The holidays are here, and the news media is all a flutter about Amazon.com. Cyber Monday has of course beat Black Friday once again, and since this has been old news for at least the past 5 years someone decided it was time to change the subject to something else.
Enter: Amazon Delivery Drones
This past week, Bezos and Co. set the media aflare with the hot new topic of drones. The general idea has been around in science fiction for nearly a century, but now the Amazon CEO is insisting that specialized delivery drones are an imminent reality. Pundits the world around have responded with the usual slew of criticism, asking aloud how the government will regulate it, if it is technologically feasible, and, most importantly, whether it is safe.
No one can answer any of these questions with certainty, and in fact no one but Bezos himself actually knows whether Amazon has actually begun to develop this drone-technology or not. In fact, for all we know, it’s just an ingenious PR stunt, engineered to bolster holiday sales. Despite of all this, however, we here at Emsisoft have one important question that remains as yet unasked:
What will a future with drones mean for the future of antivirus software?
Naturally, any conversation about drones involves the topic of air safety. A drone that can deliver a package to your doorstep could just as easily deliver a bomb. Or it could monitor you from an unobservable height and give its operator all the behavioral details they would ever need to know to steal your identity.
If drones become a reality, they will be heavily regulated. This will necessarily include regulation of their software and measures to prevent it from being hacked. Even the most benign of drones could become malicious if hijacked by a programmer with malintent. Drones of the future will therefore require some sort antivirus software, just as personal computers do today.
Which of course brings us to a second consideration:
Will drones become personalized?
As far as we can tell, the answer is yes. That is, i.f.f. drones are developed commercially. If drones are developed commercially, it will only be a matter of time before they are developed for personal use. That’s how it went with computers, and that’s usually how it goes with anything else consumer tech.
Perhaps even more than commercial delivery drones, personal drones will require quality antivirus software. Large corporations like Amazon will stand to loose quite a bit if their delivery drones malfunction, and you can be sure that if they are developed they will likely be impenetrable. But personalized drones won’t be nearly as robust, and if they are to be legalized they will likely require an antivirus software and perhaps also an operating license.
Which brings us to a third consideration: ^ Shouldn’t those be requirements to operate a PC? ;)
…In any event, we’re excited about the future of antimalware, and already dreaming of Emsisoft 2023: Fully Optimized for a Secure PD (Personal Drone) Experience.
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