Beware – we are under attack
16 February 2010
Nothing is safe apparently; even our phone calls are not safe from the criminals.
This was barely a revelation to me when I read it in a press release I received this week that was promoting the use of voice encryption technology. As far as I am aware it has been possible to tap into other people’s phone calls probably fairly soon after Mr AG Bell had his eureka moment. Arguably there is more at stake these days as there is unlimited potential for doing business without having to actually be with someone and sealing the deal with a handshake. So to protect ourselves from presenting all our worldly wares to the criminal classes, we need to tighten up on our security - according to the press release anyway.
I think there are two ways of viewing this. One is from the perspective of a law abiding citizen (which I am!). I obviously would rather keep my money than share it with people who choose to rob me, but do I really want to be involved in investing in new technology to protect my phone and or computer transactions? I think that despite the warnings then the answer is that we don’t. We could refrain from online trading and we could never use online or phone banking, but we don’t because it is convenient. What we do try and do is use credit cards because a problem, if one occurs, then becomes the banks’, not ours. So while we take security seriously enough to lock our doors and windows at night, and to have anti-virus software on our computers, I think most of us believe that there is a fine line between common sense and paranoia and are reluctant to step over it.
The onus really is on the banks and businesses to ensure connections with their customers are secure – they are the ones who need to develop (with their electronics design partners) systems that will confound the crooks. It might even end up being the phone network companies who are held accountable if their security is breached.
I am sure there is a market out there for developing secure ways of communication and particularly doing transactions over the phone and online. The criminal mind is always looking for the next opportunity. In sport we are repeatedly told that the drug cheats are always one step ahead of the authorities, so we can never stop going down the route of finding and eliminating cheating of any kind, or it will just end up getting out of reach and, in effect, winning. You would end up with corruption rife throughout sport, business, politics – and while there seem to be some parts of the world that embrace this, we in the UK generally regard it as a bad thing.
In short, I do think that this is an issue that needs to be taken seriously, but electronics companies developing systems to tackle this problem should concentrate on the corporate and infrastructure end of the market as this is where I would imagine the battleground will be.
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