World without Hackers
A Mitsubishi Outlander car was hacked by security researchers and were able to successfully turn off the alarm. Originally posted on BBC article. Security Researchers found that the Mitsubishi Outlander uses Wifi Hotspot to communicate to the drivers phone. Researchers were easily able to hack into the car’s system and turn off its Alarm. It is a vulnerability that can be misused by car thieves. If they succeed to disable the car alarm then they can get ample time to fiddle around to steal the car.
Mitsubishi recommended that users turn off the wi-fi while it investigates the issues with the system.
Hacking a technology and exposing every minute loopholes has always been the inspiration to build better security. No matter how powerful a security system is,there will always be a way to crack it. Though hackers are the bad apples in the tech world but they are also the reason for evolving technology. Think how different the world would have been if no hackers existed. The definition of security would mean nothing more than just locking your computer. No security system, no anti-virus, no firewall, you could keep your girlfriend’s name as your only password, no encryption, no 2-way authentication, no OTP…an easy secured life. Unfortunately that is only a dream.
The word Security itself is an evolution of hacking. The more they exploit the web the better the security becomes. The success of all security software lies on the hacking community. All anti-virus companies would be out of business without these cyber-cons. Both sides make their living with their never ending cat & mouse game.
Hacking is always a step ahead and takes technology to the next stage. They find one door open, exploits it and then gets kicked out, they find another and it gets blocked again. One level after another keeps getting added and thats how it evolves and gets better.
Though real cyber world is scary but we cannot ignore the fact that technology wouldn’t have reached where it is today if there were no hackers.
Hacking was not always disruptive as it is today. It started decades back as a practice to improve performance and make things work better and faster. Hackers were originally called as “phreakers”, the guys with talent who knows how to modify technology and make it perform better. A technique that started from improving the performance of a train engine to bringing down an economy.
Hacking was curiosity, a man’s desire to know how things work and how to find ways around it. Phreakers curiosity soon turned into a thieves reality when few from the tech-savvy community realized how it can be used to steal other’s money and become rich. Once considered as fun and clever soon became an arena for government spies, terrorists, cyber-thieves and a range of blackmailers. Stealing money and violating privacy became the primary goal for most hackers. The number of curiosity hackers a.k.a good hackers quickly got overshadowed by the cyber-criminals, the bad guys.
Cyber Attacks can cause devastation as well as embarrassment for many. It can have terror links or steal someone’s private pictures or even expose confidential information. Few of the past attacks like the one on NASDAQ, hacking of Sony Pictures by North Korea, exposing government documents, iCloud Celebrity photo leaks, Snowden the whistle blower and Assange’s Wikileaks had global affects.
Govts across the world spends billions of dollars to tackle and fight hacking. These Law breakers can cause enormous amount of damage and chaos in the the world. The Digital Bombs can shake the world, and bring down an economy. This also led to the birth of many security firms that guarantee your security by constantly closing any loopholes and then sealing them only to prevent a similar breach till a new one emerges.
All updates that keeps coming to our phones and PCs are mostly to close similar loopholes. It is a never ending tale and also the inspiration to build the future technology.
