Apr 07, 2022Bill Gates once said, "The advance of technology is based on making it fit in so that you don't really even notice it, so it's part of everyday life." Social-media entrepreneur Matt Mullenweg, meanwhile, maintains that "Technology is best when it brings people together." But technology can be a double-edged sword. It can accomplish truly extraordinary things, enabling humanity to reach heights never thought possible, yet it can create problems for people along the way. In a Nobel lecture, historian Christian Lange noted, "Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master."
As it happens, Gates, Mullenweg and Lange are all correct, despite their vastly different outlooks. It took mankind six million years to progress from our most primitive roots to the Industrial Revolution. In that time, humans harnessed fire, stone tools, and the wheel; domesticated animals; discovered farming and irrigation; and created various hand-production methods of manufacturing. We had innovations along the way, but our progress was certainly not speedy.
Only two centuries later, however, we now have a digitally connected world and you can read this article not only on your smartphone or tablet, but even on your wrist. The enormity of how far we've come since the mid-1800s is staggering, far beyond what even visionary futurists like Walt Disney and H.G. Wells could have imagined in their wildest dreams. Yet our incredible technological journey, particularly in the 21st century, has not been without speedbumps.
With increased innovation and technological growth comes increased risks. It's an inevitable part of advancement. As the film Star Trek III: The Search for Spock noted, "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." That doesn't mean technological developments should come to a grinding halt—not by any stretch—but it does mean we need to be careful as we look ahead to new horizons, making sure we haven't made ourselves more vulnerable in the process. As writer Stewart Brand said, "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road."
In a recent article published at RFID Journal's sister publication Campus Safety (see Pro-Russia Hackers Targeted More than 400 U.S. Hospitals in 2020), editor-in-chief Robin Hattersley-Gray discussed a Wired report about how U.S. authorities disrupted a Russian-affiliated hacker plot involving an online chatroom gang. "According to a Ukrainian researcher, the Russian cybercriminal gang known as Trickbot was the organization responsible for the ransomware plot," Hattersley-Gray explained. Their objective, she added, "was to force 428 hospitals that were busy responding to surging COVID-19 cases to quickly pay ransoms."
Ransomware poses a real threat to healthcare facilities and other businesses that utilize connected technologies, and it's one that isn't going away any time soon. Broadcaster Clive James once warned, "It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are." He wasn't wrong about that, so as companies and organizations around the world deploy and benefit greatly from Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, it is vital that they remain vigilant in terms of cybersecurity. But that doesn't mean the world should eschew the use of new technologies that otherwise provide an amazing array of benefits, as the IoT does.
"The cyber-threat from Russian-affiliated cybercriminals is ongoing," Hattersley-Gray wrote, noting that President Joe Biden has urged U.S. businesses to ramp up precautions in order to protect themselves from cyberattacks during the atrocities of Russia's Ukrainian invasion. That is key to this scenario. Companies should continue to embrace IoT technologies, including RFID, NFC, BLE and more, but they should do so with an eye toward increasing their security measures. Do not let the dangers represented by bad players scare you away from entering the arena—but be sure to play the game wisely.
As former Microsoft CEO stated, "The number-one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential."
Rich Handley has been the managing editor of RFID Journal since 2005. Outside the RFID world, Rich has authored, edited or contributed to numerous books about pop culture. You can contact Rich via email.
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