Search Results

Internet technologies are now indispensable communications tools within and between companies. Yet the openness of these networks and the high potential value of corporate and personal information make these systems a tempting target for criminals, terrorists, and state-sponsored espionage. Cyber-criminals can gain access to a company’s information through its supply chain partners’ information systems. Furthermore, the rise of the Internet-of-Things, with digital “smarts” being added to ever more consumer products and industrial systems, creates physical vulnerabilities rooted in digital vulnerabilities. This chapter describes these threats and offers potential solutions on how to secure the information supply chain.

This chapter discusses the fourth of six layers in The Stack, the Address layer. For any entity to participate in the wider Stack architecture it has to be known to it. It must be enumerated and enunciated by an address. The chapter examines very-large scale universal internet addressing systems (such as IPv6) that would allow for an abyssal volume of individual addressees. Some programs for ubiquitous computing and an ‘internet of things’ suggest scenarios that draw almost any, into a landscape of addressable objects. However, for “Deep Address,” the computational landscape can absorb any conceivable object, event or relation, regardless of scale or temporality into a vast, if also fragile, communicative field. Ultimately the scope and complexity of than landscape may exceed the limits of human control or literacy. The chapter also discusses the ramifications of the superimposition of multiple, internally-complete and self-sufficient addressing schemes onto the same territory, and how this complicates platform interoperability but also may allow for important variation and resiliency.

Michail Bletsas, Director of Computing at the MIT Media Lab and Director of the Network Computing Systems Group at MIT, is convinced that the 21st century will see the emergence of biological intelligence. He starts the dialogue with an explanation of why the Internet and its huge computational system, - the most complex human-built system -, is forcing us to learn to engage with systems that are becoming even more complicated, with varying levels of complexity. He describes later the arrival of the finely granular Internet, which in consequence led to the concept of connectivity everywhere. Later he outlines the Internet of Things’ capabilities that he and his team have deployed inside the new MIT Media Lab building. Michael then goes on to argue why we have to separate issues of business from scientific arguments and prediction—the important thing in business is not only what’s going to happen, but when it will happen. Michael also relates why the best type of innovation is bottom up, before going on to explain how not only innovation, but also evolution, is gradually improving things.

In this chapter the author provides an introduction to eight important ongoing technological changes with significant ramifications for ICT4D: an ever more converged and miniaturized digital world; radio spectrum technologies and their management; from fixed-line to wireless communication; from voice to data and the impacts of the digital transition; technological openness and being free; social media and Over The Top services; 5G and the Internet of Things; and incubators, digital hubs, and app development. The chapter concludes by highlighting the importance of a sound technical understanding by all those involved in trying to use ICTs effectively for delivering real development outcomes.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which uses electromagnetic radio waves to automatically identify people, animals, or objects, has become perhaps the most pervasive computing technology in history. First, this chapter provides an historical overview of the literature pertaining to the emergence of RFID and its evolving system components. Secondly, the chapter examines RFID’s numerous practical applications as a mechanism for global surveillance in the Internet of Things (IoT). Next, the chapter undertakes a theoretical analysis of the significance RFID technology plays in the globalization of surveillance. RFID, as an emerging crime control technology, is geared towards global post-panoptic surveillance, panoptic social sorting, the responsibilization of citizens, and new forms of “people-making” culture in coordination with the aims of the global pre-crime society. Lastly, the chapter concludes with a critique related to the liberty, privacy, and citizenship concerns of RFID implementation and human chipping.

The smart devices that make up the Internet of Things induce consumers to cede control over the products they buy. Devices like smartphones offer real benefits, but combined with embedded software, network connectivity, microscopic sensors and large-scale data analytics, they pose serious threats to ownership and consumer welfare. From coffee makers and toys to cars and medical devices, the products we buy are defined by software. That code gives device makers an increasing degree of control over how, when, and whether those products can be used even after consumers buy them. That shift of control has profound implications for ownership.

This chapter explores the use of digital health technologies in health promotion endeavors. This “digitized health promotion” is the latest stage in the trajectory of health promotion ideology and practice over the past four decades in wealthy Anglophone nations. Lupton argues that over this period the individualistic approach to good health commonly espoused in medicine and public health was challenged by advocates arguing for a greater focus on social justice and social epidemiology. The individualistic approach to health promotion never disappeared, however, and has gathered momentum in the current economic, political, and technological climate. While many health promotion workers still champion the ideals of “health for all,” public health policy in the context of digitized health promotion has begun to return to emphasizing personal responsibility for health.

This chapter tracks the expansion of digital surveillance across consumer activities, military actions, social media, and digital communications. It assesses a de facto commitment across corporations and state agencies to ubiquitous surveillance; that is, to real time collection of digital information and the production of large, permanent, ever-growing data sets subject to emerging and automated algorithmic assessment. Ubiquitous surveillance blurs distinctions between war and peace, intelligence and commerce, as well as public and private to an unprecedented degree. It also assumes that a full integration of data collection and data mining into everyday life is ultimately possible, encouraging the transformation of everyday objects, public spaces, expert encounters of every kind (medical, financial, communications), transportation systems, and commerce into connectible modes of surveillance. Tracking, observing, and screening, in other words, are becoming the basic tools of social institutions, making the individual less a citizen-subject than an informational node in an ever-emerging system of automated data collection and processing. Ultimately, this chapter argues that data collection is a critical terrain on which a new social contract is being forged in the 21st century.

The Internet of Things is created by giving Internet connections to objects embedded in the environment, including wearable items. When IoT devices are connected and coordinated in an urban environment, smart cities are created, which can allow control of the environment, for example to improve carbon emissions or traffic flow. Instrumentation of the environment creates problems of consent, privacy, security, safety, and trust. The status of the IoT with respect to Internet ideology is discussed. The Silicon Valley Open Internet supports citizen-centric development, but may lack coordination at scale. The DC Commercial Internet creates great power for platforms. The Brussels Bourgeois Internet values rights and privacy, which may suppress innovation. In China, India, and elsewhere, smart cities are seen as key to developing a paternal social vision under digital modernity. Given its key role in the IoT, this is where America’s battle against Huawei may be most consequential.

Chapter 3 explains the internal organization of SDOs. It outlines the four main layers which make up the Internet and focuses on the principal SDOs associated with them: the IETF, W3C, the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), and IEEE, analysing their governance structures and most salient areas of work. Standards are important for interoperability and to prevent lock-in to single company technology. SDOs enable a wider technical community to scrutinize proposals for errors and security. Nonetheless, procedures for decision-making are complex and often opaque. The chapter explores decision-making in a governance context. It charts the evolution of each SDO, and its main purpose, functions, and central decision-making processes. It highlights the differences as well as the degree of synergy and collaboration between each and then explains how procedures vary between the different fora and how moving goalposts and high barriers to entry make it difficult for civil society to participate.

Cloud computing is an enabling technology for automation and abstraction. This places it in a unique position to effect paradigm shifts related to your work, society, and life. This chapter discusses some emerging technologies and trends related to cloud computing; they are the catalysts of change for the future technology landscape. Some of these trends, as with predictions in general, may not all come to pass. Nevertheless, extrapolations are made to consider the future outlook in terms of the following: Internet of Things and Services; Cloud of Things and Services; Personal Clouds; Cloud Service Exchange.

“Information is power” is true, at times, but not universally so. The trends in developing technologies and strategies will influence the relationship between information and power in the decades ahead. Positive results can come from new assistive technologies in fields like medical decision-making, or from everyday applications like wearable technology. Advances can promote citizen participation, but can also lead to additional fragmentation and privacy concerns.

Bebo White, the physicist and computational scientist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Stanford University, was one of the first people to get involved in Web technology as a result of his stay at CERN in the group developing the hypertext transfer protocol, HTTP. Almost immediately following this, he became part of the dedicated team who published the first web page in the USA, - and the first outside Europe -, and he is considered the first ‘webmaster’ in history. He agrees that IT is an approximate science but points out that this discipline, combined with web technology, has a huge impact on ‘what is going on’ at present in scientific research. Bebo then moves on to argument why one of the greatest threats for the future of the Web, - and for internet to reach its full potential -, is to ignore or shun open standards.

The afterword provides a detailed description of developments in the area of privacy and surveillance after the turn of the century and of the rapid developments in information technology and the monopoly firms like Google, Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, which have come to dominate the flow of information and the appropriation of consumer surplus. Its focus on technological systems includes the expanded internet, with special emphasis on the Internet of Things and the impact of the connections between humans, sensors, and machines. Special attention is paid to transformations in the nature of capitalism, reflected in assessments made by Shoshana Zuboff with regard to its focus on surveillance, and David Lyon and Bernard Harcourt with regard to the role of social media and the exhibitionist culture that it helped to develop. The risks to democratic systems associated with developments in computation and analysis, accelerated through advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, are described in the context of transformations in governance likely to accompany the emergence of an algorithmic Leviathan. At this point, an assessment of Jacques Ellul’s predictions about the future of our democratic systems is provided once again.

Digitization of the airwaves and the consequent ‘digital dividend’ led to the vacating of key parts of the spectrum, the main recipients of which were mobile broadband service providers. However, this has trained the focus of still unsatisfied demands of certain providers to a lesser-known part of the spectrum called TV white spaces. White spaces are spectrum buffer zones constructed to prevent interference between broadcasters. Historically, these spaces were occupied by providers of Programme Making and Special Events (PMSE) services, like wireless microphones and wireless in-ear monitor (IEM) systems, which were used mainly in large venues and productions (e.g. concerts halls, churches, schools, theatres, sports and political events). However, as white spaces were considered under-occupied, it led to pressure for them to be opened up to a wider range of users and lower power Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Initiatives to reform TVWS use, led by the United States and the United Kingdom, are underpinned by vital technical standards with the aim of introducing computer-mediated Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) to implement use of the wireless environment. The chapter highlights the contingent nature of technical standards-making in processes of TVWS development in that it shows how opportunities presented by technical standards are constrained by conflict when powerful incumbent interests from commercial, public service, and civil society quarters present opposition to such change.

This chapter discusses how SDOs have mitigated the targeting of protocol vulnerabilities by security agencies. It begins with protocols identified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). In this context, the chapter explains legal measures underpinning state surveillance such as the 2018 renewal of Section 702 of the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The latter part of the chapter looks at the action of states with development of government positions in the United Kingdom and United States, most notably against the company Huawei. It examines the position of the engineering community and technology companies in relation to these conditions.

The question “What risk prevention measures can I use?” describes how to reduce the likelihood of a cyberattack on your organization. The chapter begins with a case study on the SolarWinds hack exemplifying how prevention measures on a specific system, network, or data cannot be effective on their own. The chapter describes why cyber risk management needs to be embedded across all facets of the organization, and how the Embedded Endurance strategy can help readers achieve that. It reviews system security prevention measures that include patch management and antivirus software. It explains network security prevention measures, including intrusion detection and intrusion prevention systems. The chapter also describes data risk prevention measures such as data governance, encryption, and data loss prevention technology, and highlights the importance of physical security for reducing cyber risk. The chapter concludes with Falco’s Embedded Endurance strategy insight on risk prevention gained at his industrial Internet-of-Things security company.

One major flare-up between the Trump administration and China was the role of networking company Huawei, which has developed cutting-edge equipment in a number of areas, especially 5G mobile communications. However, Huawei’s CEO is a former People’s Liberation Army member, and is suspected by many to be acting in the interests of the Chinese government. This chapter describes this difficult situation, where there is little evidence that Huawei is acting in such a way directly, but such is the Beijing Paternal Internet that it will certainly have to align with government policy. Despite the quality of Huawei’s products, many Western governments have refused to use them, or have given in to American pressure, citing national security considerations. The Trump administration worked to push Huawei out of business, but it remains a key player in China’s Belt and Road Initiative and central to Chinese technology strategy.

New technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, machine intelligence, and the Internet of Things are seeing repetitive tasks move away from humans to machines. Humans cannot become machines, but machines can become more human-like. The traditional model of educating workers for the workforce is fast becoming irrelevant. There is a massive need for the retooling of human workers. Humans need to be trained to remain focused in a society which is constantly getting bombarded with information. The two basic elements of physical and mental capacity are slowly being taken over by machines and artificial intelligence. This changes the fundamental role of the global workforce.

In this digital world in two days we create as much information as we did from the beginning of time until 2003. The volume of data being captured and stored is mind boggling. It seems that there is quantum disruption coming in the decision-making process in the way massive amounts of data and its analysis is being used to make decisions. Data about personal choices are collected at every interaction point, data location flows through the daily use of mobile devices, and these are being used by companies for making business choices. It may seem that those who are in control of data may know more about the person than the person himself; however, if you look at Brexit and the US elections, data analytics pretty much failed to deliver significant insight.