Month: February 2018 | Beth.technology

How Driverless Cars will put Mobile Security to the Test?

How Driverless Cars will put Mobile Security to the Test?

Published by Beth Kindig on February 28, 2018

As GM CEO Mary Barra said in a keynote speech, “A cyber incident is a problem for every automaker in the world. It is a matter of public safety.” As Tesla, GM and many others continue to release connected vehicles – and soon driverless vehicles, the dangers are set to increase. In fact, more than half of the vehicles sold today are connected and vulnerable. By 2025, the driverless market will be worth $42 billion up from nearly nothing with an official market entry still being anticipated [1]. Self-driving cars have the potential to save 292,000 lives annually from preventing collisions.…

Are FinTech Solutions Safe on Mobile?

Are FinTech Solutions Safe on Mobile?

Published by Beth Kindig on February 23, 2018

We live in a digital world where almost everything we touch is being stored on servers, the cloud or in mobile applications. Technologists push for the adoption of digital services and applications while consumers push back for safety and fraud protection. Fintech solutions on mobile are in a predicament; on one-hand these solutions offer the premium convenience of making deposits and transfers on-the-go, and the on the other hand, it digitizes and potentially sells off a person’s most valuable possession: their wallet. Banks and financial institutions have quite a bit to gain – especially on a global level. Although still…

Should We Build a Backdoor into Mobile Devices?

Should We Build a Backdoor into Mobile Devices?

Published by Beth Kindig on February 23, 2018

Two years ago the San Bernardino shooting stirred a debate within the security community regarding warrant-proof encryption. The debate, known as “mobile backdoor access,” refers to exceptional access to encrypted communications and data by law officials. In theory, the Department of Justice wants technologists to “hide a key under the door mat” for law officials to access when they have the proper warrants. However, many security professionals and technologists have resisted this request due to creating weaknesses that are irreversible and require falsified automatic updates which may introduce other vulnerabilities. Perhaps the biggest conflict for technologists, as pointed out by…

Idle Healthcare Data May Be Preventing Cures — How Blockchain Can Help

How Blockchain Can Disrupt Health Care Data

Idle Healthcare Data May Be Preventing Cures — How Blockchain Can Help

Published by Beth Kindig on February 16, 2018

Nearly every sector of every industry has been reshaped by big data. Fundamentally, this shift has brought about an attitude that data is to be treated as a proprietary asset as most companies consider data points to be a competitive advantage. However, while this may be true for the private and public markets, holding data like cards at a poker table is having devastating consequences in health care. Healthcare Data Needs Disruption Cures for rare diseases suffer inordinately from the non-dissemination of data. Creating technologies of data that allow multiple researchers to compare notes around data imperative. Take for instance…

Are Technologists Ready for the Data Commodity of Ambient Intelligence?

Published by Beth Kindig on February 13, 2018

Savvy consumers today are aware that marketers and corporate companies mine personal data from mobile phones and computers, sourced primarily from search engines, social media sites, emails, text messages, and GPS location information. The internet, a free virtual public space idealized in the nineties, has become colonized through a swath of promised conveniences. In the beginning, the lure of free, convenient services for data was enticing. The improvement in user experience when checking email in the cloud was great enough so as not to elicit questions as to how the emails were handled – such as when Google launched Gmail…

IoT Medical Devices: Our Scariest Security Threat Yet

The magnitude of risk associated with IoT medical devices is a gripping proposition

IoT Medical Devices: Our Scariest Security Threat Yet

Published by Beth Kindig on February 2, 2018

IoT medical devices may be our scariest security threat yet. Implanted devices such as pacemakers draw big headlines for security threats. However, there are 36,000 other health-care related devices in the United States that are discoverable on the connected device search engine Shodan – which doesn’t even take into account the global level of unprotected devices (source: Wired). In fact, U.S. hospitals have an average of ten to 15 connected IoT medical devices per bed with some hospitals registering 5,000 beds (or 50,000 connected devices). Therefore, the magnitude of the risks associated with these medical IoT devices is a gripping…

Cybersecurity in Connected Vehicles Becomes Safety Feature for New Cars

Cybersecurity threat grows as manufacturers begin to release vehicles.

Cybersecurity in Connected Vehicles Becomes Safety Feature for New Cars

Published by Beth Kindig on February 2, 2018

New car firms such as Tesla are promoting increasingly high-tech features that require a connection to the internet, which has propelled cybersecurity in connected vehicles forward as a major safety feature. Last year, Chinese security researchers from Keen Security Lab successfully managed to hack a Tesla Model S from 12 miles away. By focusing on Tesla’s on-board software, the hack targeted the car’s controller area network, or CAN bus, which connects the chips found inside the cars. In this hack, the Model S P85 and Model 75D were targeted. Tesla continued to make news in 2015 for safety concerns in…