options, not compete or draw customers away from public transit. Uber released its beta version where users can see transit schedules, directions and some ticketing options in a few cities like San Francisco, Mexico City and Paris on September 27th (Hawkins, 2019).

Some other features in the app were included to improve the privacy and safety of both riders and drivers. The most important feature being Verify Your Ride, which uses a four-digit pin code that needs to be verbally communicated to drivers, to ensure riders meet their paired drivers and do not take the wrong car (Vasile, 2019). Other features encompass a 911-alert function through the app, as well as Bike lane alert that notifies riders when they get dropped off near bike lanes to prevent ‘dooring’ bicyclers. Lastly, the company incorporated a better Real-Time ID Check to guarantee Uber drivers match the account in the company’ systems. All these features are implemented to increase safety surrounding Uber after significant security-related issues in the past.

This update sounds good, but these new features also sound like they should have been incorporated all along and are targeted at relieving the pressure the company has faced around privacy and safety issues in the past, think Grey Ball and God View (Hawkins, 2019). The company has improved its firewalls and introduced a Report Safety Incident function that allows riders to report concerns during their trip (instead of only after), to regain riders’ trust and prevent future reports of kidnappings, sexual assaults and sometimes even deaths that have occurred in the past (Silicon Canals, 2019).

Uber has not only struggled with safeguarding its users but also has reported billions in losses over the past years and is of yet unable to turn its business profitable. With a $3 billion operating loss and an accumulated deficit of almost $8 billion in 2018, the company could be in serious trouble now that its earnings are being monitored as it has issued its IPO earlier this year (Poletti, 2019). Since the innovative self-driving cars will most likely not arrive soon enough to save Uber business model, their unprofitable business model will probably result in price hikes for rides to cover costs and improve profitability, but will riders accept these higher prices or simply revert to one of the many alternatives (public transit, Lyft, grab etc.). Further, major investors’ lockup periods are about to end in early November, which might have disastrous consequences for the company’s stock. The financial and security matters are enough to get investors worried, yet Uber also faces legislative and environmental challenges. A few examples are the AB5 California bill undermining its current business model by enforcing drivers to be recognised as employees that receive benefits, democratic candidates placing blame on Uber and Lyft for increased congestion problems, and prolonged efforts to retain its operating licenses in European cities like London (Hawkins, 2019).

This leaves the question if Uber will survive the existential crises it is currently strung up in. Despite Uber’s positive claims that it expects to be around in the future, it will first need to survive the present. With many global and local challengers like autonomous driving, Grab, Lyft or Bolt (Silicon Canals, 2019), competition has arrived and a simple app update will not solve the bigger existential threats that are attacking Uber from all fronts: legislative, financial and environmental. Do you think Uber will crawl its way to the top and become the urban city life-app it desires to be, or will it fall from grace and be forced out of business by financial and legal difficulties?

Leave your thoughts and comments below!

References

Graehler, M., Mucci, A., & Erhardt, G. D. (2019). Understanding the Recent Transit Ridership Decline in Major US Cities: Service Cuts or Emerging Modes?. In Transportation Research Board 98th Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January.

Hawkins, A. J. (2019). Exclusive: INSIDE UBER’S PLAN TO TAKE OVER CITY LIFE WITH CEO DARA KHOSROWSHAHI. [online] The Verge.  Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/26/20885185/uber-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-interview-exclusive [Accessed 30 September 2019).

Nuttall, C. (2019). All hail Uber’s everything app. [online] Financial Times. Available at: https://www.ft.com/content/85e5b38e-e149-11e9-9743-db5a370481bc [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Poletti, T. (2019). Opinion: Uber and Lyft IPOs mean the cheap rides are coming to an end. [online] MarketWatch. Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/uber-and-lyft-ipos-mean-the-cheap-rides-are-coming-to-an-end-2019-05-09 [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Silicon Canals (2019). Uber to focus on rider’s safety with new features, but here are 7 alternatives if you’re in London. [online] Silicon Canals. Available at: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/uber-focus-on-riders-safety-new-features/ [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Vasile, C. (2019). Uber launches new mobile app, adds important new features. [online] phoneArena.com. Available at: https://www.phonearena.com/news/Uber-new-mobile-app-new-features_id119278 [Accessed 30 September 2019].

Please rate this

AI as a mean to reduce criminality

13

September

2017

5/5 (3) A few years ago, I watched Person of Interest – a TV series in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to analyse data from cameras, computers, and other electronic devices, making it possible to predict and prevent crimes before they even happen. At the time, I never thought something like that was possible but well, that has changed. Even though AI technologies available today are nowhere as sophisticated as in the show, experts affirm that there have been some serious progress in that direction.

 

According to Dr. Simon See – director for NVDIA AI technology center – “AI can predict the probability of crime in a location by detecting anomalies and faces”. This is exactly what China is aiming to do. Cloud Walk, a company located in Guangzhou Tianhe Software Park, combines its facial recognition software and big data analysis tools to track people’s location and behaviour in order to assess the odds of them committing a crime. Suspicious behaviours, such as frequent visits to gun shops or transportation centres (a good target location for terrorists), are flagged, and a warning is forwarded to the local police. The law enforcement forces can then intervene before the crime even happens.

In addition, in Durham, England, the law enforcement forces are making use of HART – an AI system developed by a Professor of Cambridge University – to help them determine whether a suspect should be released or keep in custody. HART uses the police’s database to forecast the risk of a suspect re-offending by putting them in either a low, moderate or high-risk category. The police can then decide on the appropriate course of action based on the ranking. Although the system is not yet ready to be deployed on a large scale, the tests conducted in Durham are quite encouraging as only 2% of low-risk suspects went on to commit a serious offense. Similarly, in the US, law courts and correction departments are making use of AI to help them pass judgement. Similarly to HART, the system determines the likelihood of the defendant committing another offense or whether he’s likely to appear to his court date. Based on the output, the court can then make decisions about bail, sentencing, and parole.

 

After reading a few articles to write the present post, I immediately thought that using AI to reduce criminal offenses seemed to be an amazing idea to – reduced criminality, terrorist attacks prevented, less “detective work” for the law enforcement forces, what else could we want? However, after further considerations, I believe that even if AI might be able to prevent some crimes in the ways mentioned previously, it also presents several issues.

First, whoever does the design and coding brings his own beliefs, biases, misunderstandings, and, most crucially, prejudices to the party. As long as this issue is not fixed, should we really trust a man’s freedom with a machine that might contain hidden biases rather than a jury composed of random people from different backgrounds?

Second, it is important not to forget that the law enforcement forces are not the only ones making use of IT, criminals also do. Thus, although AI might prove useful in reducing criminality, it also poses new threats to security, and as long as we don’t find ways to counter these, I wouldn’t trust my life to an auto-driven car or the likes.

 

And you, what do you think about AI as a way to reduce criminality & passing judgements? Let me know in the comments.

 

References:

  • Gibbs, M. (2017, February 25). Pre-crime, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and ethics. Retrieved from https://www.networkworld.com/article/3174331/big-data-business-intelligence/pre-crime-algorithms-artificial-intelligence-and-ethics.html
  • Hamill, K. D. (2017, May 11). British cops test Minority Report-style system to stop crimes before they happen. Retrieved from https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3536544/british-cops-test-minority-report-style-system-to-stop-crimes-before-they-happen/
  • Markou, C. (2017, May 16). Why using AI to sentence criminals is a dangerous idea. Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2017-05-ai-sentence-criminals-dangerous-idea.html
  • Yang, Y., Yang, Y., & Ju, S. F. (2017, July 23). China seeks glimpse of citizens’ future with crime-predicting AI. Retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/5ec7093c-6e06-11e7-b9c7-15af748b60d0

 

Please rate this

AIVD reading your Whatsapp messages?

10

October

2016

5/5 (10) This year Whatsapp decided to use end-to-end encryption for all whatsapp messages in following of their concurrent Telegram. This to protect the privacy of all users and ensure the users that their private messages keep private.

This week Rob Bertholee, the CEO of the AIVD (Dutch national security agency) spoke out in an interview that the AIVD wants the power to crack the encryption of Whatsapp. According to the AIVD the increasing use of information-encryption leads to problems regarding to the prevention of terrorism. The ideal situation for the AIVD would be to have an oversight of the whole criminal network, provided by their phone network history.

But of course this raises again the security versus privacy discussion. How much privacy is your safety worth? Should the AIVD have insights in everyone’s personal messages to protect the country?

History doesn’t prove that spying is the right solution. Before Whatsapp decided to encrypt their messages, people made use of PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) telephones. The government got the rights to crack these and since then they use them as prove in court for criminal cases. This should make the process more easy, but has so far disappointing results. A lot of criminals use aliases to stay anonymous and if they handled secure, the messages weren’t retraceble.

I would like to plead that privacy is not dead (yet) and that analyizing personal messages isn’t the right solution to protect citizens. Privacy is crucial for self-identity and autonomy. (Focault, 1977) (Wolf, R. D., & Heyman, R. ;2015).

“Privacy is the claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others” (Westin, 1968).

Also if the AIVD gets access to the messages, it is not sure how they’ll analyze the messages. Which false-positive ratio would be acceptable? And for what extend of time can they store the information? Another raising question is how they can ensure the security. Once there is a crack, the security of the messages is much harder to maintain.

What do you think? Would you let the AIVD read your messages? Does privacy still excist and if so, where do we draw the line?

 

 

http://nos.nl/artikel/2132835-aivd-plan-om-versleuteling-whatsapp-te-omzeilen-veel-te-gevaarlijk.html                  

Wolf, R. D., & Heyman, R. (2015). Privacy and Social Media. The International Encyclopedia of Digital Communication and Society.

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Vintage.

Westin, A. F. (1968). Privacy and freedom. Washington and Lee Law Review,25(1), 166.

Please rate this

Safety versus privacy

9

October

2016

5/5 (2) Narcos is currently one of the most popular series of Netflix. The series tells the story of notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, and how he tries to avoid getting arrested by the drug police. On the contrary, the drugs police do everything in their power to catch Escobar. However, back in those days it was not that easy. Escobar and his men used satellite phones that could be taped. However, the taped conversation only had value when the reception was good and when the police was able to recognize someone’s voice. I couldn’t stop thinking how different the same situation would be nowadays.

Tracking only the metadata of someone’s phone for one week can tell you someone’s life story. The Correspondent, a Dutch online newspaper, tracked the phone of Ton, and you will be surprised what they knew about him after a week. The name of his girlfriend is Merel and they send each other 100 Whatsapp messages per day on average. Ton also has a sister, Annemiek, who is still studying. Ton likes to read about sports on several news apps and is particularly interested in cycling. Furthermore, he likes to read Scandinavian thrillers, is interested in philosophy and religion, and most likely a Christian based on his search results on Google and Yahoo. He knows a lot about technology, uses three e-mail addresses, works at Bits of Freedom, and often works till late. He normally goes to bed around midnight and so forth! It is frightening to see that so much information can come from meta-data collected in one week.

Where the Correspondent got permission from Ton to track his data, the National Communications Security Agency (NCSC) of the Netherlands is entitled to track all people’s meta-data. And of course, for the sake of safety they have collected data from everyone and over a long period of time, also called data mining. Their intention is to build data-warehouses where they can store the data forever. Next to collecting data, the NCSC also has advanced tools to analyze the data. In special cases, they are allowed to go further than only analyzing meta-data and may also look into the content of the data.

However, collecting data of everyone and saving this forever is in conflict with the privacy rights. The public opinion about this matter is not clear. When Snowden reveals data collection secrets of national security agencies, everyone believes that they are collecting too much data and are violating the privacy rights of the citizens. However, when there is a terrorist attack everyone claims that we should give up our privacy rights for the sake of safety. But there is no clear debate going on. Would you have given up your privacy rights to get the notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar?

Sources

Please rate this

Can Signal disrupt Whatsapp?

2

October

2016

No ratings yet. A few weeks ago I heard a friend of mine: “I am now using Signal instead of Whatsapp, because Signal is more secure.” Then I thought by myself is it really that bad to still use Whatsapp?

When you look at the properties of Whatsapp and Signal they are pretty much the same. The only thing that differs is the fact that Signal is an open source platform. Herewith, they want to guarantee security by enabling anyone to audit the code.

Signal makes it seem like they are the only platform that really protects messages from users by using end-to-end encryption. This means that you and other participants of the conversation are the only ones who can see the messages. But Whatsapp also uses end-to-end encryption. So why should Signal be safer to use than Whatsapp?

I don’t know why. One thing I do know is that Whatsapp still has a lot more users than Signal. Therefore, Whatsapp has a larger network effect compared to Signal; the value of Whatsapp is much higher because they have more users. That’s also why I am still using Whatsapp because all my friends are using it. When I decide to switch to Signal it takes a while for I can take advantage of that again. Furthermore, I am used to work with Whatsapp. Switching costs are high; because when I switch to Signal I have to learn how to work with it (although it will probably work almost the same).

Another communication app, Telegram, also tried to disrupt the market but they not really succeed. They could not compete against big competitor Whatsapp. Now I am wondering if Signal will be a failure too or can it push Whatsapp out of the market? If yes, how long will it take? What do you think?

Sources:

https://itunes.apple.com/nl/app/signal-private-messenger/id874139669?mt=8

https://androidworld.nl/apps/signal-private-messenger-snowden/

http://www.nu.nl/apps/4207675/whatsapp-heeft-1-miljard-gebruikers.html

http://www.pcmweb.nl/nieuws/privacy-vriendelijk-whatsapp-alternatief-heml-stopt-ermee.html

https://theintercept.com/2016/06/22/battle-of-the-secure-messaging-apps-how-signal-beats-whatsapp/

Please rate this

Internet of Things Security

26

September

2016

No ratings yet. The fact that we can turn on the heater or washing machine before we get home, or adjust the lights by using our smartphones will soon not surprise us any more. We live in the Internet of Things (IoT) era where digitally connected devices are invading on every aspect of our lives, including our offices, cars, homes and even our own bodies. Researchers estimate that by 2020 the number of active wireless connected devices will exceed 40 billion!

Although the above-mentioned new technologies all sound really positive as it makes your life easier every day there is a downside to the Internet of Things concept as well. Namely, that the concept is attracting an increasingly amount of cybercriminals. The more online connected devices, the more possibilities for cybercriminals to hack.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem the Internet of Things Security concept is getting more and more important (even at government-level). The entire global tech community must address this concept via active participation.

Some of the points that can be done to improve Internet of Things Security from the developer’s point of view are:

  • Put security on nr. 1.
    Think about the importance of security from the moment you start to think of a new IoT technology.
  • No rush.
    Don’t rush to bring new products and services to the market but focus on long-term security.
  • Access control
    Implement a secure device authentication, which lives up to the needs of IoT technologies.
  • Know your enemies
    Take a close look at possible hackers before tackling your IoT Security issues.
  • Look out for the invasion
    Always be prepared for an invasion of hackers. Make sure you have a plan to securely transfer important data for example.

As you can read, there are a lot of difficulties to overcome before an Internet of Things technology can grow into something big. Hopefully we will find our way in the security of this revolutionary concept and make it into the ‘Internet of Everything’.

What do you think of Internet of Things Security? Will we find a way to overcome these risks and make sure the Internet of Things can evolve in the right way?

Please rate this