This first appeared in the Culture section of The Sunday Times
In the early days of the internet, security was barely a concern. Today, more than 3bn people are online and that vast space is becoming less and less safe. The central message of this alarming book is that “our dependence on computers is growing faster than our ability to forestall attackers”.
Edward Lucas, a senior editor at The Economist, makes a convincing case that hacking will become increasingly common, not least thanks to the expanding “internet of things”. Fridges and televisions have already, it turns out, sent nearly 1m spam emails. Last year’s attack on Sony Pictures, which saw at least five films leaked, plus the personal information of almost 50,000 current and former employees, might merely be a taste of what is coming.
Lucas highlights the widening disparity between security measures in the real world and their piecemeal equivalents online. Criminals take up to 20% of the $3 trillion online economy: if a physical industry were being exploited like this, there would be uproar. “In all other walks of life we trade off freedom, security and convenience,” Lucas writes. “Our dealings with computers and networks should be no different.”
This book will thus delight the intelligence agencies, plaudits from whom bedeck the jacket. Those who champion the internet’s lawlessness, for noble or nefarious purposes, will not relish its call for constraint.
