While embarrassing online hacks have been widely publicized – especially those involving celebrity nude photos and classified government secrets – a much more dangerous threat has now been identified, online murder.
The head of the European Union’s criminal intelligence agency recently warned that the threat of “online murder” could become a real phenomenon. The European Police Office (Europol) said the threat is tied to the increased transition towards the Internet of Everything (IoE)
Experts say the IoE will usher in a new era of interconnectedness - linking up everything from garage doors to hospital health systems – connected and controlled through computer networks.
Europol said governments are currently ill-equipped to combat potential cases of “injury and possible deaths” resulting from hacking attacks on critical safety equipment. “The IoE represents a whole new attack vector that we believe criminals will already be looking for ways to exploit,” a Europol threat assessment said.
The agency said police forensic teams need to take immediate steps to “adapt and grow” to address the new dangers.
“The IoE is inevitable. We must expect a rapidly growing number of devices to be rendered ‘smart’ and thence to become interconnected. Unfortunately, we feel that it is equally inevitable that many of these devices will leave vulnerabilities via which access to networks can be gained by criminals,” Europol said.
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