Losing our brains with disruptive technologies (XXI): No one is protecting us from cybercrimes?
“La Petite Fille Verte”. Watch your technologies, they are not safe. An aquarelle painted by Eleonora Escalante. Size: 28cm x 19cm. Made with love on Watercolor Paper Fabriano Artistico 300 GSM. Photo source reference: https://www.lendrumeyecare.com
Today´s publication is the second and last one about our activities related to “protect”, which is a synonym of guard, shield, secure, preserve, defend. What is happening with the technology disruptors when it comes to “protect” activities?
Today it is my aim to shake your fundamental principles about the activities related to the word protect. Last week we simply mentioned three categories of technologies that have appeared to solve issues related to the verb “protect”. We mentioned the first and most relevant one as the military disruptive technologies, the home-office property security systems technologies and the city-community security covering integrated systems.
Let´s start with our strategic reflections about this domain.
Military Disruptive Technologies have been designed to destroy the opponent. It is a privilege to read about the past. Once you learn to appreciate history, you will comprehend the beauty of the lessons that we need to acquire when it comes to the “cultivation” of our brains. In history, we can find there are numerous inventions related to military objectives, those discoveries related to kill people or defend citizens’ assets through war. The Internet was conceived as a communication tool for Army Forces and the Military, then later it was commercially viable for all. It is artful to realize that many of our quotidian technologies, started first as technologies to be used for armament, weapons, and defense. That makes me wonder if the whole idea of disrupting technologies comes from six thousand years of discovering new things to destroy others in our long history journey for conquering resources (land, raw materials with high value as uranium, gold, etc), or conquering people (including the best talent and cheap labor).
Reflections about the Disruptive Technologies for the Military: Let´s review again the following information, just in case you have forgotten the current status of the military weapons in the world:
- According to SIPRI, there are at least 13,885 global nuclear weapons stockpiles (January 2019). The USA and Russia are the main countries holding them.
- The top main countries with major military expenditures are always the USA; China and Saudi Arabia. Nevertheless, if we add the expenditures of the Middle East countries and closer neighbors, all of them together hold 138.1 billion USD, which is an amount greater than Russia, positioning itself as a block in the third place, after China.
- Analyzing the year over year trend in the world, we are not reducing our military investments and expenditures. Even though there was a mild reduction during the 90s, during the last 20 years, the trend is to grow everywhere.
- When it comes to manpower resources, China is the largest military country with 2,183,000 people, followed well behind by India, the USA, and North Corea. These 2 latter countries have the same amount of military manpower.
- The production of arms is in the hands of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, Raytheon, BAE Systems, General Dynamics and the rest of major players; but new Chinese companies are now competing for market share, such as AVIC, Norinco and CETC.
- Islamic extremists as ISIS can buy its armament in other countries than the USA, such as China, Romania, Hungary, even in Iran.
The last-mentioned slides are a sample of how ingrained is the concept of military security and its related innovations. If these companies are selling weapons, they have access to financing, and they have executed and can implement any research project for weapons using NAIQI Tech: Nanotech, Quantum Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet.
According to SIPRI researchers Kolja Brockmann and Vincent Boulanin, “Emerging technologies could facilitate the production and use of biological weapons. New dangerous risks and challenges posed by the interaction of developments in biotechnology and advances arise in three emerging technologies groups: additive manufacturing (so-called 3D printing), artificial intelligence and robotics”. “In this context, governance frameworks must be strengthened and re-envisioned because it is hard to control them given their own nature. In addition, governments need to monitor and assess these arms technologies developments on a more systematic basis. They should also strengthen international efforts to foster responsible science and biosecurity awareness. In addition, the private sector should reinforce self-regulation and compliance standards”.
The philosophy of using security integrated systems using NAIQI opens new roadmap efforts for cybersecurity. It seems to me that the war in the future will be with “online” tools. How to protect the new security systems when the nature of the Internet expels the cybersecurity itself?. There is no one, not even one system based on the Internet that has not been hacked. Encryption as a tool to fight hackers is not the solution. The more difficult it is for emerging technology to be hacked, the more hackers attract to drudge it. Encryption is not unbreakable anymore. Officially all your applications in your mobile can access whatever you have on your mobile. And this is ubiquitous.
The security systems using NAIQI tech for surveillance vigilance require a whole rethinking of law enforcement and new procedures to protect data. According to SIPRI “Improving cybersecurity and cyber-defense capabilities has recently become a top priority on the national security agendas of many European states. A wide range of states is creating dedicated cyber-defense agencies, increasing cyber-related human and financial resources, and drafting national strategies that sometimes include developing offensive cyber-capabilities”.
Societies with excessive video and digital surveillance are also on higher risks of the newest technology information reservoirs and potential new crimes with the new gold (DATA), which by the law, it is still not clear how to handle them. The information captured by these new technologies tools can be hacked or stolen by anyone or can be tracked by other third parties. For example, there are specialized companies that are selling software for finding information about you in social media with the purpose of law enforcement These social technology tools are tracking, finding people, following you by geotagging, looking for your networks of association and getting your profile information in an efficient way. These companies may use artificial intelligence and machine algorithms. Scary? Let´s continue. What would happen if this data falls down in the wrong hands because of a machine decision making? What happens when the data is stolen to trigger not just individualized crimes and internet robberies? What happens when your SmartPhone applications are used to track your life to the utmost? What happens when the government can´t protect itself from cybercrime either? What occurs when your data is in the hands of non-ethical leaders?. What happens when artificial intelligence technologies are not in the hands of security experts who can make rational decisions with ethical values but in the hands of irresponsible massive companies who sell your data?. Who will protect you from the big brother company who is offering you security systems and owns your data?
The lack of privacy is another of the downsides of using NAIQI tech at this vulnerable moment. Moreover, digital surveillance poses a serious new threat to freedom of expression on the internet and other human rights. Hackers and now social media security tracker companies as mentioned above, can get into your social media profiles and gather information to be sold to others, to harm you, realize burglaries, kidnap you in your trips or travelings, and even kill you. In the wrong hands, anything you post about your personal life in social media can be used not just to provoke evildoing, but also phishing, cyberstalking, geotagging, cyber-casing, and identity thefts but it can also offer new doors for cybercrime. Don´t forget that social networking offers golden opportunities for viruses and malware developers too. Whatever data you have in your computer is exposed or even can be destroyed at the sound of a snap.
Let me share with you one video about Cybercrime that has already been unveiled in a recent panel organized by the US Department of Justice (just some days ago). I encourage you to please watch it from the beginning to the end.
Ensuring Safety & Protecting Privacy amid Rapid Technological Change
I will leave you here. This is it for today. The reason why I am all the time telling you to pause with the NAIQI tech is related to all the issues that we have exposed today. There is no technical solution to protect people from the downside of the NAIQI technologies, no encryption answers, no cybersecurity solutions, no privacy tools available, no correct law enforcement in place…
On my next publication. I am looking forward to beginning the Cure-Health Activities. I will employ the Covid 19-Coronavirus example in between other examples, to illustrate what are the pros and cons of using disruptive technologies when it comes to these matters. Have a beautiful day. Thank you for reading to me.
Sources of Reference utilized to write this article:
https://www.justice.gov/criminal-ccips/cybercrime-symposium
https://media.wcl.american.edu/Mediasite/Play/3202ed7dc9a941389796caf2a409c8b51d
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/02/china-surveillance/552203/
Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
Thank you for reading to me.
Eleonora Escalante Strategy 