Whatever you are doing, look around you right now. Count how many things are computerized.

Now realize that if anything on  that list has any type of connection to a larger network or any connection to the internet, it can be hacked.

Phones used to be for making phone calls. Now your phone is a camera, camcorder, calculator, phone and texting capability, and it knows your location anywhere on earth, gives directions to any other location, and connects to the internet — a vast storehouse of information, opinion, entertainment, and general craziness. Did you know that a current-generation smart phone has more processing power than a supercomputer from the late 1990′s? I did the math, and it’s true.

What could possibly go wrong? Hackers. If it is computerized, it can be hacked. And don’t think that a multi-billion dollar multi-national corporation will have means, or even the will, to make an unhackable product. If the recent NSA revelations have taught us anything, it’s that no technology is 100% secure.

As more vehicles become “connected”, the danger of hacking increases. And it doesn’t stop at cars. Commercial passenger planes have become vulnerable as well. The U.S. Government Accountability Office and the FAA have admitted that certain planes are vulnerable to hacking.

First, modern passenger planes are fly-by-wire. “Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface.

Second, passenger planes now have in-flight entertainment systems, which connect to the internet. So you might assume that a hacker could only gain control of the entertainment system, not the plane’s flight controls. Well, it seems that the plane’s manufacturers decided to save money by having the two computer systems — flight control and entertainment — connected.

Theoretically, a hacker could enter the entertainment system over the internet, bypass the firewall, and gain control of the plane. The FAA warned Boeing about this type of vulnerability seven years ago.

The rate at which new devices are being computerized and internet-connected is rapid, and the pace of security software and vulnerabilities is lethargic. Eventually, hacking is going to be a major threat to society, rather than a theoretical threat or an annoyance. Several years ago, there was a report that hackers had been able to gain control of the power grid for entire cities (outside the U.S.), so as to blackmail the city: pay up or we turn off the power:

A hacker is not necessarily some teenager with too much time on his hands, causing some mischief via the internet. Hacking has become big business for organized crime. And governments around the world are increasing their hacking resources, for offensive and defensive purposes.

When you read information like what is mentioned above, it is easy to become overwhelmed; the proper response is two-fold – push our politicians to make this a priority where it is applicable and then to make sure we have a backup strategy for if our stuff is hacked maliciously.

Have a backup watch that is manual, learn to read a map versus relying solely on GPS, routinely backup computer files and have a backup computer for an emergency; the list of backup strategy items is endless, but as each is achieved, you gain a little more peace of mind.

For more information on our hacking vulnerabilities and what you can do about it, check out Prep blog.