The development of next generation telephones, which offer much faster data rates than previous models, is being spurred on by demand for mobile videogames, online gambling and mobile adult entertainment, according to BAE Systems, a British defense and aerospace company.
The demand for faster downloads and more feature-laden mobile devices has in turn driven down prices to such an extent that the same technologies are being adopted and tweaked to bolster the technical arsenals of militaries around the world, including the U.S. military.
According to BAE, militaries worldwide are using cyber attack and network exploitation technologies developed in the private sector as the building blocks for their own cyber weapons.
The ability to move a high volume of data rapidly and securely is expected to eliminate many of the aircrew from signals intelligence aircraft, for example.
The downside of the rapid advance of network technology improvements, according to BAE’s director of information warfare and information operations Rance Walleston, is that the profile of the typical hacker is changing from misanthropic teenagers to hired guns employed by organized crime syndicates.
“Anybody who has gone after illegal money in the past is just finding a new way to do it,” Walleston told Aviation Week & Space Technology. “It’s becoming global. We can identify from their methods of attacking networks whether it’s Russian or Brazilian crime gangs.”
