Whenever I see an advert on the television for a well known doorbell with an embedded camera I wince a little at the thought of the opportunity to use this information for malintent. Sure enough, it’s not only me, as the company in my thoughts has been hacked at least once. The temptation is just too great. Think what fun you can have intercepting the video stream. It wouldn’t take a criminal mind to work out who was in or not, or what was being delivered and left on the doorstep.
I always imagined this to be an outside-in crime, that is perpetrated by people from outside that particular household on those resident in the property, a sort of assisted burglary. My mind was changed however after attending a recent event at Newcastle University to celebrate its recent re-accreditation as an Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research (ACE-CSR) by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and UKRI.
There are seven areas of academic interest covered by the university’s research, including: Artificial intelligence; Bio/nano systems; Cyber-physical systems; Financial technologies; Medical systems; Governance, law and new technologies; Human identity and trust.
It was the last one that particularly sparked my interest. Prof. Deborah Chambers told us how the Human Identity and Trust cross-cutting theme seeks to promote social justice by advancing knowledge on public awareness of and engagement in cyber security issues and citizens’ experiences of cyber security threats. By examining how individuals and groups negotiate their identities online; the level of trust they invest in their online interactions; and how they navigate their online decisions, the twofold aim is to (a) prevent digital technologies from performing as sites that reflect, exacerbate, or reinscribe social inequalities through design, production, and use and (b) identify and promote ways to protect citizens’ online identities and enhance individual and community trust in digital technologies.
During her talk, Prof. Chambers revealed how:
- 2.4 million adults in the uk are subject to coercion and control abuse annually
- There has been a 72% rise in smart device abuse
- Most domestics abuse now has some cyber element and that
- Most home devices stop security updates after two years
This was a shock for me. I now realise that cyber crime is just as much a problem inside a family as from outside. Until then I had never given any thought to how smart devices could be used to coerce and control vulnerable and dependent people.
Technology is ubiquitous. From my grandchildren who are just starting school to my mother who is in her nineties, people are more and more comfortable with what it has to offer. Its benefits are obvious but its downsides are less so. We all need to be much more vigilant about how we let it into our lives.
Given the opportunity, bad people do bad things.
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 