The evolution of cyber threats and its future landscape

Abstract — This paper examines the evolution of cyber threats over the past decades, demonstrating how the progress and massive adoption of technology expand the surface of attacks, create new cyber threats, and potentialize existing ones. The future landscape is outlined, including emerging technologies and the need to invest in cybersecurity to stay ahead of the threats while balancing legal, ethical, and professional implications.

Keywords — cyber threats, risks, cyber security.

I. The early nature of cyber threats

One of the earliest and most popular references in the cyber security field originates with the Ware Report [1], written in 1967 by the computer scientist Willis H. Ware. Ware was part of a Task Force of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency aiming to study and suggest suitable computer security measures to protect classified information. The document lists three critical sources of vulnerabilities in computer systems: the users, the hardware, and the software. According to Ware [1], combining these elements leads to three categories of potential attacks: accidental disclosure, deliberate penetration, and active infiltration. The final report recommends a combination of hardware, software, communications, physical, personnel and administrative controls…