BERLIN: Worried about hackers posting your Fitbit data to the dark web, revealing those average 4-minute kilometre runs you've been humblebragging about to be more like 4:25, 4:30?

Or worse still, state-sponsored cyber-terrorists disrupting health-related "smart" gadgets such as Granny's pacemaker – Internet-enabled to allow for "real time" remote heart tracking by her local hospital.

A team of US-based computer scientists has sought to allay such concerns by developing a blueprint to protect "even the smallest of networked electronic devices" from interference.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) "newly finalised lightweight cryptography standard" defends against cyberattacks targeting Internet-connected small electronic devices such as RFID tags and medical implants.

The idea is to better protect the vast troves of personal and health data that are "transmitted by the billions of devices that form the Internet of Things," according to NIST.

"We encourage the use of this new lightweight cryptography standard wherever resource constraints have hindered the adoption of cryptography," says NIST’s Kerry McKay. The new standard “will benefit industries that build devices ranging from smart home appliances to car-mounted toll registers to medical implants," she says.

"One thing these electronics have in common is the need to fine-tune the amount of energy, time and space it takes to do cryptography," McKay says, adding that the NIST team aimed to come up with "a standard that can be easily followed and implemented."

Cyber-security company CrowdStrike recently warned that the "growing weaponisation" of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) could make older forms of cyber-security and virus scanning obsolete.

Scams and hacking, which were previously the preserve of syndicates with money and know-how, could become much more prevalent as smaller-scale operators use AI to develop viruses, CrowdStrike says. – dpa