For all of the serious business that takes place at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), in Las Vegas, there is a fair share of old-school trade show fun, from the tech demos to the booth games (sink a hole-in-one, take a t-shirt) to the fortune tellers who predict whether visitors will receive a new pair of ear buds (spoiler alert: yes). But, the serious business comes first. I was advised by a colleague to wear a pedometer; it is not unusual to walk several miles in day roaming the rows at the convention facility.
Telehealth and connected devices have occupied a lot of floor space for the past several years. And if you did not think you needed to worry about cyber-security yet, the proliferation of connectivity is compelling a greater need to ensure security at all stages of the transmission process, from the so-called “at rest” points of origination and termination to the “in motion” period of transit when encryption secures against unwanted eyes. At the Black Hat Security Conference last August, researchers presented their findings on smart car hacking (which puts a whole new spin on the old Hollywood device of cutting the brake lines).
Perhaps the biggest current news in hacking is the Sony case (sorry, Home Depot), which has led to such entertaining headlines as “13 Revelations from the Sony hack.” I am not wholly amazed by the information that is being leaked, since it does not stray too far, if at all, from what one would expect an employer to hold. But, it certainly reinforces a piece of advice I have given to anyone who will listen (I have also given it to my kids, but, like I said, “anyone who will listen”): operate as if every email you send will wind up in the hands of your worst enemy.
Cybersecurity is about more than email, of course. The hacking of accounts at major retailers underscores the hazards of moving transactions that contain highly confidential information online. The same concerns abide electronic health records. An article in GigaOM this week advises cloud users to bring their own security; the author compares non-encrypted communications to a post card that anyone can read.
This year’s CES is reportedly set to devote a substantial amount of space and time to security issues. The so-called “zone of privacy” is becoming increasingly important as everything from business transactions to smart home devices transmit to and exchange information in the cloud. As CES unpacks this topic next month, the maxim of “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” may be an apt metaphor — “What happens on your network, stays on your network — unless it is encrypted.”