Humans seem to have committing crimes pretty well figured out, as is evident to anyone who takes even a casual glance at the news on a daily basis. But experts say computers and robots will one-up the human race in committing crimes by the year 2040. What's more: humans basically won't be able to do anything to stop artificial intelligence entities from wreaking criminal havoc.
Independent cyber-defense adviser and researcher Cameron Brown told Raconteur last week that the rise in cyber-crime will largely be motivated by (what else?) money. Brown said increasing opportunities to earn a living through cyber-crime "will propel the disenfranchised and those in lower income bands to pursue a life of crime given the low risk and potential high yields."
Experts expressed concern about already existing ransomware technology, which could soon be used against everyday people in their homes. "Ransomware-like attacks will become more prevalent with the integration of internet of things (IoT) and smart sensors into our daily lives," senior e-threat analyst with Bitdefender, Liviu Arsene, told Raconteur. Arsene said we can expect cyber criminals to use ransomware technology to hack smart appliances in home or offices, holding access to them ransom. People who can't pay up would be cut off from access to utilities, home security, and smart cars in these scenarios.
All of this is also a point of major concern for anti-terrorism. Tracy Fellows, the chief strategy and innovation officer at The Future Laboratory told Raconteur, "Futurists have been forecasting a sharp rise in lone-wolf terror attacks for years. But once robots can be hacked to become suicide-bombing machines, lone-robot attacks could become rife too."
It might sound like a Philip K. Dick novel, but these are possibilities that are already in the works, and 2040 is less than 24 years away.
