Fast moving technology can create risks as well as opportunities. Recently we saw the shutdown of London's Gatwick airport by illegal drone activity. It almost surprises me this drone delivered service disruption has taken this long to happen, although it is a surprise it went on for so long. It’s a classic example of asymmetric economics - drones are cheap and expendable but the impact of their misuse is large and very expensive. Completely defenses are impossible and what can be mounted is usually expensive.
Drone attacks been suggested and defenses from drones with geofencing, flying nets, to jamming guns to trained eagles have been tried with varying degrees of success. Several were tried at Gatwick but all failed. All of these can be effective against subsists of attacks, but it is easy to design around them. Having a variety of good enough measures will be expensive and one suspects cottage industries supplying all of this like we saw in the wake of 9-11. I don’t know if penalties are enough to keep some types away, but it may be the most effective tool. In any event drone regulation is going to see a big re-visit approximately everywhere now.
This is a dramatic and very specific example, but there are so many others where the cost of attack is many orders of magnitude lower than the costs of damage and/or defense. Russian interference in the 2016 American election may be the most dramatic example to date. Coming down the road the Internet of Things opens up a serious Pandora’s box of opportunities for the bad guys. Many, perhaps most, of these will be cheap with poorly written software and no mechanism for patching against attacks. You really don't want these in your home where they can impact your life. Add to this devices that spy on you.. Google, Amazon and Facebook offer hardware that takes information from your home and makes it the property of the company offering the services. Thinking twice about these devices is prudent.
It has been said that technology is neutral - it's all the application. I don't buy that. Some technologies are bad by design. We need to be considering that much earlier on than we've been doing. The problems can't be eliminated, but perhaps they can be contained. Measures that can be taken with legislation and education. A good example of education is the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Gift Guide .. it's a good starting point and may make you think twice.
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