Cyber Innovation And Industry 4.0

The 4th Industrial Revolution

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As you probably realise we are at the outset of a new 4th technology/industrial revolution that already has, and will continue, to fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another due to the adoption of cyber-physical systems, the Internet of Things and the Internet of Systems.

This new technological revolution is changing the way we live, work, and connect with one another, at a scale, scope, and complexity that is unlike anything humankind has experienced before as it challenges our ideas about what it means to be human.

And the world is changing technologically faster than ever before. And this new technology is creating new industries, changing existing ones and transforming the way things are made, the way we think and connect with society and people all around the globe and the jobs currently and in the near future.

First Industrial Revolution

The 1st was marked by a transition from hand production methods to machines through the use of steam power and water power.

The implementation of new technologies took a long time, so the period which this refers to was between 1760 and 1820, or 1840 in Europe and the United States.

Its effects had consequences on textile manufacturing, which was first to adopt such changes, as well as iron industry, agriculture, and mining although it also had societal effects with an ever stronger middle class. It also had an effect on British industry at the time.

Second Industrial Revolution

The 2nd, also known as the Technological Revolution, is the period between 1871 and 1914 that resulted from installations of extensive railroad and telegraph networks, which allowed for faster transfer of people and ideas, as well as electricity.

Increasing electrification allowed for factories to develop the modern production line. It was a period of great economic growth, with an increase in productivity, which also caused a surge in unemployment since many factory workers were replaced by machines.

Third Industrial Revolution

The 3rd Industrial Revolution, also known as the Digital Revolution, occurred in the late 20th century, after the end of the two world wars, resulting from a slowdown of industrialisation and technological advancement compared to previous periods.

The production of the Z1 computer, which used binary floating-point numbers and Boolean logic, a decade later, was the beginning of more advanced digital developments.

The next significant development in communication technologies was the supercomputer, with extensive use of computer and communication technologies in the production process; machinery began to abrogate the need for human power.

Fourth Industrial Revolution

And now this 4th is characterised by the fusion of the digital, biological, and physical worlds. This fusion of leading-edge production techniques and smart systems will integrate organisations and people.

And now there is a growing utilisation of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, and advanced wireless technologies, among others.

The concept of the Fourth Industrial Revolution was coined in 2016 by Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, in a book of the same name.

‘Of the many diverse and fascinating challenges we face today, the most intense and important is how to understand and shape the new technology revolution, which entails nothing less than a transformation of humankind.

‘We are at the beginning of a revolution that is fundamentally changing the way we live, work, and relate to one another’, Schwab wrote in Report for the World Economic Forum.

And this 4th revolution has brought in a new era of economic disruption with currently uncertain socio-economic consequences.

Past revolutions have resulted in certain jobs lost to automation and new technologies, but with those technologies came new job employment to oversee the automation and this meant reskilling and industry shifts for many workers, but the opportunities for new jobs were created.

With the cyber revolution however, we may end up in a more different and difficult situation than we have faced before, where jobs are again lost to machines, but fewer jobs will be created in turn. It’s an unfortunate reality that these new jobs may be too technical for those being replaced to aspire to.

New communication system and digital technology have made dramatic changes to crime and the way it is actioned as international borders don’t affect cybercrimes which means that criminals now can exploits the technological situation of the global market.

And in little over a decade, cybercrime has moved from being a specialist and niche-crime type to one of the most significant strategic risks facing the world today.

Cyber crime involves computers or digital devices, in which a computer can be either a target of the crime, a tool of the crime or can cover-up the evidence of the crime.

This revolution changes us as individuals and employees, but also it is already causing increasing information, commercial, government security and crime issues, all of which we need to understand, engage with and be very secure in our computer activities.

This revolutionary change has been called the Cyber Innovation or Web 0.3, but is probably best described as the 4th Industrial Revolution and has been a Digital Shock for most people.

This transformation is happening far faster than previous industrial revolutions and the changes are coming as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information Technology is developing and employing emerging computing technologies.

This process will change everything with examples such as new methods of commercial production, to data driven vehicles, specific individual identity recognition, as well as robotic and bio-technology and new criminal activity.

You share this new revolution and of course you are also part of almost half of the world’s population that now browses the Web, be it for work, shopping, social media, news, entertainment or worse.
As with earlier evolutions this revolution is still partly age related…And the older generation only partially understand this!

From 2000 to 2018, the number of global Internet users rose from 394 million to 4.1 billion and today there are over one billion Google searches every day and two billion videos viewed daily on YouTube. The average user spends 10 to 15 hours a week online.

Today almost 5 billion people have mobile access, which nearly 70% of the global population.

Suddenly people in all walks of life are becoming very concerned about advancing automation and the potential loss of jobs.

Knowledge work, which we’ll define loosely as work that is more mental than manual, involves thoughtful decision making, and has traditionally required a college education, and these account for a large proportion of jobs in today’s mature economies.

And being creative in your job and understanding the data and analysis available and the criminal activity is very important. But only 25% of people believe they have creativity in their jobs and only around 3% have trained themselves to improve their cyber potential and security.

The next phase of business web/cyber innovation is the ability to collect, deeply analyse and commercial process global data.

This will enable far deeper analysis and comprehension of information, electronic relationships and new potential development for industries like publishing.

But in the very foreseeable future, many of the things executives do today will be automated. Your best strategy is to understand the new environment get training in security and head for still higher intellectual ground.

There will always be jobs for people who are more secure in their electronic environment, are capable of more big-picture thinking and have learnt a higher level of ideas, analysis, innovation and cyber-security.

Revolution History

1st Industrial Revolution came around the same time as the UK’s 1st Agricultural Revolution in 1700s, with the mechanisation of the textile industry.

This first revolution spans from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. It witnessed the emergence of mechanisation, a process that replaced agriculture with industry as the foundations of the economic structure of society.

Mass extraction of coal along with the invention of the steam engine created a new type of energy that thrusted forward all processes thanks to the development of railroads and the acceleration of economic, human and material exchanges.

Other major inventions such as forging and new know-how in metal shaping gradually drew up the blueprints for the first factories and cities as we know them today.

Tasks previously done laboriously by hand in hundreds of weavers' cottages were brought together in a single cotton mill, and the factory was born.

The 2nd Industrial Revolution came nearly a century later at the end of the 19th century and in the early 20th century, new technological advancements initiated the emergence of a new source of energy: electricity, gas and oil.

As a result, the development of the combustion engine set out to use these new resources to their full potential.  Furthermore, the steel industry began to develop and grow alongside the exponential demands for steel. Chemical synthesis also developed to bring us synthetic fabric, dyes and fertiliser.

Methods of communication were also revolutionised with the invention of the telegraph and the telephone and so were transportation methods with the emergence of the automobile and the aircraft at the beginning of the 20th century.

All these inventions were made possible by centralising research and capital structured around an economic and industrial model based on new “large factories” and the organisational models of production as envisioned by Taylor and Ford, when Henry Ford mastered the moving assembly line and ushered in the age of mass production.

The first two industrial revolutions made many more people richer and more urban.

The 3rd Industrial Revolution came in the 1960s with the rise of electronics and personal telecommunications and computers. Nearly a century later, in the second half of the 20th century, a third industrial revolution appeared with the emergence of a new type of energy whose potential surpassed its predecessors: nuclear energy.

This revolution witnessed the rise of electronics, with the transistor and microprocessor, but also the rise of telecommunications and computers.

This new technology led to the production of miniaturised material which would open doors, most notably to space research and biotechnology. For industry, this revolution gave rise to the era of high-level automation in production thanks to two major inventions: automatons and robots.

Now the 4th Industrial Revolution well under way with the Internet. And such things as manufacturing are going digital.

This digitalisation enables us to build a new virtual world from which we can steer the physical world.

The first industrial revolution used water and steam to mechanise production, the second used electric energy to create mass production and the third used electronics and information technology to automate production. Today the fourth industrial revolution is underway which builds upon the third revolution and the digital revolution that has been taking place since the middle of the last century.

This fourth revolution with exponential expansion is characterised by merging technology that blurs the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres to completely uproot industries all over the world. The extent and depth of these changes are a sign of transformations to entire production, management and governance systems.

Now a number of remarkable technologies are converging: clever software, novel materials, more dexterous robots, new processes (notably three-dimensional printing) and a whole range of web-based services. The factory of the past was based on cranking out millions of identical products:

The factory of the future will focus on mass customisation, and may look more like those weavers' cottages than Ford's assembly line.

The industry of today and tomorrow aim to connect all production means to enable their interaction in real time. Factories 4.0 make communication among the different players and connected objects in a production line possible thanks to technology such as Cloud, Big Data Analytics and the Internet of Things.

This is the first industrial revolution rooted in a new technological phenomenon, digitalisation, rather than in the emergence of a new type of energy. This digitalisation enables us to build a new virtual world from which we can steer the physical world.

The industry of today and tomorrow aim to connect all production means to enable their interaction in real time. Factories 4.0 make communication among the different players and connected objects in a production line possible thanks to technology such as Cloud, Big Data Analytics and the Industrial Internet of Things.

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) applies Internet of Things technology to the industrial sector. The industrial Internet of Things encompasses machine learning (setting up algorithms to obtain predictive analyses) and Big Data by exploiting data sensors and machine to machine communication (between machines without human intervention), which have existed in the industrial sector for many years.

The IIoT is now unavoidable and will truly become an integral part of the future. Industries will be able to rely on and use smart objects to improve performance thanks to their numerous functions such as surveillance, control, optimisation and autonomy.

By integrating this new technology into plants, we will benefit from a plethora of advantages such as increased operational efficiency, improved risk and standard management, access to new economic models or even the possibility to generate new sources of income.

Thus, the 4.0 Factory will be ultra-connected and capable of producing more customised goods more efficiently. The Smart City will be fully developed with urban infrastructures such as subways, stadiums and buildings that communicate amongst themselves and with users.

Green Power will propel renewable energies and alternate energy sources to the forefront at the expense of traditional power sources so that everything can communicate via a smart grid. Connected cars will not only provide GPS and music streaming but will also communicate with road infrastructures and other vehicles and become practically independent.

The applications for the industrial sector are already enormous: predictive maintenance, improved decision-making in real time, anticipating inventory based on production, improved coordination among jobs, etc.

Day after day, all these improvements are gradually optimising production tools and revealing endless possibilities for the future of industry 4.0, the crossroads for an inter-connected global system.
However, this fourth industrial revolution could be the first to deviate from the energy-greed trend, in terms of non-renewable resources, because we have been integrating more and more possibilities to power our production processes with alternative resources.

Tomorrow, factories 4.0 will be embedded in smart cities and powered by wind, sun and geothermal energy.

Towards A Third Dimension

The old way of making things involved taking lots of parts and screwing or welding them together. Now a product can be designed on a computer and “printed” on a 3D printer, which creates a solid object by building up successive layers of material.

Yet like all revolutions, this one is disruptive.

Digital technology has already rocked the media and retailing industries, just as cotton mills crushed hand looms and the Model T put farriers out of work. Many people will look at the factories of the future and shudder. They will not be full of grimy machines manned by men in oily overalls.

The new factory focuses on mass customisation. Producing objects that specifically relates to particular buyer’s requirements and this is already taking place with some current production systems in Germany with Siemens.

Now the Digital Revolution representing the new Information Age signifying a radical change from mechanical, analog and into the digital technology cyberspace and its fundamental characteristics have changed dramatically over 30 years.

Today the concept of cyber is used to describe the systems and services directly or indirectly connected to the Internet, telecommunications, electronic, and computer networks.

Cyberspace can be visualised as an electronic nervous system running through many national and international sectors and systems.

Digital technology which has already significantly rocked the media and publishing industry. Publishing has been completely changed by digital technology and has allowed readers a far faster electronic engagement with issues, news and analysis.

It has threatened the commerciality of newspapers, books and magazines and considerably reduced the amount of overall print. The new process has given far more individuals a growing blogging space in which to add real and false news, comment and views globally.

With the face of the publishing industry set to change, it is digital technologies that emerge as one of the defining factors for future business.

Computer technology to create, sort and deliver electronic content that will engage and prove useful for the recipient is among the most important trends for the publishing industry between now and 2020 according to a recent study by Smithers Pira.

For television broadcasters the time-shifting function of watching a recorded programme means it is easy to skip advertisements. Advertisers are trying to develop alternative methods of delivering their message, some overt and some covert, using product placement and ambush advertising.

Smaller, more powerful mobile gadgets catch the public attention and there are armies of content providers broadening the range of applications for consumers. They represent a new and rapidly changing media challenge for publishers: how to supplement and earn revenue from these communication channels. However, as in all revolutions has a criminal down side and this needs all of our engaging attention.

Cyber Attacks & Fraud

The global experience of the past decade has largely been dominated by the emergence of a professional underground economy that provides scale, significant return-on-investment and entry points for criminals to turn a technical specialist crime into a global volume crime.

Cyberattacks on financial organisations in Russia, Central Asis and Eastern Europe by some of the most sophisticated cybercrime gangs in the world have targeted clients, digital channels and networks. The Russian-speaking underground economy is one of the most active globally, with hundreds of fora and tens of thousands of users.

Criminal groups exploit the margins of co-operation to conduct global campaigns, and their threat capacity is always adapting as groups work together in a borderless environment to combat technical defences. This has affected everywhere and currently  for instance Londoners are losing an average of £26 million a month in cyber-attacks on businesses and individuals.

About 3,500 victims of cyber fraud are recorded in London each month, with phishing emails, ransomware and malware the most common scams. Analysts suggest that about 73 per cent of frauds are carried out online, with many criminals based overseas, making it difficult for police in the UK to pursue a case. According to the Times, more than 230,000 criminal reports were submitted last year, but only about 24% of these were handed to police and the rest were dismissed. 

Nine Steps To Reduce Cybercrime

Information is Power, is certainly true when it comes to cybercrime. Access to your personal information is what gives hackers the power to tap into your accounts and steal your money or your identity.

But the right information can also empower you to protect yourself from being caught up in the thriving industry that is cybercrime.

The Top 9 steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim of cybercrime.

1)  Education - Hackers aren’t the only ones who can gain power from information. By educating yourself about the types of scams that exist on the Internet and how to avert them, you are putting yourself one step ahead of the cyber-criminals.

Since phishing is prevalent, read up on the latest phishing scams and learn how to recognise a phishing attempt. Remember, phishing is when hackers attempt to lure you into revealing personal information by pretending to be a legitimate organisation or person. These scams often play off major new stories, so keep informed on the latest news-related scams.

2)  Click with caution - When you’re checking your email or chatting over instant messenger (IM), be careful not to click on any links in messages from people you don’t know.

The link could take you to a fake website that asks for your private information, such as user names and passwords, or it could download malware onto your computer. Even if the message is from someone you know, be cautious. Some viruses replicate and spread through email, so look for information that indicates that the message is legitimate.

3)  Practice safe surfing - When navigating the web, you need to take precautions to avoid phony websites that ask for your personal information and pages that contain malware. Use a search engine to help you navigate to the correct web address since it will correct misspellings. That way, you won’t wind up on a fake page at a commonly misspelled address.

4)  Practice safe shopping - In addition to practising safe surfing, you also need to be careful where you shop online. Be cautious when shopping at a site that you’ve never visited before and do a little investigation before you enter your payment information. because this is another way to see if the site uses encryption.

When it comes time to pay, use a credit card instead of a debit card. If the site turns out to be fraudulent your credit card issuer may reimburse you for the charges, but with a debit card your money is gone.

Finally, evaluate the site’s security and privacy policies in regards to your personal data.

5)  Use comprehensive security software and keep your system updated - Because hackers have a wide variety of ways to access your system and information, you need comprehensive security software that can protect you from all angles. Just make sure that you keep your security software up to date by selecting the automatic update function on your security control panel. And don’t forget to perform regular security reviews. 

6)  Secure your wireless network - Hackers can access data while it’s in transit on an unsecured wireless network. You can keep the hackers out by enabling the firewall on your router and changing the router’s administrator password. Cyber-criminals often know the default passwords and they can use them to hack into your network.

7)  Use strong passwords - Although it may be easier for you to remember short passwords that reference your birthday, middle name, or pet’s name, these kinds of passwords also make it easy for hackers. Strong passwords can go a long way in helping secure your information, so choose a password that is at least 10 characters long and consists of a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. Also consider changing your password periodically to reduce the likelihood of it being compromised.

8)  Use common sense - Despite the warnings, cybercrime is increasing, fuelled by common mistakes people make such as responding to spam and downloading attachments from people they don’t know. So, use common sense whenever you’re on the Internet. Never post personal information online or share sensitive information such as your social security number and credit card number. Exercise caution when clicking on any links or downloading any programmes.

9) Be suspicious - Even if you consider yourself cyber savvy, you still need to keep your guard up for any new tricks and be proactive about your safety. Backup your data regularly in case anything goes wrong, and monitor your accounts and credit reports to make sure that a hacker has not stolen your information or identity. Although protecting yourself does take some effort, remember that there are a lot of resources and tools to help you. And by adopting a few precautions and best practices, you can help keep cyber-crime from growing.

Next Cyber Generation’s Future

The past decade is only the start of the global cyber security journey. New engagement is required as a new era will be empowered by new and emergent technology. A new generation of 5G networks will be the single most challenging issue for the cyber security landscape.

It is not just faster Internet; the design of 5G will mean that the world will enter into an era where, by 2025, 75 billion new devices will be connecting to the Internet every year, running critical applications and infrastructure at a thousand times faster than the current Internet speed.

References: 

WEF:   Gov.UK:   Iberdola:    University of Melbourne:    CNBC:    World Scientific:    Forbes:  

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