EUGENE KASPERSKY is paranoid. He is convinced once you switch on any mobile device, someone somewhere in the world is watching you.
It keeps him awake at night thinking about the kind of personal information people disclose to complete strangers online. But then Kaspersky may have a better reason than most for his digital paranoia.
He is hailed as one of the world’s leading internet security experts. The IT security company Kaspersky Lab he founded in 1997 currently operates in over 100 countries and an estimated 300 million people use its technology every day.
The company is headquartered in Moscow, but last week Kaspersky made his first visit to Belfast to take part in the World Cyber Security Technology Research Summit. The summit, organised by Queen’s University at its centre for secure information technologies, brings cyber security experts from across the world together to explore the latest cyber threats.
In Belfast Kaspersky revealed why he is growing increasingly worried about the issue of online privacy. “People do not apply the same rules in the digital world as they would if they were to meet someone in real life. Would you tell a stranger every thing about you?
“What most people do not realise is that everything is being collected about them online – there is so much in the system now about everyone. There are organisations that just collect extra data about you all the time – they are like thieves – and most times you do not even know it is happening to you.”
He also believes that the way social media is being used by some organisations and governments could create a host of new cyber threats.
“Social media can be used to inform but it can also be used by others to influence certain events – an uprising, unrest, protests – and one of the major problems I see with this is that it is impossible to know who is behind the event – is it a government or it is a genuine movement?
“In my opinion this is a very serious problem because while social media is a very good tool and I am a big believer in it I also feel worried that we do not know who is controlling it – or who is behind it anymore,” said Kaspersky.
He believes that two of the major issues when it comes to the internet and the digital world are what he describes as online identification and the issues surrounding privacy.
“The less data you share online – the better you should sleep,” says Kaspersky.
He believes that it should be possible to create a secure digital passport for everyone – an online identification that works much in the same way as a traditional passport. This way he believes it would be easier to identify people online and to protect identities.
It might also help fight cyber crime which Kaspersky believes is growing at a rapid rate on two fronts. He says there are the “traditional cyber crimes” to battle against in the digital world but there is also a new generation of “enterprise cyber criminals” who are the real threat.
“Ten years ago I first warned Interpol about the dangers of cyber crime and people told me then I was crying wolf – but it has come to pass. Unfortunately I was right. Interpol is now going to set up its own internet division office in Singapore in 2014.
“There is a vast amount of cyber crime being carried out by criminals who just randomly target computers – who fish for an opportunity.
“But the more worrying problem is the number of what I call enterprise criminals who are targeting businesses. They are much more professional and believe me if they have enough resources and a big enough budget then they will crack your organisation if you are not prepared.”
He believes that most of the world’s largest companies have been successfully hacked at one time, and he says the question is not if they are hacked but when and to what extent.
“We need to be aware – we need to educate people, governments and organisations about the cyber threats,” says Kaspersky. “It is no longer a case of is this possible when it comes to cyber crime – everything is possible,”
