“Cybersecurity is a mess,” says Arm CEO
Santa Clara, Calif. – While advances in computing are ushering forth a new era of tech, cybersecurity is a mess and will worsen if we don’t do something about it. That is at least the conclusion of Arm CEO Simon Segars who recently delivered a keynote presentation at Arm TechCon underscoring the challenges cybersecurity poises to the internet of things (IoT). “This is the thing we have to fix before we can really benefit from the glory of what all this technology can do,” he said.
Arm is a British multinational semiconductor and software design company, which was acquired by SoftBank Group for $32 billion last year. Through the Arm partnership, Segars noted the company has deployed 100 billion chips within the last 25 years, which is comparable to the number of people who have ever lived on the planet, or one chip per person. He said Arm expects to ship another 100 billion chips over the next four years.
In addition to deploying chips, Arm has started focusing on security, viewing it as a problem for both software and hardware. The company wants to ensure the safety of its products, especially as everything becomes increasingly connected.
“When everything has an IP address, when everything is connected, then everything is a potential target for a hacker, or a bad hacker. Even things as innocuous as a fish tank,” Segars said. “Everything you have connected to a network is potentially a way to that network. So these threats are happening all the time and these threats are coming to our homes,” he added.
Technology alone won’t reduce the cost of cybercrime, according to Segars, but will require a consorted effort. He said consumers expect the devices they purchase are secure, but in many cases, this isn’t so. Consequently, Arm recently launched its Security Manifesto to help tech companies recognize their social responsibilities in the digital era.“You’ve got to design things on the assumption a compromise will happen. Therefore how you react to it becomes really, really important,” Segars said.
Going beyond keeping threat detection in mind when designing products, Segars said we need to leverage intelligence in the device, network and cloud to forge a cyber immunity system. “In working together between the device, the network and the cloud, I believe we can contain and fight infections, viruses, threats, compromises in the same way that your body does with your own biological immune system.” He added this system can learn what normal behavior looks like, allowing it to spot and quarantine abnormalities.
