In the fall of 1963, a classic episode of the original Outer Limits series appeared on convex television screens across North America, its flickering black and white imagery setting the stage for countless childhood nightmares.
“The Sixth Finger” told the story of a Welsh scientist’s attempt to advance human evolution by tens of thousands of years. Hooked up to an incandescent evolution machine, its control panel imprinted with all-caps “forward” and “backward” settings, the test subject accelerates into higher planes of time, talent and intelligence.
But at heart, he is still a man, nursing an array of jealousies, insecurities and hatreds that can now literally destroy anyone, with a single thought. Beyond retribution, he also wants power, and takes control of the machine to advance the evolutionary process by a million years.
In the final scene, disaster is averted by returning the nearly omnipotent being to primitive, 20th-century man.
As with the contemporary series it often imitated, The Twilight Zone, the story was a cautionary tale with layers of timeless meaning. More than six decades later, we can easily see new ways to apply the ominous metaphors. The Internet is one prime example.
Across the World Wide Web, knowledge, tools and technologies have grown exponentially; but the outcomes this brilliant invention can produce are still dependent on human decision-making. The result is predictable: a spectrum that ranges from new highs for human achievement on one end, to new lows of criminality at the other.
As in the Outer Limits episode, the threats keep evolving. Computer viruses, malware and other tools of the hacking trade are constantly adapting, metastasizing into new gain-of-function hazards.
The only certainty in cybersecurity is that even the experts will be surprised at the new Internet-based opportunities cyber villains will next exploit. From holding patient medical data hostage to attempting civilization-ending destruction of power and financial systems, there is no end to this dark innovation, or the perils.
Toine Rodenburg is a digital entrepreneur who has been following the issue closely. Currently based in Portugal, Rodenburg has been on the leading edge of Internet innovation since the early days of the dot-com boom.
Toine Rodenburg deals with online security issues on a daily basis. And at his level, the stakes are high. The consequences are severe. Trust as well as huge sums of money can evaporate overnight.
Among the emerging threats he sees in the short-term are fileless malware, supply chain attacks, privacy breaches, password vulnerabilities, and new product and service categories taking on unexpected risks as they network into the Internet of Things (IoT).
As a basic precautionary step, Rodenburg urges companies to move away from password access to sensitive information. As hard as they have tried over the years, tech professionals have found it difficult to convince users to choose unique passwords, or to keep a password in a safe place. Businesses need to implement alternative verification methods, including two-step verification, says Rodenburg.
He also advises organizations to fortify systems against fileless malware, a stealth data pirate. “Fileless malware often passes undetectable into systems, because it does not need a user to download files for it to gain access,” he says. “It rides into networks onto trusted applications. In most cases it leaves no trail, evading even advanced cybersecurity.”
With the emergence of this threat, it won’t be enough to train employees not to click on unknown links or download files from unknown sources. Fileless malware doesn’t wait for a user to be foolish — it acts proactively.
Supply chain attacks are also rising in frequency and severity, Rodenburg warns. This is because cybercriminals have learned that smaller links in the supply chain are easier to infiltrate; and once penetrated provide an optimal launching pad for attacks on the bigger organizations further up the chain.
Meanwhile, the growing pervasiveness of IoT is broadening the range of at-risk sectors.
Cyber intrusions into increasingly sophisticated vehicles represent the starkest danger.
The same SUV that can alert emergency services to your airbag deployment can also find itself accessed from afar. Your new Tesla plugs into the Internet of Things more often than a charging station. At the low end of risk, this may make it easier to steal a car. At the truly terrifying extreme, a hacker might gain control of a vehicle on the road.
While new threats such as vehicle intrusion emerge, businesses and consumers need to keep an eye on the simpler, tried-and-true financial scams, says Rodenburg. The email that you receive from a foreign potentate who can’t wait to share a great new financial opportunity with you seems ridiculous on its face — so transparent that no one would ever fall for it.
But thousands continue to fall victim to these basic scams, year after year. The reason is obvious, and even a bit reassuring: At the end of the day, we are still human.
