Cyberwars

UAE hack shows cyber weapons not just a tool for superpowers

Technology advances and the internet information explosion have leveled the global playing field over the last several decades.

Startups from Boston to Bangkok have leveraged technological innovation to create phenomenal new products and services, disrupt markets and industries and change our lives in ways we could not imagine. World-wide access to information on-demand has never been greater.

On the whole, this has been a very good thing.

Unfortunately, as we all know too well, the level playing field has also empowered bad actors — individuals, organizations and countries — to exploit new technologies in order to wreak havoc.

The depth and danger of the havoc — and the urgency for stepped-up efforts here in the U.S. to stop it — was evident in the recent disclosure of the United Arab Emirates’ success during 2015 and 2016 in using high-powered spying tool called Karma to hack into the iPhones of activists, diplomats and foreign rivals.

It has been reported that Apple discovered the vulnerability in mid-2016 and rendered Karma less effective.