Smart devices are all those devices that communicate through the Internet. They are connected to each other and also to the Internet of Things (IoT). Today, there are a multitude of smart devices on the market: from various household robots to household machines and control systems. For home use, users connect them to shared networks using tools provided by the biggest online giants such as Google and Amazon that use smart assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant to communicate with smart devices.

Even though it may seem that the user is communicating directly with the smart device, this is not (yet) the case. Namely, this communication is carried out in such a way that the user first communicates with the computer server or the cloud server through the application, to which he/she re-enters their username and password each time. This server then communicates on its behalf with the devices in the smart home or apartment.

Likewise, whether or not the user agrees, the server records the relevant information about its use of smart devices. How this kind of data is then stored and processed mainly depends on the ethics of the smart device company. To protect the users from the inappropriate use of their data in the European area introduced GDPR Directive. But this is precisely why server solutions for managing smart devices are also an interesting target for attackers, who can disable thousands of devices around the world in a single attack, thereby gaining terabytes of interesting data to abuse.

Twitter has shed some light on the attack by tweeting that hackers compromised their internal systems. The hack has revealed that one can tweet on behalf of another individual without even knowing their password. Why is this so alarming? The ability to control accounts and publish content on behalf of another individual can have severe consequences, and a similar attack could happen to any social media or online blog/news service.

In the diagram below, we demonstrate how Mallory (hacker) tweeted from Alice’s account and thus tricked Bob into sending him a Bitcoin: 

Survey finds that leaders no longer consider the technology ground-breaking and merely promising – they now see it as integral to organizational innovation. Consequently, this indicated increased sentiment, investments, and more strategic talent sourcing and requirements for blockchain initiatives. For the first time, the survey digs into the role and evolution of digital assets. As with any business solution, there are still real-world challenges to overcome. Still in 2020, both bold and modest in-production proof points across a wide variety of implementation scenarios demonstrate that blockchain technology works – and can work – for many different organizations, businesses and industries.

Methodology: The survey polled a sample of nearly 1,500 senior executives and practitioners in 14 countries (Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States) between February 6 and March 3, 2020.

The full report is available here.

Online shopping records unprecedented growth. What will become the “new ordinary”?

According to CCinsight March and April of 2020 have been one the most impressive months for e-commerce so far, with the growth of year-over-year e-commerce hitting at the 70-100% rate. Previously, this kind of increase occurred only during the holiday season.

Stay-at-home orders caused a massive increase in online shopping activities, but now we are slowly returning back to normal. What will that mean for our shopping habits? According to Forbes, it is very likely that online grocery, apparel, and entertainment shopping will replace store and mall visits permanently, or at least until a vaccine is available. The curve of e-commerce activities will probably flatten during the time when the pandemic will be revoked and certain measures won’t be in place anymore, but the new habits are probably here to stay, especially because more and more brands now heavily prioritize e-commerce.

Do consumers care about their data online?

In general, consumers care about their privacy online, however only seldom are informed about data management, and there are even fewer who take actions to protect their data. For example, 2019 Tealium Consumer Data Privacy Report surveyed 1,000 consumers in the USA about their relationships with brands and personal data privacy. They discovered that almost all (97%) consumers are somewhat or very concerned about protecting their data. Still, most consumers (62%) generally don’t read online terms or privacy policies, and nearly 70% of respondents had not heard of GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) or CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act). 

Similar data also apply to the European Union, where GDPR was enacted on the 25th of May 2018. Various surveys conducted in 2019 show that 67% of Europeans have heard of the GDPR, and 57% of Europeans know that there is a public authority in their country responsible for protecting their rights about personal data. Good news is that individuals are lately increasingly contacting data protection authorities about GDPR and lodge complaints about the respect of their rights. Despite the better awareness, the total number of queries and complaints from all data protection authorities remains rather small, comprising 144,376 cases from May 2018 through 2019 altogether.

All in all, the situation in the USA and the European Union is not that different as even though people are aware that their data privacy is essential, they don’t do much to preserve it in practice. This fact has probably not changed during the occurrence of covid19, however, it will be interesting to monitor the newest data for 2020.

Is e-commerce secure and what can be done to improve it?

If we take into the consideration that databases are vulnerable and often attacked by hackers,  the consumers should be proactive in demanding the protection of their data and privacy. One of the possible solutions to achieve that is certainly through a secure digital identity. 

For that, we at Netis, have developed Self-Sovereign Identity backed with blockchain technology, that ensures the following:

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, 10 European countries have introduced digital tracking measures. Among them are Italy, which was affected the most,  Iceland, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Poland, United Kingdom and Spain which is, according to covid-19 digital rights tracker, using this type of surveillance in Madrid and Catalonia.

The digital tracking measures were implemented with the intent to monitor the citizens who might have been affected by the virus and therefore need to abide to the decrees for isolation and social distancing as instructed by the authorities.

Even more, there are many other European countries that are also considering the possibility of digital tracking, whether by developing their own version of a dedicated digital-tracking app or by using one of those that are already available. And there are many out there: according to covid-19 digital rights tracker mentioned before, 43 contact tracing apps are available globally, whilst 28% among them have no privacy policy stated at all.

Given the persistence of the virus, the intention of governments to keep track of those who need to be quarantined and thereby prevent the possibility of further infections is somehow understandable. But what happens after the threat of virus spread is curbed? Can we really blindly believe that this kind of targeted and purposeful tracking will stop?

There is no such guarantee. The citizens will have no physical proof about it; as there will be no possibility to check that their government has really stopped the tracking.

And yet, we could change that! With the use of Self-Sovereign Identity, powered by blockchain technology, the citizens could receive the power to own, control and manage their personal data!

Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) is a term that describes a form of identity that can be applied and used in a digital realm. It is about each user owning their data and arbitrarily sharing it with other people or services online. Appropriate technology, however, is one that ensures that the data is credible and trustworthy, and above all that it is visible to the person or company organization only for as long as we allow it. The ultimate result of the SSI used in the digital space would bring upon the equalisation of our digital and physical identity.

For this purpose, our company Netis has developed AceID, a simple, secure and widely-applicable authentication protocol that gives the users the ability to decide who, why and for how long they share their data with when interacting online. This is made possible by combining the following concepts: Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI), data access management controlled and recorded via blockchain, end-to-end encryption and verification. 

How does it work? In the case of AceID, the user’s data is stored locally on their mobile device, and remotely on the AceSpace storage, where all the content is encrypted. What AceID saves on the blockchain is only the reference to the data, and all of the permission actions related to them.

Onboarding is straightforward; a person simply has to fill the required data fields in the mobile app (serving as their own mobile digital wallet). Once this process has been completed, entering data is no longer required, and only a QR code authentication will suffice to interact with a service.

How would the app work in the case of digital tracking during the covid-19? Using it, a citizen would simply allow the authorities to access the GPS signal and revoke the access when monitoring is no longer necessary. Furthermore, the AceID can also be connected with smart devices, such as thermometer which can monitor the individual’s temperature.

Covid-19 pandemics and governments’ interference in citizens privacy also resulted in the formation of various privacy protection initiatives. For example, COVID Credentials Initiative, which  is a collaboration of several dozens of organisations, including ours, that are working to deploy verifiable credential solutions to help stop the spread of covid-19. Their goal is to enable society to return to previous (before the covid-19 state) in a controlled, measurable, and privacy-preserving way.

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