If you've never heard of TED Talks, I highly recommend watching these short information videos!
The TED Talk I watched recently was from Avi Rubin, a computer science professor with expertise in computer and information security. The name of the talk was
'All your devices can be hacked'.
His argument was about real-world hacks that may be not as well known, but very scary if applied.It was an intriguing and effective presentation and opened my eyes to the dangers of security attacks and hacking.
I'll highlight a few of those examples he talked about. He showed how nowadays we have many internal medical devices that are controlled by a computer and could potentially be hacked; such as a pacemaker, an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), or a blood pump. These devices could be hacked and changed or even turned off!
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| Illustration found on Google Images by Rob Donnelly |
A hacker could
induce a
FATAL heart rhythm
He also described the multiple ways your car could be hacked from someone listening in on you to someone controlling the brakes in your car.
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| Image found on Google Images by the C3 Group |
A hacker could wirelessly
DISABLE
the brakes in your car
Avi gave many more examples of security hacking including using surveillance cameras to watch what you enter in your smartphone, listening in on law enforcement and gaining sensitive information, hacking smartphones, and voting machines.
Although it is a very serious issue, it was enjoyable to listen to, and Avi Rubin used humor throughout to keep it light and make it more entertaining. I really recommend listening to this TED Talk, here is the link:
