Imagine the cybersecurity implications of a world in which hundreds of millions of people have a physical impairment and the corrective devices they use leave them internet-connected.
Thanks to the “internet of things,” that scenario is fast becoming reality in the form of internet-connected hearing aids. But like so many aspects of the internet of things, such devices carry upsides as well as big, potential data breach downsides, according to Phil Reitinger, the chief executive of the Global Cyber Alliance. He was formerly the Department of Homeland Security’s top cybersecurity official as well as CISO for Sony.
In an opening keynote presentation Aug. 2 at the Information Security Media Group’s Fraud & Breach Prevention Summit New York, Reitinger noted that unlike some internet of things devices – toasters come to mind – internet-connected hearing aids, which are still in their infancy, offer a lot of promise for improving users’ quality of life. When a user is watching a television show, for example, their hearing aids could identify the audio and instead of simply amplifying it they could begin downloading a live audio stream of the broadcast.
But what happens when internet-enabled hearing aids enter the workplace or any WiFi enabled environment for that matter? As with smartphones, the WiFi enabled hearing aids would be a natural target for attackers, because they could be exploited and used to facilitate remote surveillance, allowing hackers to “hear” whatever the wearer hears. And that would create risks for any such device wearer who works for an organization with access to classified or sensitive information. Without appropriate safeguards being put in place, we risk a future in which attackers could perpetrate targeted breaches with little risk of their attacks being spotted or traced.
In that sort of a future, “things like the DNC [Democratic National Committee] hack, are small potatoes … because a huge number of people are walking listening devices,” Reitinger said. “Everything is connected, everything is tied together.”
Security Essential: Think Big Our everyday lives will only continue to become more connected, with more data generated; that’s our inevitable internet of things future. But from a security standpoint, it’s possible to avoid some doomsday-style scenarios, provided we make some related moves, chief among them building networks that are as big as possible.
“Right now, I think the bad guys have almost all of the advantages,” Reitinger said. “But … it’s much tougher on the good guys than the bad guys. The bad guys operate at scale much better than the good guys.”
