Tech guards warn of real threat of cyber death

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Hackers capable of locking people out of homes and cars for payment of ransoms.

Governments are ill-prepared to combat the looming threat of "online murder" as cyber criminals exploit internet technology to target victims, the European policing agency warned.

In its most alarming assessment of the physical danger posed by online crime, Europol said it expected a rise in "injury and possible deaths" caused by computer attacks on critical safety equipment.

Police forensic techniques need to "adapt and grow" to address the dangers posed by the so-called "Internet of Everything" - a new era of technological interconnectedness in which everything from garage doors to hospital health systems will be linked and controlled through computer networks. The concept is behind the likely development of smart homes, cars and even cities, but police warned that the failure to protect devices properly could see them open to being hacked for money or to attack opponents.

The Europol threat assessment cited a report by US security firm IID that predicted the first murder via "hacked internet-connected device" by the end of this year. There have been no proven cases of murder by tampering with devices but hackers have highlighted numerous flaws in computer security systems.

The Europol report also suggested the advent of new forms of extortion and blackmail through connected devices, including locking people out of their smart cars and homes before payment of a ransom. It said that new systems would increasingly rely on facial and speech recognition for security that were open to abuse without up-to-date security in place.

"The [Internet of Everything] represents a whole new attack vector that we believe criminals will already be looking for ways to exploit," according to the Europol threat assessment. It said flaws in one system were likely to be part of many more resulting in large numbers of victims. The complexity of technologies would make it hard to identify the perpetrators.

"There's already this huge quasi-underground market where you can buy and sell vulnerabilities that have been discovered," said Rod Rasmussen, the president of IID.

5 Security breaches and weak points

1 In a series of high-profile stunts, New Zealand hacker, programmer and computer security expert Barnaby Jack hacked into cash machines to make them spew money, and exploited a flaw in an insulin pump.

2 Jack died last year just before he was about to demonstrate how pacemakers could be hacked. The former US Vice-President Dick Cheney revealed last year that the wireless function had been disabled on his implanted defibrillator because of concerns that outsiders could hack the network and provoke a heart attack. The idea was used in Homeland when Cheney's fictional counterpart was murdered by a similar method.

3 Webcams are able to be hacked.

4 A couple in Texas reported that a hacker was able to shout abuse at a 2-year-old after exploiting a flaw in their baby monitor.

5 The US health authorities ordered hospitals to improve security after identifying problems with 300 medical devices and amid reports that malware (malicious software) had slowed down monitors used for high-risk pregnancies.

- Independent