Courtesy: Trust over IP foundation (Introduction to ToIP v2 whitepaper), contribution by Vikas Malhotra (Founder & CEO at WOPLLI)

In his groundbreaking series of essays published in 2004 called The Laws of Identity, Kim Cameron—Microsoft’s Chief Architect for Identity from 2004 to 2019—said:

The Internet was built without a way to know who and what you are connecting to. This limits what we can do with it and exposes us to growing dangers. If we do nothing, we will face rapidly proliferating episodes of theft and deception that will cumulatively erode public trust in the Internet.

Kim’s prophecy has come frighteningly true despite 20 years of collective work trying to solve these problems. The onslaught of reports and statistics about the breakdowns in digital trust has become mind-numbing. Following is just a sampling. 

Digital Trust Statistics

Passwords

• Regular Internet users have an average of 85 passwords for all their accounts. (Cnet, 2020) 
• The most commonly used password in the world remains 123456 followed by 123456789, qwerty, password, and 12345. (Cybernews, 2021)
• 80% of all hacking incidents are caused by stolen and reused login information. (Verizon, 2020)

Phishing

• As of 2020, phishing is by far the most common attack performed by cyber-criminals, with the U.S. FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Centre recording over twice as many incidents of phishing than any other type of computer crime. (FBI Internet Crime Complaint Centre, 2021)
• Google has registered 2,145,013 phishing sites as of Jan 17, 2021. This is up from 1,690,000 on Jan 19, 2020 (up 27% over 12 months). (Tessian, 2021)

Data Breaches

• There were 1,767 publicly reported data breaches in the first six months of 2021, which exposed a total of 18.8 billion records. (Risk Based Security, 2021)
• Over 90% of all healthcare organizations reported at least one security breach in the last three years. 61% acknowledged they don't have effective mechanisms to maintain proper cybersecurity. (Frost Radar, 2020)
• In 2020 the average cost of a corporate data breach was $3.86 million. (Dice.com, 2020)

Privacy Erosion and Surveillance Capitalism

• 82% of web traffic contains Google third-party scripts and almost half of them are tracking users. (WhoTracks.Me, 2019)
• 74% of Internet users feel they have no control over the personal information collected on them. (Ponemon Institute, 2020)
• 72% of Americans report feeling that all, almost all, or most of what they do online or while using their cellphone is being tracked by advertisers, technology firms or other companies. (Pew Research Center, 2019)

Misinformation and Unverified Sources

• In 2020, only 29% of US adults said they mostly trust the news media. (Statista, 2020)
• In Q3 of 2020, there were 1.8 billion fake news engagements on Facebook. (German Marshall Fund, 2020)
• 56% of Facebook users can’t recognize fake news when it aligns with their beliefs. (SSRN, 2018)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Dangers

• 62% of the companies adopting AI are extremely concerned that it will increase their cybersecurity vulnerabilities; 57% are concerned about the consequences of their AI systems using personal data without consent. (Deloitte, State of AI in the Enterprise, 2020)
• 93% of automation technologists feel unprepared or only partially prepared to tackle the challenges associated with smart machine technologies. (Forrester, 2016)
• Only 36% of AI adopters are establishing policies or a board to guide AI ethics. (Harvard Kennedy School, 2019)
• The EU has drafted an Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA) specifically addressing transparency, privacy and security in the use of AI.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is beginning development of an AI Risk Management Framework (RMF) to guide AI adoption for US federal agencies (where none currently exists).

Additionally, the digital environments have not been resilient, causing failures in service (cloud) access by many customers in 2021.

OTHER

A Decentralized Approach towards Responsible AI in Social Ecosystems | Proceedings of the International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media | by Wenjing Chu

How the metaverse will create new forms of fraud and deception (bigthink.com) by Louis Rosenberg in Sep 2022

Privacy in our Digital Lives: Promoting Privacy and Promoting Innovation The White House in January 2017

The EU takes on Big Tech with landmark legislative package | E&T Magazine (theiet.org) - Aug 2022

Autonomous Vehicles: Cyber-Physical Risk on a Massive Scale - IEEE Transmitter in Aug 2022

Concerned About Privacy on the Internet? Here's How to Avoid a Digital Trail (entrepreneur.com) by Rajvardhan Oak in July 2022

The Three Models of Digital Identity Relationships | by Timothy Ruff | Evernym | Medium by Timothy Ruff in April 2018

Chicago expands and activates quantum network, taking steps toward a secure quantum internet | University of Chicago News (uchicago.edu) by Chicago University in June 2022

SP 800-160 Vol. 1 Rev. 1 (Draft), Engineering Trustworthy Secure Systems | CSRC (nist.gov) by NIST in June 2022