In this article Max Emelianov, CEO of HostForWeb discusses that Augmented reality has the potential to be a real game-changer, perhaps even more than virtual reality. It’s got a whole range of fascinating applications across multiple industries and verticals. Perhaps one of the most unexpected – and interesting – is in cybersecurity. At the same time, AR carries with it a whole host of new risks and challenges.
Augmented Reality in Cybersecurity
We’ve only seen the bare minimum of what augmented reality can accomplish.
Tools like the now-defunct Google Glass, which can create a sort of “heads-up display†for the real world, linked to your smartphone. Games like Pokemon Go, which triangulate your location and use that to change your gameplay experience. Ikea’s mobile app, which lets you superimpose various pieces of furniture into your home so you can see how they’ll look with your own decor.
These are all incredibly cool innovations. Yet at the same time, they’re really just scratching the surface. AR’s potential goes far beyond mobile games, personal convenience, or home decoration.
It has the potential to disrupt countless industries – including, and perhaps especially cybersecurity. There are a few reasons for that, both positive and negative. I’ll start by looking at the bright side of things.
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You already know about the looming talent shortage in the cybersecurity space. I won’t bore you by droning on about the details there. There simply aren’t enough IT professionals to fill the countless job openings within the industry.
Augmented Reality, notes security expert Ron SchlechtOpens a new window , could provide a compelling solution to this ongoing problem.
AR systems are already used to train professionals in the medical and manufacturing industries, Schlecht explains. It would be a simple thing to translate such systems into the cybersecurity space. This would enable a new level of data visualization, one which would make IT training and education significantly more streamlined and efficient.
There are many ways this visualization could take shape, and it goes well beyond the onboarding process. They include:
- Allowing employees to explore a visual representation of network infrastructure so as to better understand its intricacies.
- Giving senior staff the ability to quickly send visualized instructions to staff while they are training.
- Allowing staff to “look through one another’s eyes†during a cyber-incident, greatly improving collaboration.
- Providing guided training for complex subjects such as coding.
- Allowing a cybersecurity professional to determine whether or not a system may be compromised at a glance.
- Equipping operations center staff with a glasses-bound display that filters relevant alerts, providing more effective prioritization.
- You get the idea. AR is a game-changer for the cybersecurity space. But it’s not all silver linings – like any new technology, it carries its fair share of risks, as well.
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Wearable Technology in AR
For one, the wearable technology that makes AR possible represents another addition to your threat surface. It’s not inaccurate to group such devices in with the Internet of Things (IoT), actually. The two technologies are evolving in tandem with one another.
Wearable tech, if not properly secured, could act as an entry point into your network for hackers. As a worst-case scenario, it could even allow a criminal to collect information about your physical workplace, recording employees through onboard cameras and mics. There are broader dangers, as well, beyond surveillance and unauthorized access.
We’ve already had a glimpse of the damage unsecured IoT devices can cause. Remember the Mirai botnet? That’s just table stakes compared to what could be on the horizon.
Wearables also represent an entirely new dataset, and that means privacy concerns. What data is acceptable to collect and store from a set of AR glasses? Where does one draw the line between employee privacy and corporate data when that data bleeds over into the real world?
AR has a lot of potential for cybersecurity. Like any developing technology, there will be growing pains. There will be roadblocks, security concerns, and challenges.
But it will be well worth the effort to overcome them.