Like most aspects of modern existence, more and more of our financial lives have migrated to the digital realm. With the benefits of ease that our Internet allows us, that transition also raises numerous – and dangerous – threats to national security, our money, and the systems we use to store and transfer it. In TheUnhackable Internet, financial services and technology expert Thomas P. Vartanian exposes the vulnerabilities of the many networks that we rely on today as well as the threats facing the integrity of our national security and financial services sector.
From cyberattacks by foreign adversaries like China and Russia, the explosion of cryptocurrency, the advancement of ransomware, phishing, surveillance apps, spying software, and logic bombs, along with the increasing savvy and daring shown by Internet hackers, the next financial panic is likely to be delivered to us through use or abuse of technology. The Unhackable Internet describes how society can remake an Internet that was never conceived as a secure environment and badly tainted by the original sin of substandard coding. Vartanian argues for increasing the use of private and offline network infrastructures, controlling the ownership of Internet infrastructure, and imposing enhanced authentication, governance, and enforcement standards. This online universe would look more like our analog lives, authenticating all digital traffic to a real person and removing any virtual traveler that violated the new rules of the road.
The Unhackable Internet poses a challenge to America: take the lead and create a coalition of democratic nations to implement financial cyber strategies or be left with no counterweight short of military power to respond to those who weaponize technology. This comprehensive and compelling book makes it clear that nothing less than the control of global economies is up for grabs, and that how we use technology is our choice.
