Security challenges of the internet age

Rapid advances in information technologies and the increase in the use of internet has created a very complex system; i.e. the "internet of things" (IoT). It refers to the connectivity of devices like refrigerators through embedded network software, enabling them to interact with the external environment via internet.

 As a result, a refrigerator can now check the food stock, follow its owner's dietary restrictions, and order food from an online market whenever the stock is running low. There are still much to learn about IoT for the layperson. While it eases life in general, it also challenges the society at large with hitherto unheard threats such as hacking people's lives through a refrigerator.

The already emerging challenges posed by the information flow between billions of internet-enabled devices being connected to each other is something that the international society will have to find ways to deal with. The IoT is still in its infancy, but the security challenges it poses are already substantial that NATO and several states are already looking into it.

We have witnessed several instances of the kind of havoc a possible hacking through simple devices could wreak around the globe. In October 2016, for example, a massive cyberattack targeted the U.S. based company Dyn, which provides Domain Name System (DNS) services to major websites, and caused a shutdown of the internet globally. What made this attack interesting was the usage of internet-connected devices to create the necessary traffic to shut down the servers.

Another global cyberattack, the largest ever, hit more than 150 countries and around 300,000 computer systems last week. The massive ransomware, called WannaCrypt virus, attack, which encrypts all files on the...