Berkeley Researchers Examine Five Worst-Case Security Nightmares (berkeley.edu)

An anonymous reader writes: Berkeley researchers have gamed out five worst-case security scenarios at their Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, calling it "a disciplined, imaginative approach to modeling what cybersecurity could mean in the future...to provoke a discussion about what the cybersecurity research and policy communities need to do now in order to be better positioned..." Two of the scenarios are set in 2020 -- one called "The New Normal" imagining a world were users assume their personal information can no longer be kept safe, and another involving the privacy and security implications in a world where hackers lurk undetected on a now-ubiquitous Internet of Things.

"Our goal is to identify emerging issues that will become more important..." they write in an executive summary, including "issues on the table today that may become less salient or critical; and new issues that researchers and decision-makers a few years from now will have wished people in the research and policy communities had noticed -- and begun to act on -- earlier.
Scenario #2 imagines a super-intelligent A.I. which can predict and even manipulate the behavior of individuals, and scenario #3 involves criminals exploiting valuable data sets -- and data scientists -- after an economic collapse.

Comments

2020???

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the "new norm" now...

in other words,.. MOOOTOOOOKOOOOO!

[Anonymous Coward]

Berkeley researches discover Ghost In The Shell.

Also, how come that 2, 3 and "the new normal" is my vision of the perfect world? :S

"New" Normal??

[Anonymous Coward]

...one called "The New Normal" imagining a world were users assume their personal information can no longer be kept safe...

So, they are basically just imagining "Now"?

Re:"New" Normal??

[BarbaraHudson]

If you don't assume that your personal information can no longer be kept secret, you're an incredibly naive pigeon begging to be plucked.

4 more years

[liqu1d]

Until some people get a clue.

For sure these are best-case scenarios

[Anonymous Coward]

Because life on the web is falling into the pit of eternal damnation faster than you can smell a fart on an elevator.

Not exactly new...

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems like some grad student watched Person of Interest season 4 and based their thesis n it.

#2 says it all

[gweihir]

These people have no clue and very likely nothing they do is anywhere near fact-based.

Re: #2 says it all

[ghee22]

You just say that because you are not super intelligent.

Re:#2 says it all

[khasim]

Let's start with their name:
The Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity.

whatever

Next, click on the link to go to a page that is, essentially, the summary posted here. Click on a link there to go to a page with summaries of the scenarios. Click on each one of those ...

whatever

The scenarios:

1. The new normal - postulates that there is NOTHING you can do to stop crackers anywhere in the world from cracking your systems.

2. Omega - remember Isaac Asimov's "Hari Seldon" and "psychohistory"? Well this postulates exactly that but at an individual level. Each PERSON'S behaviour can be modelled and predicted.

3. Bubble 2.0 - advertising companies go bankrupt and criminals buy their data sets. Because their data is always so accurate.

4. Intentional Internet of Things - networked water meters and Internet connected fridges lead to a Utopia. But crackers seek to exploit the massive number of Things connected in your house.

5. Sensorium - your fitbit tells you (and the Internet) how far you've walked and how happy/sad you are. Crackers hack your hormones and endorphins.

whatever whatever whatever whatever whatever

I don't think "worst-case" means what they think it means. O "nightmares". Or "security".

Re:#2 says it all

[imfeech]

As _privacy_ concerns, not bad, but there are many, MANY worse security nightmares.

Re: #2 says it all

[gweihir]

If you mean that my intelligence is not on the right level so that I can see their unmitigated greatness, I am damn happy that this is the case.

Re:#2 says it all

[gweihir]

Hahaha, nice. I should possibly start to read these things again even when they scream "stupid" at me from far away. May provide some entertainment value.

Re:#2 says it all

[Anonymous Coward]

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Re: #2 says it all

[ghee22]

Not at all. It's my commentary on the summary's use of "super-intelligent" as opposed to just intelligent: "Scenario #2 imagines a super-intelligent A.I. which can predict and even manipulate the behavior of individuals"

Re:#2 says it all

[Anonymous Coward]

Bubble 2.0 - advertising companies go bankrupt and criminals buy their data sets. Because their data is always so accurate.

I know this post is 3 days old, but this is an extremely likely scenario. There is almost no regulation, and ethics in Western business are dead. Why would you think this won't happen?

Too late

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

"...one called "The New Normal" imagining a world were users assume their personal information can no longer be kept safe"

Too late, I already assume this is the case for the vast majority of people.

The IoT is only going to make exploits more common and pervasive, and far more creative in terms of their destructive capability.

How the mighty fall.

[thogard]

I guess I lucked out. I applied to UCB in 1985 but I was rejected because they were full.

While they were once the global leaders in real world computer science, I wonder what they do today other than this type of drivel.

Link to the fucking PDF

[Anonymous Coward]

https://cltc.berkeley.edu/file...

Mother of fuck. Why can't we just get to the meat of things?

unimaginative drivel

[Anonymous Coward]

Give me a break. These scenarios are completely unimaginative. It makes me want to launch a more imaginative example to point it out.