Re: Life of Crime

[InfoSec News <isn () C4I ORG>]

Forwarded by: Russell Coker <russell () coker com au>
Cc: ttalleur () kpmg com

> Scenario
>
> "Technology is feverishly re-creating our physical reality. As we
> begin to coprocess the virtual world and the physical world,

What is that supposed to mean?  The only reference to "coprocess" I
know of is in regard to 80387 type devices, but I don't think that's
what the author means.

> integrating technology into every support device of our lives,
> we're learning to tolerate a greater threshold of cyberattacks.
> Tomorrow, we will put up with e-crimes the way we tolerate
> allergies today. The

Only if "port scanning" is considered an e-crime.

> E-crimes will exploit us in very personal ways as cyberchips are
> embedded into our bodies. We will learn to accept the side effects
> of such invasions, much like the way we deal with the effects of
> drugs and vaccinations."

This is presuming of course that there is a significant number of
people who are stupid enough to have computers running software from
the usual vendors of insecure software installed in their bodies.
There is an endless supply of stupid people, but are there enough
people who are that stupid?

> "Our society will be running around like a dog chasing its tail as
> our physical reality becomes crafted at the subatomic level by
> self-replicating nanobots. E-crimes will become adaptive,
> predatory, and morphological, driven by entities that exist solely
> to destroy

So is an "e-crime" a misbehaved nano-bot then?  If so then I suggest
reading Bill Joy's writing on the topic as published in Wired magazine
(it's on http://www.wired.com/ ).

Also what is this about "sub-atomic level"?  Are the naughty nano-bots
supposed to be engaged in nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, or
transmutation (as sought after by alchemists)?

> entire communication networks. Cyber-illnesses will become so
> pervasive that entire service brownouts will delay global
> communication and B2B commerce, which in turn will create
> tremendous opportunities for further abuses in the marketplace."
>
> Futurology Decoder Key
>
> "Cybercrime won't stifle the expansion of e-commerce -- it will

Wrong.  There are many occasions when I have considered buying items
online but decided not to because I couldn't trust the integrity and
ability of the people who run the web site.  I would probably spend at
least $5000 a year purchasing items over the Internet if people were
capable of running their servers securely.  For purchase orders which
I am involved in preparing there would probably be at least $100,000
of business to business sales per year if it was possible to trust the
vendors.

Some of the companies that I buy from have chosen not to sell over the
Internet for the following reasons:

1) Customers wouldn't believe that their site was secure and consequently
   they wouldn't get the sales.

2) They have seen other companies suffer significant PR hits when their site
   gets hacked.  It's better not to do online sales than have to do an
   expensive clean-up.

3) They don't believe that they are capable of securely running a site,
   given the record of certain software products we all use most
   companies could use this reason if they were honest!

E-commerce would involve at least 10 times as many transactions if
people believed it was secure.  It is being very stifled by the lack
of security - which is a good thing!

> accompany it. As technology becomes more sophisticated, entire
> markets will be created for cyberwarfare entities and then for
> counter entities. And the focus will be on defending the
> individual. Clinical psychologists of cyberspace will help people
> cope with the new reality of integrated virtual and physical
> worlds, where we'll experience unprecedented exploitations.
> Widespread identity thefts will follow. We'll see cases of
> permanent identity loss by 2015."

I recommend reading some of Neal Stephenson's books.  Neal has some
very interesting ideas regarding nano-warfare, cryptology, and related
issues.  He has obviously spent considerable amounts of time with
people who are work with related technologies.

--
http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/     Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark
http://www.coker.com.au/postal/       Postal SMTP/POP benchmark
http://www.coker.com.au/projects.html Projects I am working on
http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/     My home page

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