Cyber-connected world - everything is hackable (late 2000s to 2000s)

Cyber-connected world - everything is hackable (late 2000s to 2000s)

In the 1990s, when the Internet began to spread, the main source of connectivity was exclusively PCs. In the 2000s, however, the expansion of broadband and the rapid upgrading of cell phones created an environment in which anyone could be connected to the Internet at any time. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 marked the dawn of the "smart device era," and mobile terminals were transformed from telephones into "central devices for daily life.

Around the year 2000, this trend led to the expansion of connectivity to "devices that originally did not require networks," such as home appliances, surveillance cameras, and sensors. Refrigerators automatically kept track of inventory, air conditioners were remotely controlled according to temperature, factory sensors constantly transmitted temperature and pressure data, and urban infrastructure could be controlled from a central location. This was the trend that would later be called the "Internet of Things (IoT)," and it was highly anticipated as an innovative technology that would make society as a whole more efficient.

However, the flip side of this convenience was the "explosive expansion of attack targets. Not only conventional PCs and servers, but also home security cameras, medical equipment, and even automobiles became potential targets for cyber attackers. At that time, large-scale DDoS attacks that exploited IoT devices, as typified by the "Mirai botnet," had already become a reality, remotely controlling millions of routers and cameras and causing global-scale disruptions.

The late 2000s and early 2000s were an era in which society's pursuit of convenience and efficiency simultaneously introduced new vulnerabilities. The prediction that "everything will be hackable" was not an exaggeration, but rather a new challenge: how to ensure the security of devices that are so close to people's lives.