Intelligent Tech Channels Issue 09 | Page 65

FINAL WORD The onus is now on application, cloud and security experts like F5, working closely with the channel at every juncture, to map out a coherent road ahead and bring multifaceted potential to life. around advanced app development and knowledge engineering. There are some key elements that organisations need to embrace in order to safeguard future business and stay ahead of the technology curve. Transactional changes in the way we engage with customers and secure sensitive information are paramount for the digital economy. Markets are moving faster, competition is operating smarter and communities want to be more secure when they trade. The FoA report highlights how many experts across EMEA believe emerging technologies and cultures will impact firms and pave the way for a generation engendered with greater embedded capabilities. The scope for prevention of cyber attacks and breaches is purported to rise through predictive intelligence. Firms and consumers alike are aware that healthcare and medical information is the lifeblood of personal identity. The future well-being of an individual is not confined to just diagnosing and treating physical problems, but ensuring that cognitive activity is monitored and more effectively managed too. Rodolfo Rosini, CEO & Co-founder at weave.ai, stated in the FoA report, “There are a lot of start-ups that are using audio, and the accelerometer, to catch early signs of Alzheimer’s, or Parkinson’s before a human. So, already they pass humans, they are superhuman in the sense that they already can catch tremors or voice, issues with your voice, better than a doctor. They can show you symptoms one or two years before a doctor will be able to observe them”. He continued by stating, “I think if you look at Alexa, you see a glimpse of the future, where an app is not an app . . . it’s not so much that the app will change, it’s the underlying platform on which you build the apps that will change. As AI becomes more powerful, apps can become more complex and interact with each other and perform a lot of predictive and contextual understanding of your request.” Biometrics will provide a future in which our human interface with apps will evolve dramatically while opening the possibility for new, individual realities. The DNA of data is projected to be inherent in all that we do and the way in which we interact with a smart society that utilises an ecosystem of solutions to engage, exchange and verify identities. “I see a day where things will be layered. You can have my face in your database, so that my front door can unlock; that’s fine, but if you want my biometrics to unlock my financial information, I am going to need to provide you with a verbal PIN. I think rather than a one-time-only (PIN), every month you have to agree via fingerprint that the app will have permissions,” commented Paul Armstrong, Founder, HERE/FORTH, an emerging technology consultancy. In contrast, biometric security is not always seen as a silver bullet. Melanie Rieback, CEO & Co-Founder, Radically Open Security, the world’s first non- profit computer security consultancy company (Amsterdam), gave her views on the challenges with biometrics, “I think biometrics are scary and should be avoided. If a hacker steals your password you can just change it. If a hacker steals your fingerprints you’re stuck. The other thing also is that your biometrics are not a secret . . . somebody could lift my fingerprints from a glass and it takes a very short amount of time to build and fabricate a fake fingerprint if needs be, whether you’re looking at veins or at hand geometry or at really any characteristic, or somebody’s voice. Biometrics can be useful for identification of a person, but I think it’s completely inappropriate to be used as authentication.” Smarter, faster and safer Experts from around the globe generally predict an optimistic outlook for the cybersecurity and technology industry. From software vendors to channel networks, the rapid progress made by developers offers an evolution of exciting capabilities integrating AI with robust biometric implant technologies to achieve a smarter, faster and safer society. Think about your own prospects: secure sensory services powered by the superhuman app. As we look ahead, being an embedded body certainly embodies the business of the future.  There are some key elements that organisations need to embrace in order to safeguard future business and stay ahead of the technology curve. 65