Cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT) are among the topics at the top of the agenda at CeBIT 2017: the event, currently taking place in Hannover, opened its doors last Monday precisely with an international conference dedicated to cybersecurity, given the increasing threats recorded year after year and this being a trend that does not seem destined to stop or slow down so easily. This is a very delicate subject if we consider that it concerns not only the private user or the small-medium enterprise, but also physical and virtual infrastructures belonging to multinational giants or even governmental bodies – among the sectors most at risk are energy and finance.

Cybersecurity that can’t help but go hand in hand with IoT, given current trends and future forecasts that see, within a few years, tens of billions of electrical devices connected together with the aim of creating a large IoT network; forecasts also state that 40% of devices will be connected in enterprise networks. Currently, there is a high prevalence of inappropriate behavior on the part of those who use these new devices: in fact, these users do not realize the cyber dangers to which they expose themselves every time they perform an operation on the network. As the number of connected objects grows, so does the danger of attacks by digital criminals who aim to get hold of sensitive data and credentials to access users’ online accounts.

The scenario could worsen, according to experts gathered at CeBIT, with the creation of botnets, i.e. networks of devices connected to each other and controlled remotely via malware. Edward Snowden, the former advisor to the U.S. National Security Agency, also spoke on the subject, stating that in order to reduce the impact of this threat, the best method is to offer transparency through products whose reliability can be verified by experienced users. At the same time – Snowden continued – manufacturers must introduce levels of security that make spying operations more expensive and thus discourage them.