Security Concerns

This is a list of possible security threats that a solution looking for contact tracing will probably face or create. As a first principle on security you must assume this list is not comprehensive.

• Mass surveillance: A tool instituted for the following the coronavirus or other infectious diseases can be used by governments, local or foreign, by the simple act of marking contacts a governments can do lawful and unlawful data correlation of individuals. If positional data is added to the mix it can turn into a weapon for those in power to do press suppression , protest control, follow political opponents,etc. The contact trace tool can also help to "normalize" the use of this kinds of tool, under the guise of public health necessity.

• Individual surveillance: Give this tools keeps a history of person physical proximity contacts and probably geolocations different governments entities and police enforcement, companies or individuals could try to use this data a way to pinpoint where a person has been and what people are nearby. An schema where static beacons are put in strategic locations can help to trace people with great precision, even if geolocation data is not captured by the application. If other medical information is contained in the application, like comorbidities, this information can be used to extort or shame targeted individuals.

• Hard identification tool complement: Countries are already deploying hard ID tools that correlate the identity of the individual with biometric, token and behavioral based data. Even if this tools keeps the privacy concern in check, it can be used in conjunction with the other tools to give a better picture of an individual.

• Commercial exploitation. One of the principles of the application is to broadcast identity in proximity. Many commercial scenarios could be made to exploit this kind of information in order to gain knowledge of consumer identity, preference and behaviors with or without consent.

• Foreign actors. Given the current climate of cyber threats, a foreign actor can infiltrate the activities of a target nation by tapping in the information contained in the tracing application. If personal or location information is stored or inferred, the foreign actors can create a precise routes of the movements and activities of key assets inside and outside their borders. Geopolitical motivations can also make foreign actor to publish real or manipulated data in order to paint certain picture of the target country or region. Another scenario could be made for an actor to take down this application in a country in order to cripple their response to the pandemic.

• False information. Given that this application is a recipient of public information health related to the lives and actions of the population, an exploit can be generated by altering the information generated by this application. The scenario can include creating, manipulating or suppressing the data generated by the application. Both self report and health authority reporting can be subject to falsification and tampering. From bad taste pranks by creating false reports of infection, attempt to create mass hysteria by filling massive amounts of reports, to bad faith actors tampering the trace information to avoid public health measures like quarantine can be subject to this category.

• Attack vector Even if the application data is not exploited by itself, the massive spread of this application can create an attack vector for malware.The surface of attack could include the proximity protocol used, storage methods and information transmission channels. Few applications reach the amount of installation this tool require to be an effective method of combating the pandemic, and like those application it will be subject to constant security threats. Paradoxically a created for combating a real virus could help to spread virtual virus.

• Rule enforcing tool If this tool propagates information of the health of individuals, it can be used to enforce arbitrary restriction on target populations. Combined with the false information threat, this could mean legitimize the restriction on segments or the population or individuals. Since the coronavirus quarantine impose medical isolation and health risks to the individual suspected or confirmed with the virus, this could be used as an excuse to separate or even kill individual people, under the pretense of a public health need.