We’ve all heard or read about cyber breaches and viruses taking down clouds of computers or stealing millions of customer records. But have you ever thought about a virus shutting off your coffee maker. You might ask, “Why would a criminal want to turn off my coffee maker?” Well, you’re not thinking like a criminal or an aggressive nation. Instead of thinking about it on a personal basis, “Why did these scums crash my computer and cause me to lose all my data!”, think about the pandemonium they can cause by hitting millions of people simultaneously with a frustrating event.
Back to coffee makers. Let’s assume the Internet of Things is here for coffee makers and most of the coffee makers in the (modern) world (70% of them) are connected. A nation wants to cause the American economy to have a hick-up. They release a time-bomb virus on all coffee makers. On Valentine’s Day, the virus shutdowns all coffee makers in the U.S. Every “addicted” person awakes, goes to make a cup of coffee and nothing happens. Well, fine, some pull out the old coffee maker from under the cabinet and stumble through making their addiction juice. But, most head out to buy a cup. However, the virus has shutdown industrial coffee makers too. Now, this is getting ugly and fast. People, think, fine, I’ll head to the office and make coffee. Upon arriving at work they head straight to the break room and find a line of torqued up coffee addicts. The machine doesn’t seem to be working, no power. Hmmm, my coffee maker didn’t work either. Now, the cats out of the bag and everyone realizes all of the coffee makers are “down”. But, not sure why.
Production for the day isn’t good. Many workers, the coffee drinkers are edgy, the other workers are wondering what appliance is next and millions of man hours are wasted. Everyone, thinks, “Someone” will fix the problem and tomorrow will be better. But, there is no simple, quick fix. Plus, half of the nation screwed up, forgot to buy flowers and chocolates because they were to self-consumed with not having their daily coffee. If only a 10% reduction in Valentines Day spending, that’s $1.9 Billion. The second day is worse, production is lower, but people decide to take matters into their own hand and buy new coffee makers. The problem is, the virus hits those coffee makers immediately and they become useless counter weights. This goes on for several days at full force and lingers on for several weeks.
So, the criminals or nation has been successful in disrupting American productivity. SCORE!!! Now it’s time to get serious and do some real damage, the proof of concept was very successful, and the side benefit was good too. The criminals bought large amounts of coffee maker stocks, which rose over the following weeks and months. To add insult to injury they made millions off the demand they generated and disrupted American productivity. They are the envied Kings of the dark net world.
Now, the game is on, the next guys will be working hard to do it bigger and better soon. Be wary of your need for convenience or desire to live like the Jetson’s. The Internet of Things is here and bringing massive changes to the world, but like most changes there are side effects and some are worse than others.
Next up: Mass Hysteria -The Hacking of A-u-t-m-o-b-i-l-e-s! (You thought coffee makers pose a problem!)