The 11 Billion Ways a Hacker Can Find You
Editor's note: Hackers are everywhere... And in today's increasingly "connected" world, you need to be prepared.
That's why in today's Masters Series essay, we're sharing an excerpt from the October issue of Stansberry Innovations Report. In it, co-editors Brett Aitken and Christian Olsen share a chilling story... and explain why the cybersecurity industry is in a good position to continue its massive, long-term growth...
The 11 Billion Ways a Hacker Can Find You
Gone are the days of carjackers jimmying open your window with a crowbar.
They don't need to fiddle with wires to jump start it. There's no holdup – no guns, knives, or masked men.
Today, carjackers can remotely take control of your vehicle while you're actively driving it... from a little laptop on the other side of the country.
That's what happened to Andrew Greenberg.
In 2015, Andrew was driving his Jeep Cherokee SUV along the outskirts of St. Louis. Cruising along at 70 miles per hour, his air conditioning suddenly turned on full blast. Startled, he tried to shut it off. Nothing happened.
His radio switched stations. His windshield wipers started flapping wildly.
And then, the accelerator died.
Andrew pumped the gas pedal, but it was like the connection to the engine was cut. His SUV slowed. There were honking cars everywhere and no way to steer the lame vehicle off the road.
He was completely locked out and helpless on the busy highway.
In his rearview mirror, Andrew saw a massive 18-wheeler barreling down on him... And a voice came over the speaker system: "You're doomed."
Now, you should know, Andrew was fine. As he wrote in a blog post on wired.com, this was all part of a test conducted by security experts Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek. But their experiment proved a terrifying reality...
Hackers have taken car theft wireless. And they can do it from anywhere on the planet with just an Internet connection.
Most new cars now offer Internet-connected devices like the entertainment system, GPS, sensors, and cameras. That gives hackers an entry port into the driver's seat.
Self-driving technology will open up even more vulnerabilities. For example, researchers from the University of South Carolina, China's Zhejiang University, and Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 recently hacked the autopilot feature on the Tesla Model S. According to wired.com, Tesla's autopilot is vulnerable through its radar, ultrasonic sensors, and cameras. The hackers used two pieces of radio equipment – a signal generator and a frequency multiplier – to jam the signal. They proved that they could "get in" and manipulate the radar sensor to cause a high-speed crash.
Don't worry, these guys are not the cause of the recent Tesla crashes. Like Miller and Valasek, they hacked in simply to prove to car manufacturers that it's possible. The security researchers are working with numerous car manufacturers to build appropriate security systems and avoid these problems in the future.
As the world and the devices we can't live without become more connected to the Internet, we all become more vulnerable to attack.
And as the next generation in mobile technology – 5G – rolls out, many developing technologies like artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things ("IoT"), and driverless cars will become more pervasive in our everyday lives.
No doubt, many of these new technologies will bring huge benefits to our quality of life. But having more connected devices makes everyone more vulnerable. The increased number of breaches and associated costs means an increase in cybersecurity demand.
The Internet of Things
There are more connected devices today than there are humans on the planet.
Social media management platform Hootsuite and media company We Are Social recently released their 2018 Global Digital suite of reports. It says there are now more than 4 billion Internet users. And that number is growing exponentially. Nearly 250 million of those users came online for the first time just last year.
Those 4 billion users have an estimated 11.2 billion IoT devices in 2018. That means there are 11.2 billion opportunities for cyberattacks.
The more the Internet permeates our society, the more we rely on it... the more time we spend on it (an average of six hours a day!)... and the more we share with it.
Take mobile phones, for example.
The Hootsuite/We Are Social report found two-thirds of the world's population owns a mobile phone. That's 5 billion phones. Half of those – 2.5 billion – are smartphones. That's up from just 403 million smartphones 10 years ago.
And we use them for everything. About half of all web traffic is on mobile phones. We use them for e-mail, photos, personal information, banking apps, online payments...
As such, mobile-payment systems like Apple Pay and crypto wallets have become targets of cyberattacks. If you invest in cryptocurrencies, you need to be worried about more than losing your crypto wallet. Entire exchanges are at risk.
Hundreds of South Korean crypto wallets and exchanges were recently hit by hackers. Seoul newspaper Boan News noted...
The measure of cash stolen by the hacking of cryptocurrency exchanges has been relentlessly expanding each year... The measure of unlawful withdrawals, which was just KRW 300 million [~$265,282] in 2016, expanded to KRW 40.5 billion [~$35.8 million] out of 2017, and two hacking cases happened in 2018, adding up to KRW 71.3 billion [~$63 million] in theft.
Think about how often you send money to your friends using Venmo or PayPal, buy airline tickets through the Delta app, pay for your coffee at Starbucks, or order an Uber ride with saved credit-card information.
Most people make several financial transactions every day online. That makes us all vulnerable to attack.
And as the 5G revolution starts to roll out, more people and more devices will connect through the Internet around the world. Autonomous cars, artificial intelligence, robotics, and live-streaming without delay will become widespread... and therefore vulnerable to attack.
5G will unlock more than $12 trillion in revenue across multiple industries. Cybersecurity will be a big winner among them.
But it's not just what we do on our connected devices that opens up vulnerabilities. It's the devices themselves...
As more devices connect to the Internet, there will also be more opportunity to commit cybercrimes. The U.S. Congress explains this risk best in the Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017...
While "Internet of Things" (IoT) devices and the data they transmit present enormous benefits to consumers, the relative insecurity of many devices presents enormous challenges. Thus far, there has been a significant market failure in the security of these devices.
Sometimes shipped with factory-set, hard-coded passwords and oftentimes unable to be updated or patched, IoT devices can represent a weak point in a network's security, leaving the rest of the network vulnerable to attack. Additionally, the sheer number of IoT devices – expected to exceed 20 billion devices by 2020 – has enabled bad actors to launch devastating Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Cybersecurity company McAfee – now owned by chipmaker giant Intel (INTC) – estimates two-thirds of the people online are cybercrime victims. That's more than 2 billion people.
It also estimates there are 80 billion malicious scans in a single day.
Hackers hunt for ways to get into our fractured systems by scanning for "open holes" – or ports – in computer systems. (Having an open port is like leaving a door or window to your house unlocked.)
It's easy to do. With my regular laptop, it takes me 44 milliseconds to scan 65,000 ports with readily available software. Hackers need only one port to wreak havoc. And anything connected to the Internet is a route for attack.
The growth of the Internet of Things will naturally help drive the cybersecurity industry.
Regards,
Brett Aitken and Christian Olsen
Editor's note: Last week, we sent a team of analysts to the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to look for the most cutting-edge innovations in the tech world. There, they met with countless industry experts... research scientists... and executives to uncover the next big tech breakthrough. We've just put the finishing touches on a brand-new video presentation to take you "behind the scenes" from their trip. Watch it here.