“Mind your own business”. There was a time when not only was this a rebuke, but it was also good advice. The concept guarded one’s own personal airspace and taught one how to retain a low profile and keep one’s own counsel. Why would you want anyone to know lots of things about you?
There was once value in anonymity whether personal or commercial.
Things have moved on. LinkedIn taught us how to sell ourselves to everyone in business by crafting resumes. Facebook urged us to out-socialise each other.
The Internet of Things (IOT) - or rather the Internet of Everything - is the logical culmination of a strategic creep to “internetise” it all. One of the main drivers of this process is The Smart City. One wonders who will be credited with the moniker “Smart”. It is clever selling of something as yet untried.
Smart Cities will, we are assured, stimulate economies of scale, value, health, progress and more civilization. All serious emerging economic states are betting big on these, choosing to fast-forward to a place where the supra-virtual guarantees First World Economic status.Virtual is very real commercially, especially if the State insists that this will be the new living space.
There are however a few points to be considered:
Who is in charge?
It seems that people will be offered this concept without much consultation. It might not be coincidence that it is in the more state-dominated economies that citizens are assured that IOT is of great benefit to them and their society. It is a privilege and they will embrace it.
IOT is the ultimate Coup D’Etat. Without explicit consent, the project is enacted and received with apathetic resignation. IOT is a contemporary social inevitability. As parents will testify, the Internet Addiction Project that involves all things with a screen and electricity is well underway. But what can they do? It’s progress.
What about serious criminal activity?
There is a disturbing lack of acknowledgement about this. Naturally the purveyors of IOT are hardly keen to evangelise any shortcomings. We recall when the Cloud was the new game in town – it was spun as cheap and easy to use, which was essential in the age of austerity. The potential for criminal infection was an afterthought. Or a deeply buried forethought.
But we know the certainties. The Smart City must be the ultimate playground for criminals and state actors bent on profit and disruption. Smartening everything must by default create a state of insecurity as yet unseen.
Where are the metrics that show that a Smart City will have less internet crime than a Stupid City? Normally, when governments make sweeping changes, they lead with numbers. Where is the research that offers safety guarantees to the citizen?
Will IOT and Smart Cities create a criminal spiral that it cannot solve?
It is said that the good guys have trouble keeping keep up with the bad. We must assume then that the bad guys are cleverer and better resourced.
Smart Citizens are likely to be affected more acutely by cybercrime and have to take more precautions habitually than they do now. The Citizen risks being more violated than ever. The State and its commercial partners offer less in protection while offering more in hazard through connectivity.
Is it not likely that certain vendor solution stacks will control certain cities? The concern is that they will be looking to dominate the security of other Smart Cities and sell their panacea to the highest bidder. The citizen in this scenario becomes more reliant upon the security solutions purchased by the custodians of the Smart City. Different economies and vendors will thus determine the level of protection afforded huge portions of humanity .The Politics of purchase will be intense, sensitive and ultimately vulnerable.
Who Wins?
Winners include the State naturally. The collection of everyone’s data ensures more control than ever before and guarantees a type of predictive populace never seen in history. The State is also the goal of the Private Sector.
Those Private Sector organisations who sell devices for the perpetuation of the City or its security must rejoice. Everything is the sales target.
But, I fear the real winners from the start will be criminals. IOT will prove to be the perfect public/private Trojan Horse for the international criminal community.
Who pays?
We do. Naturally. And not just in hard cash.
At present, IOT in a Smart City context will be paid for by the taxpayer. The more the taxpayer pays to smarten cities up, the more they will pay to secure them. The more the State rolls it out, the less it can protect its citizens. Is this the new crime fighting paradigm? It used to be unusual for governments and local councils to fund new crime waves that need to be fought using the same funds. It is actually a very old Soviet model of employment.
The beginning of The End?
It is said that the only certainties in life are Death and Taxes. IOT guarantees new certainties with regard to spend and crime. As yet, we have not seen IOT be part of any Western Government manifesto. Although you can be sure it is in every tech companies business plan.The process evolves virtually unnoticed and unchallenged by the voter. In homes and offices, the relationship between the computer and human has been vaguely democratic and consensual. The boundaries are on the whole implicit and understood. IOT is a direct assault on personal and virtual freedoms. This democratic deficit will prove a massive advantage for the criminal and the rogue state.
It may ultimately prove fatal to authorities responsible for its installation. And herein lies the unexpected Good news!
A happy Ending?
IOT by very definition must be the ultimate safari for cyber criminals. Logically however, we have at last defined the boundaries in which they can work. So long as we have an understanding of what “Everything” is. It makes perfect sense for criminals to flood this space. But now we know where they will be and ultimately the limits they can reach. So long as we assume they will be touching absolutely everything, then there can be no surprises.
The real question is will the town planners of our new smart environments build this in at the start of the process, thus admitting that cybercriminals will be a constant partner. If they do, then that is the beginning of the end. In a good way.
We will virtualise it all. And ultimately the project will fail because systems run by technology are easier to scam and inspire less loyalty than those run by people.
IOT and its outriders such as Smart Cities will devour themselves inevitably. And with it the criminal parasites.
“When Alexander saw the breadth of his domain, he wept for there were no more worlds to conquer.”
Keith Blackwell-Rose
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Tags: smart cities privacy security hackers malware
