Cyber Ikigai 1

There are two recent developments that prompted me to write this book. The first one goes like this: on a Sunday morning a few months ago, my good friend called me in panic. He has just completed his post graduation in psychiatry. He informed me earnestly: “I have just got bail”. Bail from a digital arrest. He was under arrest and ‘kept in custody’-in front of a camera for long three days. He has paid Rs. 50,000/- and secured bail. Why he called me was to ensure the people who spoke to him were real. I told him they must be conmen, and they have duped him. He took some time to realise that it was a well choreographed, high end, drama. A trained psychiatrist falling prey for digital hypnotism surprised me no end. After this incident, there were many more similar cases that were brought to my attention by friends or relatives.

Their responses varied. A few of them had disconnected the call when the fraudsters asked them to switch over to a video call. Some paid money but immediately reported to authorities and got the accounts of the fraudster frozen through an innovative mechanism authorities in India have put in place. Some are still struggling to retrieve the amount lost. But there is a common thread running through these stories: The educated, or even the highly educated, did not display any special skills in warding off the fraudsters. But a few of the not-so-well educated quickly identified the fraud and escaped the net.

Now, the second one. When India introduced the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) on a massive scale, I was sceptical. Assuming there can be glitches at the level of devices or networks, especially the data connectivity. I was also concerned about the possibility of accidents or attacks on the cloud resources or the software backbone that supports its integration. But nothing happened. This proved sceptic inside me wrong. In a matter of three years, UPI turned out to be a roaring success. The device, the network, the cloud, the entire integration performed exceedingly well, and India set an example to the world. Yet, surprisingly the users, the human interface proved to be the most ill-equipped part of the entire edifice. The preferred attack surface of the fraudsters quickly became the user’s emotional and cognitive vulnerabilities. Whereas creating the ring of safety around the cloud, network and devices proved successful, the users kept committing mistakes.

The lessons are worth summarising: Human beings are probably the weakest link in the man- machine-network-cloud continuum that makes up the cyberspace: Being educated is no guarantee that one’s cyber-life is secure. And that the real challenge is perhaps not some sort of technical cyber security, but rewiring the attitudes habits and norms that dictate the behaviour of the human being in the cyberspace.
 Hence, if cyberspace has to be a safe space, two projects need to be undertaken. The first project, of cybersecurity, is protecting the machines and the material matrix that host the cyberspace, and this has been underway for some time now and is slowly succeeding. The second, which has barely started, is the project of configuring the human brain, human bodies, human relations and the human will, for living a good cyber-life. The species homo sapiens will have to adapt to the new world to which they are now hooked to. They have to educate themselves anew with new knowledge, new skills, and perhaps with new attitudes. In short, a whole new cyber sensorium has to develop in the human beings. What this entails is a bit of rewiring of human beings as well as their cognitive, emotional, normative, social and political existence.

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