Future Trends in Cyber Crime and Hybrid Warfare

Dec 01, 2021

MP4 Video

Watch on YouTube

Abstract

"Do Criminals Dream of Electric Sheep?" Such issue is no longer a domain of futurologists and science-fiction writers, but a serious question asked by the EUROPOL alarmed by how emerging Information Technologies shape the future of crime and law-enforcement. Apart from its obviously positive effects, the technology also impacts and affects the way criminal offenders, terrorists and rogue governments operate at the stages of know-how gathering, planning, preparation and execution of their attacks. The progress in the development of IT and its accessibility is so unprecedentedly high, that– in order not to lag behind – the law-enforcement and intelligence communities need to research and analyze the further and potential advances (and design the potential preventive measures) promptly. The presentation addresses the problem of a lack of forecasting/analytical approach to the study of an impact of emerging and disruptive technologies on the criminal, terrorist and information warfare landscape. The author aims to deliver the most up-to-date analysis of the threats to come, together with a set of plausible solutions on how to deter and mitigate the risk. The presentation will characterize the dangers posed by the potential abuse of Information Technologies by the criminal/terrorist/state actors. The author will deliver an analysis articulating the key factors implicated in events related to the technology abuse, across all stages of the event. The presentation will cover such areas as e.g.: 1) abuse of the open source information for planning, preparation & execution of the attack; 2) hazards associated with the abuse of wearable devices; 3) use of mobile technologies to profile, select and groom potential activists or extremists or to enable human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children; 4) attacks on Internet of Things networks for targeting specific individual/entity or to create mass-level disruption incl. attacks on critical national infrastructure; 5)hijacking of autonomous vehicles; 6) use of drones (aerial, ground operating, hydroid) for surveillance, as weapons, for drugs delivery, as burglary bots, as tools to disrupt civil aviation or military systems; 7) attacks on IP-enabled medical devices; 8) the use of (semi)autonomous robots; 9) the use of the Artificial Intelligence, machine-learning, deep-learning and reinforcement learning techniques for various criminal/terrorist objectives; 10) abuse of blockchain technologies and crypto-currencies (financing of terrorism, money laundering, bribery, financing of illegal activities, extortion/ransomware); 11)abuse of 3D printing technologies; 12) risk associated with Quantum Computing and 5G telecom networks (increased capabilities of criminal/terrorist/cyber-warfare operations).  A special focus will be put on Information Warfare (hybrid and asymmetric threats), where disinformation, misinformation and propaganda are used by nation states in a general scheme of malign foreign influence to disrupt the situation abroad.