By Avery Fowler for USMilitary.com
Statistics show that in 1995 .4% of the world?s population was online. By 2009 .4% raised to 18%. We?re in the beginning stages of a technology revolution that will be lasting for a very long time. It seems like someone under the age of 25 can?t last 5 minutes without checking their Twitter feed or snapchat story. Not only has the younger generation accepted technology, but major industries, too. That car you drove to work in most likely was built by a robot. As the world begins to rely more and more on technology, is there any sort of risk involved with it? While technology can be extremely entertaining and useful, it is being developed at such a rapid pace that culture can?t handle it because they want privacy and security, but they don?t realize that security is far behind the rate of technology.
Technology comes out at a rapid pace and it can be a good thing. By 2020 ABI Research predicts that 30 billion devices will be wireless, 4.5 million IOT jobs will be generated, nearly 100 billion dollars? worth of additional revenue in the medical technology field will be granted, and an economic boom of 14.4 trillion dollars is projected to be of revenue over the next 10 years alone.
The room in between human and man is disappearing fast. We?re beginning to see technology being integrated into things that a 4 year old would draw a picture of and get laughed at for it. Currently a group is working on implementing TV?s in washing machines. By and large, there are a considerable measure of good things about IOT, both from a customer and designer point of view.
However, every Romeo and Juliet story has a downfall. And with the rapid pace that technology is being developed-the downfall is the lack of protection. One of the significant concerns raised is that the IOT is being created quickly without the thought of the epic amount of security challenges included, and the administrative changes that may be essential such as updates.
One major challenge is the fact that security lags behind the development of new technology which allows hackers to sneak in and not only get into networks or servers, but into data. Many items are regularly sold with old and unpatched installed working frameworks and programming as security is working with an old paradigm. Hewitt-Packard discovered in a study that 70% of the most popular IOT devices are susceptible of being hacked or aren?t really private at all.
Culture in 2016 is struggling to get a grip on finding the balance of security and privacy. It starts with the government. Our laws are out of date as people?s lives are being intruded on more and more. What most people don?t realize is that with each piece of hardware that they buy; they?re losing privacy as they?re getting tracked. That doesn?t mean they?re being tracked by the good guys.
Privacy is a huge concern as new technology is invented to suit the lives of those who do everything online on the go. The odds of getting hacked or being spied on increases dramatically by being connected to the internet. There hasn?t been much discussion of how we can handle security and privacy up until recently. The Brussels attacks and the San Bernardino shooting brought up a major wakeup call on IOT devices regarding privacy and security. With all the encryption software programs built so democracy could flourish, the FBI is unable to penetrate conversations of terrorists who are able to contact freely and safely without being seen.
I don’t want my inalienable rights violated for security sake. I want the ability to keep my personal life private, from both friend and foe. The argument could be made that Political Correctness killed those people in San Bernardino. I don’t blame, weapons, citizens that cower to PC, or the local, state, and federal Govt. agencies for terrorism. I blame the terrorist. Sure technology is a tricky issue, but so was the printing press in its day since it made knowledge more attainable. Freedom has a price. Don’t violate your principals to stop someone who is violating your principals.