Page 182 - Trust in ICT 2017

3 Trust in ICT

In the networked society, knowledge is a source of all human being including behaviours and building a
society. The networking of knowledge and the speeding up of information processing open up new
possibilities for work on databases, irrespective of their size, their use and their ultimate purpose. The current
Internet as a public network gives fresh opportunities to achieve equal and universal access to knowledge.
Like Internet, new ICTs have created for emergence of knowledge societies [b-UNESCO]. Future knowledge
societies will be built on the basis of ICT infrastructures since it is not only for delivery of digital data, but also
provides the eco-platform to share data, information, and knowledge.

Accordingly, as a top level standard organization relating to ICTs as well as the United Nations agency, the
ITU should concern about future knowledge societies.

5.2 Potential risks in ICT infrastructures
Knowledge societies will have to cope with instability and insecurity since the accelerated spread of
knowledge will be confronted with risks in ICT infrastructures. There are many potential risks in ICT
infrastructures as follows.
• In nature
 New technology development: Any scientific progress and technology development may incur
potential risks. New technologies may not be stable without guarantee of stability and
reliability. Without acceptable confidence, it may cause unexpected accident and destroy the
existing value chain of business. The development of new technologies may be sometimes
undesirable if the certain levels of controllability and credibility are not guaranteed.
Furthermore, the adaptation of new technologies may cause instability and insecurity since new
technologies always have uncertainty. In the ICT infrastructure, new technological revolution
may provide great advantages for utilizing networking resources. However, it confronts
unidentified risk beforehand.

• Human behaviours
 Human-human interactions: If there is no trust among peoples, their interactions (e.g.,
exchanging data and information) have meaningless due to lack of confidence with each other.
If the people are not trustworthy, personal interactions do not invoke any response. The unclear
decision making or unrealistic situation may be happening from low or broken trust in human
relationships.
 Human-machine interactions: When a human cannot trust a machine (e.g., delivering
imprecise data from a machine to a human), human-machine interactions cannot be
established and potential benefits on system performance will be lost. The human-machine
systems have always proved unpredictable and fallible, whereas the nature of the system is to
function normally. It relies on technological dependency which accentuates risks.
 Human interactions in cyber-physical system (CPS) environments: The CPS cannot be fully
operable if a physical world and a cyber world have some mismatch. If the malfunction of a
physical system does not notify at the responsible entities in a cyber world, there are some risks
to prevent safety in a physical world. An intelligent human in a cyber world can avoid or reduce
the risk of failures and minimize the unacceptable situation in a physical world. The time critical
convergence applications such as smart grid and intelligent transportation systems require high
trust between a cyber world and a physical world. Greater openness, in combination with hiding
one’s real identity in a physical world and making a false object in a cyber world, increases the
risks that people are becoming victims of deception. They also include identity theft and
exposure to inappropriate actions.
 Human errors: Without recognizing a set of rules and external conditions of a physical system,
human actions may result on risks or failures. Human errors may be a primary cause or a
contributing factor in risks and accidents. Intentional or unintentional human errors may
cause serious problems in ICT infrastructures.

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