Elly Yates-Roberts |
The Digital Transformation Expo Europe will take place on 9-10 October. At the event, IT security company ESET will demonstrate a phishing attack, with cybersecurity specialist Jake Moore showing visitors how they can defend against internet-based hacking.
In a recent interview he outlined some of his opinions on the industry and how it might change in the future.
What’s the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Never trust anything, anyone or any e-mail unless completely verified. Even then, carry out with caution.
What are your predictions for the IT industry for 2019, 2020 and beyond?
I keep waiting for the morning that I wake up to a Wannacry 2.0 ransomware attack, the first of which resulted in over 200,000 victims. However, it seems to be taking longer than I initially thought. As is their nature, large-scale cyberthreats are difficult to predict because when they are correctly predicted, they are patched which mitigates that particular risk.
How do you perceive the hype around artificial intelligence (AI)? Is it a big concern ethically or a huge opportunity?
The fact is that it isn’t yet true AI, instead it is simply very good computing, machine learning or deep learning. As such, I don’t think we have anything to worry about just yet. I think there are bigger problems before true AI takes shape. However, the technology also provides an epic opening to the future of technology and creates endless opportunities as far as our imagination will take us. I think we will have to wait a few more generations before the Terminator exists.
What do you think is going to be the next big technology development?
Deepfakes – the human image synthesis is are taking over! Already this year so many people have been able to make themselves look 75 with FaceApp. Imagine if the same process could be applied using short videos on social media. The social impact could be catastrophic, as it would become increasingly difficult to decipher between the truth and fake content.
I predict deepfakes will be used in high level phishing attacks and other cybercrimes which will be nearly impossible to combat.
Register FREE for your place at the event at ExCeL London.