"Autonomous digital cars will roam the streets of Europe by 2021"
CyberTech 2017: DPM of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini shared his view on the future of autonomous transportation. Former commander of the elite IDF Unit 8200 Nadav Zafrir spoke of the importance of artificial intelligence in future cyber warfare
Dan Arkin
| 31/01/2017
"According to our estimates, by 2021 an autonomous digital car will be traveling along the streets of European cities and trials on such vehicles are about to begin," said Peter Pellegrini, Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia, to the participants of the CyberTech 2017 Conference. Pellegrini is one of the high-ranking guests who came to Tel-Aviv to attend the conference.
Pellegrini said that Slovakia is a world leader in the manufacture of cars and mainly in research and development in preparation for the manufacture of autonomous cars, the development of autonomous driving methods "and possibly, in the future, autonomous flight – a flying car," said the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia. According to him, we should also take into consideration the future possibility of cyberattacks against autonomous digital cars. The truck used to murder the people in Berlin recently could have been an autonomous driverless truck, and we should prepare for that.
According to Pellegrini, an autonomous digital car will transmit a substantial amount of information and data during operation, and we should plan where and how to store all that information. Only when R&D and the industry have answers to all of these questions will we be able to offer the client, the motorist, an autonomous car – and even then, we should prevent any possibility of road accidents and collisions between autonomous vehicles.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, they are working in Slovakia on the establishment of cooperative alliances between the government, industry, academia and cyber technology specialists in order to develop solutions for all of the problems associated with entering the world of autonomous motoring, including the legal and constitutional aspects.
Peter Pellegrini is convinced that much can be learned from the State of Israel, which is a world leader in the field of cyber technology. During his current visit to Israel, Pellegrini will sign an agreement for cooperation with Israel in these fields.
International Cyber Event Reporting Center
The Director General of the Israel Electric Corporation Maj. Gen (res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal called at the CyberTech 2017 Conference for the establishment of a global "Cyber Event Reporting Center" (CERC) that would concentrate all of the information, knowledge, and data regarding cybersecurity for the entire world.
The Director General of IEC reported that in the past year, the number of cyber attacks staged against the Israel Electric Corporation decreased, but the attacks became more sophisticated. In the past, the number of cyber attacks had reached 5.5 million per month. Ron-Tal is convinced that the world is currently involved in a continuous, on-going cyber war so the most important concept these days is cybersecurity – how to cope with the frequent and sophisticated attacks. Forecasting is highly important – to develop forecasting methods that would provide an answer to the question of what the attacker will do. Effective forecasting will minimize the number of cyber attacks and their intensity.
Ron-Tal complained that the extent of cooperation between countries and organizations around the world in the field of cyber technology is insufficient. "The degree of cooperation among the 'bad guys' is higher than the degree of cooperation among the 'good guys,' on the defending side." According to him, cyber is not yet an immediate threat to our lives, but it is definitely getting there. Israel excels in this field and hundreds of local start-up companies operating in this country specialize in finding solutions for cyber attacks and ways to prevent and defend against them. International cooperation is of the utmost importance, hence Yiftah Ron-Tal's call for the establishment of a new international body in this field – a Cyber Event Reporting Center (CERC) where the information, data, and technologies should be concentrated.
The Future of Cyber Warfare
What does the future hold in store with regard to cyber warfare? According to Nadav Zafrir, formerly the commander of IDF Unit 8200, the answer is AI against AI.
Zafrir explains that artificial intelligence (AI) is currently consolidating a position of importance in more and more aspects of our life: it can be found in modern and autonomous cars, in various appliances, in home systems and in the industry. Zafrir has no doubt that cyberattacks will eventually reach artificial intelligence systems. The attackers will learn how to hack these systems, "but that will only be the first stage – what if the attacker himself learns how to use artificial intelligence techniques in order to attack artificial intelligence systems? In that case, the attacks will become much more sophisticated and dangerous." The solution, in Nadav Zafrir's view, necessitates rethinking, redesign and technological innovation. The prerequisite for rethinking is information and intelligence.
As examples of attacks that occurred recently, Zafrir cited the Russian cyber attack against the Ukraine. Someone had dropped the master switch, cutting off electrical power supply to substantial areas of the Ukraine. But the more sophisticated twist of that attack was the fact that the attackers prevented the operators at the power stations from renewing the supply of electrical power. They had not just cut off the supply of electrical power – they also prevented the renewal of said supply. Another event: in Bangladesh, the attackers removed hundreds of millions of dollars from the central bank and had them transferred to Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The last example – someone intervened in the presidential elections of the world's largest democracy, the USA.
Various ransomware attacks were recorded as well.
"What should we do?" asked Zafrir, and his reply was: "we should start thinking afresh."
CyberTech 2017: DPM of Slovakia Peter Pellegrini shared his view on the future of autonomous transportation. Former commander of the elite IDF Unit 8200 Nadav Zafrir spoke of the importance of artificial intelligence in future cyber warfare
"According to our estimates, by 2021 an autonomous digital car will be traveling along the streets of European cities and trials on such vehicles are about to begin," said Peter Pellegrini, Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia, to the participants of the CyberTech 2017 Conference. Pellegrini is one of the high-ranking guests who came to Tel-Aviv to attend the conference.
Pellegrini said that Slovakia is a world leader in the manufacture of cars and mainly in research and development in preparation for the manufacture of autonomous cars, the development of autonomous driving methods "and possibly, in the future, autonomous flight – a flying car," said the Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia. According to him, we should also take into consideration the future possibility of cyberattacks against autonomous digital cars. The truck used to murder the people in Berlin recently could have been an autonomous driverless truck, and we should prepare for that.
According to Pellegrini, an autonomous digital car will transmit a substantial amount of information and data during operation, and we should plan where and how to store all that information. Only when R&D and the industry have answers to all of these questions will we be able to offer the client, the motorist, an autonomous car – and even then, we should prevent any possibility of road accidents and collisions between autonomous vehicles.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, they are working in Slovakia on the establishment of cooperative alliances between the government, industry, academia and cyber technology specialists in order to develop solutions for all of the problems associated with entering the world of autonomous motoring, including the legal and constitutional aspects.
Peter Pellegrini is convinced that much can be learned from the State of Israel, which is a world leader in the field of cyber technology. During his current visit to Israel, Pellegrini will sign an agreement for cooperation with Israel in these fields.
International Cyber Event Reporting Center
The Director General of the Israel Electric Corporation Maj. Gen (res.) Yiftah Ron-Tal called at the CyberTech 2017 Conference for the establishment of a global "Cyber Event Reporting Center" (CERC) that would concentrate all of the information, knowledge, and data regarding cybersecurity for the entire world.
The Director General of IEC reported that in the past year, the number of cyber attacks staged against the Israel Electric Corporation decreased, but the attacks became more sophisticated. In the past, the number of cyber attacks had reached 5.5 million per month. Ron-Tal is convinced that the world is currently involved in a continuous, on-going cyber war so the most important concept these days is cybersecurity – how to cope with the frequent and sophisticated attacks. Forecasting is highly important – to develop forecasting methods that would provide an answer to the question of what the attacker will do. Effective forecasting will minimize the number of cyber attacks and their intensity.
Ron-Tal complained that the extent of cooperation between countries and organizations around the world in the field of cyber technology is insufficient. "The degree of cooperation among the 'bad guys' is higher than the degree of cooperation among the 'good guys,' on the defending side." According to him, cyber is not yet an immediate threat to our lives, but it is definitely getting there. Israel excels in this field and hundreds of local start-up companies operating in this country specialize in finding solutions for cyber attacks and ways to prevent and defend against them. International cooperation is of the utmost importance, hence Yiftah Ron-Tal's call for the establishment of a new international body in this field – a Cyber Event Reporting Center (CERC) where the information, data, and technologies should be concentrated.
The Future of Cyber Warfare
What does the future hold in store with regard to cyber warfare? According to Nadav Zafrir, formerly the commander of IDF Unit 8200, the answer is AI against AI.
Zafrir explains that artificial intelligence (AI) is currently consolidating a position of importance in more and more aspects of our life: it can be found in modern and autonomous cars, in various appliances, in home systems and in the industry. Zafrir has no doubt that cyberattacks will eventually reach artificial intelligence systems. The attackers will learn how to hack these systems, "but that will only be the first stage – what if the attacker himself learns how to use artificial intelligence techniques in order to attack artificial intelligence systems? In that case, the attacks will become much more sophisticated and dangerous." The solution, in Nadav Zafrir's view, necessitates rethinking, redesign and technological innovation. The prerequisite for rethinking is information and intelligence.
As examples of attacks that occurred recently, Zafrir cited the Russian cyber attack against the Ukraine. Someone had dropped the master switch, cutting off electrical power supply to substantial areas of the Ukraine. But the more sophisticated twist of that attack was the fact that the attackers prevented the operators at the power stations from renewing the supply of electrical power. They had not just cut off the supply of electrical power – they also prevented the renewal of said supply. Another event: in Bangladesh, the attackers removed hundreds of millions of dollars from the central bank and had them transferred to Sri Lanka and the Philippines. The last example – someone intervened in the presidential elections of the world's largest democracy, the USA.
Various ransomware attacks were recorded as well.
"What should we do?" asked Zafrir, and his reply was: "we should start thinking afresh."
