Hello everyone and welcome to ZD Tech, ZDNet’s daily editorial podcast. I am Rock and today I invite you to a little time travel to see what the future holds in terms of new cyber threats.
Whether it’s phishing, malware or ransomware, the theft of our bank details, passwords and other personal information, the internet has long served as a playground for hackers of all stripes to earn money and cause damage. The worst, however, is ahead of us. While we are still far from having fully secured networks against current threats, technology is still progressing, bringing with it its share of new threats.
On the bench of the accused is notably quantum computing. If this technological breakthrough will soon allow us to solve complex problems on which conventional computers have hitherto stumbled, it is likely to create many others. The power of quantum computing could indeed make it possible to quickly crack the encryption algorithms that we have been using for decades to secure our banking data, our encrypted communications or our digital signatures. Enough to push all the global cybersecurity agencies to sound the alarm.
AI and machine learning in the dock
But quantum computing isn’t the only emerging technology that cybercriminals will be looking to take advantage of. The latter could also exploit technological advances in the field of AI or machine learning to commit new crimes.
Automatically generating large-scale spam campaigns, using robots to industrialize scam operations or even developing intelligent self-programmed malware… these are all activities in which any hacker could soon embark without having to provide more effort than today.
So much for the half-empty glass. Be reassured, however, if future breakthroughs in the technological field have their share of dangers, they should improve our security on the web by the same amount. If these new technologies open new windows of opportunity for cybercriminals, this does not mean that they will have an easier life than today.