The biggest hack in history dates back to 1834. And it was organized in France by two eccentric financial speculators. It was only the first of a long series… In 1792, a remote communication system was in use based on mechanical beacons, usually placed on the top of hills or towers. It was the optical telegraph, invented by Claude Chappe, very popular in the 800: in each station, several kilometers away from the previous one, an attendant equipped with a telescope observed the positions of three wooden rulers and repeated them at the next station. In a few hours an encrypted message (the users themselves did not know the codes) could cross France.

The two brothers Francois and Joseph Blanc, head of a Bordeaux investment firm, found a way to break into the government network by having a code entered (thanks to a consenting operator at the Tours telegraph office) when there were considerable fluctuations on the Paris Stock Exchange. A code phrase such as “error-delete last transmitted symbol” meant that government bond yields had increased by 3% gaining a five- day advantage over what other operators would have known with the arrival of the information officers through postal diligence.

According to The Economist, this episode is useful for understanding modern attacks on communication systems.

Man has continued to work and invest to improve the defense system of corporate networks, to make data more secure by protecting them from any misuse. In this regard, the network security system has become a significant investment sector, large capital is now used for this. Information security is, in fact, a fundamental part of planning the development of networks.

Through the use of computer viruses, hackers aim to demonstrate the poor security of the network and test defense systems, pushing them more and more towards very complicated protection algorithms, sometimes without considering the devastating consequences that the spread of viruses can cause.

Similarly, viral pandemics, such as the one we are experiencing, question all our security systems. In a global and interconnected world, not only the immune system is severely tested but it also transforms our way of life, social and economic behavior.

In both cases, the cure for viruses, whether of a computer or microbiological nature, is the same: isolation. But, paradoxically, if the computer has to disconnect from the network losing all its usefulness, the isolated person must connect to the network while continuing to contribute to the economic and social system; that is, his feeling of being a socially integrated individual depends on his Internet connection, the potential and strategic nature of which are now evident to most.

Looking at companies and their organization of work, we see that not all of them have been able to react in the same way, limiting the damage resulting from the pandemic. In recent years, many production areas have not paid the right attention and financial support aimed at bridging the technological and digital backwardness, leaving many production processes in traditional mode.

The digital transformation must impact on the production and resource organization chains to have back-up, efficiency and optimization plans as defense systems to avoid collapse. Huge capital is therefore required to create a defense system capable of preserving productivity. A development plan starting from companies and their digitization must face a careful analysis of the sectors to which business continuity has to be primarily guaranteed due to their strategic importance and the impact on the national economic system.

The first opportunity is exactly the recovery plan whose guidelines go in the direction of protecting the future of the country by investing in:

Digitization and innovation

Green revolution and ecological transition

Infrastructure for mobility

Education and training

Territorial equity

Health

The Internet is in fact the glue, the aggregation platform, the connection network for all, whose development satisfies many of the targets of environmental sustainability and equity.

There is no doubt about the technological evolutions that the network will have, nor that the network must remain neutral, safe and available for all. The role of MIX and IXPs is that of privileged actors and sentinels of change and, today more than ever, we feel the institutional responsibility to be present. MIX is and will be at the forefront with Italian telecommunications players to ensure the sustainability of the change underway.

Many ideas that look forward and which will be discussed at the MIX Salotto 2020 with authoritative representatives of the institutional and industrial world.

“Computers are incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid; humans are incredibly slow, inaccurate, and brilliant; together they are powerful beyond imagination“.

Albert Einstein