Anticipating Security Threats to a Future Internet

Other conference contribution, 2009

One of the most critical problems on today’s Internet is the lack of security. This gives rise to a plethora of different ways in which the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data is compromised, and it provides a fertile breeding ground for a thriving underground economy. Thus, when designing a future Internet, it is clear that security must be a first-class design consideration. To be able to design security for a future Internet, it is first necessary to obtain a thorough understanding of the threats and adversaries that the system must defend against. As a first step toward this understanding, we introduce a number of emerging security threats that need to be considered. These threats were identified by the three working groups that are active in the context of the EU FP7 project FORWARD, and they illuminate different aspects of the threat landscape.