Short essays on cybersecurity is series of essays I am publishing on topics related to security in digital world.

Information digitization basically started from 1936 with Alan Turing’s invention of ‘Universal Machine’, a machine with capability to decode instructions and follow the set of instructions. This invention kick-off the new era, where information and logic can be expressed in pulses of 0s and 1s. Later this digitization continued to represent all sorts of media – documents, images, music, videos etc, in the digital form. But it didn’t stop here. This magic continues, tremendous processing power of computing machines eventually expanded it in every aspect of life, from civilian usage of controlling water treatment plants, power grids to military applications and weaponry.

This digitization phenomenon received another bug jump in the 1990s, when the invention of the internet reached mainstream society. Information pulses – 0s and 1s – start traveling across the globe in an interconnected world. In parallel to the evolution of the internet, Corning Glass invented a viable fiber optics cable that is ready to transmit information pulses at the speed of light. This empowered human society with the power of almost instantaneous information sharing. Over the period, computing devices continue to gain power and shrink to the level, so we can hold this power in our palm in mobile devices. 

On one side this digitization fueled the new era of prosperity, on the other side it also gave birth to new threats and vulnerabilities. These threats in digital form now also have the tremendous power of destruction and information manipulation at large scale at the light speed. Power that brought prosperity to the human kind also indirectly created the power to bring destruction at the speed and scale that was never thought before. From groups of individual hackers to the rogue nations eager to use this power for their vicious goals, that can not only disrupt the growth but can also cause massive destruction to the society to challenge society’s survival. 

Stealing a secret from someone for a strategic advantage, forcefully taking the ownership or damaging other’s assets are criminal activities since the formation of modern human society. Earlier with physical assets, stealing or damaging also required physical attacks and physical deterrence techniques were used like locks, vault, fencing, security guards etc. New digital world needs new deterrence and new protections. This series of blogs is also my own journey to understand the world of cybersecurity, understanding threats and vulnerabilities in the digital world and how we can use technology and human science to build deterrence in this new world. It is a multidisciplinary effort in finding innovative solutions to counter cyber threats, build new barriers for deterrence, build tools to capture the adversaries and bring the balance for continuing growth. This series of blogs are semi-technical in nature, where I will discuss technology, processes, tools that we need to put in place to counter cyber threats. Security and trust are the core foundation of our modern society to function and continue the growth.