How security will look in 10 years

...will be keeping track of it. Parts of the internet will act in a similar way to The Onion Router, or Tor, but on a larger scale.

This shift is good news from a privacy perspective, but it could become almost impossible to track traffic. Security experts already have problems attributing attacks such as denial of service, because the computers in the botnets launching them are controlled by unknown agents. Mesh networks could magnify this problem.

However, mesh in the UK may be scuppered by the Digital Economy Bill, because the former would blur the divide between internet provider and subscriber. Internet providers have a legal obligation to keep a record of traffic flowing across their network, which would be beyond the means of most people.

6. Mobile botnets
As internet-enabled devices become more common, they will bring more opportunities for cybercriminals. Botnets, which are legions of compromised computers, are used to launch denial-of-service attacks, to send spam and to offer bulletproof hosting for unsavoury sites.

With the recent compromise of the iPhone, it is not impossible that mobile devices such as smartphones could be harnessed to do a criminal's bidding.

7. Super-fast broadband
With the government pledging to provide at least 2Mbps download speeds for every citizen, and fibre being laid to provide this performance, super-fast broadband is well within reach.

However, just as increased download speeds will bring opportunities for firms to conduct a larger volume of business, it will offer the same opportunities for cybercriminals.

8. DNSSEC
The internet's addressing system, the domain name system (DNS), has gaping flaws, as publicised by security researcher Dan Kaminsky. It is possible to poison the cache of a name server so when a computer requests a lookup for a legitimate site, it is sent to a malicious one.

However, there is a secure DNS protocol called DNSSEC. VeriSign, a company that operates one of the servers at the root of the internet, recently announced that it would sign the root with DNSSEC.

I hope this initiative will be copied by the other organisations that control root servers, and DNSSEC will be rolled out over the whole internet. This measure would completely nullify the DNS cache poisoning vulnerability.

9. IPv6
Internet protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the successor to IPv4, an internet layer protocol for packet-switched networks. IPv6, which is necessary due to IPv4 address exhaustion, will seriously improve internet security. IPv6 implements IPsec, which authenticates and encrypts each packet in a data stream — any intercepted data would be encrypted.

10. Cyber warfare and industrial espionage
A number of countries, including the UK, are developing cyber attack and defence capabilities. The government has said it would only launch a cyberattack in the greatest need, but you can bet that the people at the UK Cyber Security Operations Centre will have the capability both to break into networks, and defend them.

Foreign countries will also have this capability, raising the possibility of large-scale industrial espionage.