The growth in web-connected devices is expected to pose new threats to people as well as infrastructure by 2020, according to a study from Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (ECC).
According to the study, the threats are expected to be used against medical implants in humans, cars and important infrastructures like gas pipelines by the end of 2020.
ECC head Troels Oerting said: "More than 24bn devices will soon be connected 24/7 to the Internet and, with the innovation of sensors and the ability to connect ‘things’ (cars, fridges, boats, medical tools, homes), considerable amounts of data will be generated about our behaviour, locations, health, web searches and so on.
"The Internet and its huge potential will revolutionise our lives and developments in society, however in the process lots of potentially personal information will be accumulated."
John Lyons, CEO of International Cyber Security Protection Alliance – which helped research the report – added that governments and IT manufacturers will need to work more creatively and flexibly to police these cyber threats.
"The existing government and private sector-funded initiative, Get Safe Online, has made very little discernable difference to the way the public behave online," Lyons said.
"There is a feeling among the community that it has not changed behaviour a lot."
The study revealed that the technology would deliver new risks to privacy and new opportunities for cyber criminals to target personal data, which might be used as serious psychological and physical threat.
Oerting said governments need to devote adequate resources for fighting cyber crime.
"Cyber criminals are moving to states in Africa and Asia, which lack the resources and infrastructure to police them."
The study forecasts people generating income stream by selling their personal data to companies that offer services over the internet in the future.
