Rethinking Cybernetics: Why and How

Editor’s note: Please see a French version of this blog post below the English version.

The article “Rethinking Cybernetics,” published in volume 2, 2024, of the ISACA Journal, arrives at a crucial moment in the development of technology. The article proposes a radical approach in the way information systems will be designed, programmed and interconnected. While relying on the “classic” tools that have so far proven themselves in the prodigious evolution of technology, the article gives a glimpse of how these tools could evolve to respond to the technological problems of the future.

Indeed, it is not enough to resolve, in the short and medium term, the security problems that will arise from the advent of the quantum computer; we must, at all costs, prevent the computer of the future from falling back into the nightmares of the present. The article aims to show us:

1. How to find the appropriate response to the quantum threat
2. Why a new starting point is mandatory, so we no longer fall into the trap of past mistakes

This starting point will be, firstly, to create a new conceptual machine, “a new Turing machine,” and, thus, to draw on the extraordinary advances in cutting-edge fields such as photonics, 5G and AI to build new algorithms, new circuits and new components likely to operate according to the requirements of this new Turing machine.

Why is a new Turing machine mandatory?

In the past, when mainframes lived in refrigerated and protected rooms, where only experienced and responsible people handled the machines, security was not a priority issue. We used the machine for its computing power and its ability to help us solve urgent problems whose solutions would sometimes have taken decades otherwise. The very idea of distorting the machine had not occurred to anyone. The proof? The first real problem in computing was not caused by humans but by insects (bugs).

But eventually people began to unleash malicious intent. Nowadays, it seems that computers create as many problems as they solve. It is this observation that pushes us today to, firmly, recommend the design of a new Turing machine.

This completely revolutionary approach is the only one capable of solving the crucial problems of cybersecurity. It will also allow the information systems (IS) of the future to definitively divorce themselves from the nightmarish situations that we face daily, such as disinformation, identity theft, scams and counterfeiting. The article presents new foundations that will constitute the basis of the technology of the future:

• A virtual “alter ego” capable of allowing us to carry out the most critical operations concerning us
• Multi-code processors making the physical layer (the layer 1 OSI model) the starting point for data security
• The isolation of information systems by default to put an end to the propagation of zero-day attacks.

French version:

Repenser la Cybernétique: Pourquoi et Comment ?

L’article Repenser la Cybernétique, publié dans le volume 2, 2024 de ISACA-Journal, arrive à un moment crucial du développement de la Technologie. Pour couper court, il s’agit de savoir :

1. Comment trouver la parade adéquate à la menace quantique?
2. Pourquoi un nouveau départ est-il nécessaire afin de ne plus retomber dans le piège des erreurs du passé?

Pour cela, le point de départ sera, d’une part, de créer une nouvelle machine conceptuelle, une nouvelle « machine de TURING » et, d’autre part, de puiser dans les avancées extraordinaires dans les domaines de pointes comme la photonique, la 5G ou l’IA pour construire de nouveaux algorithmes, de nouveaux circuits, de nouveaux composants susceptibles de fonctionner suivant les exigences de cette nouvelle machine de TURING. Cette approche, tout à fait révolutionnaire, est la seule susceptible de résoudre les problèmes actuels en Cybersécurité. Elle permettra aussi aux systèmes d’information (SI) du futur de divorcer définitivement d’avec les situations cauchemardesques auxquelles nous sommes quotidiennement confrontés: la désinformation, le vol d’identité, les arnaques, la contrefaçon. L’article présente cinq nouvelles voies qui constitueront le socle de la Technologie du futur:

• Un « Alter Ego » virtuel apte à nous permettre d’exécuter les opérations les plus critiques nous concernant
• Des processeurs multi-codes permettant de faire de la couche physique (la couche 1) le point de départ de la sécurité des données
• L’isolation des SI par défaut pour en finir avec la propagation des attaques de type 0-day.