Opinion

Cybernoia

January 05, 2018

There seems no end to warnings about the vulnerabilities of computers and smartphones. Virtually every operating system, including those from Apple and Windows and the Linux-based Android have been found to have serious flaws which would allow someone else in some way to take control of individual machines.

The latest alert is over security flaws in the computer chips themselves, including those made by the leading manufacturers, Intel, ARM and AMD. The suggestion is that hundreds of millions of computers from personal devices up to the massive data-crunching machines of big business are at serious risk. And if the weaknesses reach to the highest corporate levels, then it is not just commercial secrets that are potential prey to prying eyes. It seems logical to assume that crucial defense systems are also in play.

It is easy to be paranoid or perhaps the better word is “cybernoid” in cyberspace. But the challenges of online security need a more rational response that that encouraged by the glaring shock-horror headlines. Computer programs and chip designs are still the result of many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of hours of work by humans. But rarely is complete code written scratch. Developers pull down blocks of tried and tested code from libraries. Much of this software is publicly available. And inevitably, computers themselves are now being programmed to generate fresh code, of a speed and complexity that a human analyst is unlikely to be able to dissect, without the assistance of another computer program. The time is coming where legitimate operators will have to hack their own systems to be sure of what is going on. And if the original source code was compromised by some form of malware, the resulting malign program may be so well-constructed that vulnerabilities could be impossible to detect.

Then there is the assumption that alongside the armies of legitimate programmers there is a mirror force of hackers bent on breaking into everything from personal mobile phones to top secret government systems. For every country, the good guys are their own people trying to compromise and understand the threats posed by the cyber-intelligence forces of potential enemies. In a world where brilliant minds and the most powerful computer systems are deployed to outwit each other, there is surely no secure hiding place.

But this cybernoia needs to be put into perspective. This warfare is no different from a real battlefield, where there was hardly ever such a thing as a completely impregnable fortress. There is always a weak point. There is always a method to overcome a fortification, even if it means bombarding it relentlessly for days - in the same way that computers bombard encrypted data to unravel its secret messages.

Social media and facial recognition software that open devices or passport controls now contain massive amounts of data about a significant proportion of the world’s population. There is nothing that anyone can do about this, except to keep calm and carry on. At least everyone now knows that there are solid grounds to expect that no piece of information is ever truly secure, whatever the promises of the computer industry. Thus the way to handle this extraordinary reality is to exercise caution and common sense and keep sensitive material well away from any Internet-connected device. A pen and paper might be the low-tech answer.


January 05, 2018
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