Emerging technologies are the backbone of many organisations’ growth strategies, but their implementation needs to be managed with security in mind. The share of jobs requiring artificial Intelligence, or AI, for example, has increased by 450% since 2013, according to Adobe, and the growing use of AI systems will lead to the expansion of existing threats, the introduction of new threats and a change to the typical character of threats. It is also anticipated that by 2021, 94% of data will be handled through cloud platforms, according to Cisco.
The amount of data from the Internet of Things, or IoT, that is analysed and used to change business processes will in 2025 be similar in size to that of all the data that was created in 2020 (IoT Innovation) and a survey by Gemalto of 950 organisations that make extensive use of IoT technology found that 48% of companies that use IoT devices in the workplace don’t have mechanisms in place to detect if any of their devices have been hacked. IoT will do more than simply give hackers new targets. As computers spread into objects that can interact with the physical world, it will enable attacks that endanger life and property. In 2015, a pair of security researchers from Twitter, a social network, and ioactive, a cyber-security firm, together staged a demonstration for the technology magazine Wired where they took remote control of a car while it was being driven. They managed to cut the engine, apply the brakes, and control the steering wheel. The car’s manufacturer, Fiat Chrysler, said it was recalling 1.4M vehicles to address the issue. Security researchers have even managed to demonstrate the ability to hack into medical devices such as pacemakers, insulin pumps and ventilators, which has very serious concerns, not just in these challenging pandemic times. Patching up the holes is not easy as computers and computer software are complicated. Ford’s best-selling F150 bakkie, for example, has about 150 million lines of code.