Have you ever wondered what life might look like at the end of the decade?

How will we socialise? How will we consume goods and services? How will technology influence our lives and what might happen if the bad guys do their worst?

Today sees the launch of episode 3, “We Didn’t See It Coming”, where a police SWAT team bursts into the home of Kinuko, a young digital native and programmer.

The cops interrogate her, believing the code she signed and delivered was responsible for taking down The Switch. Meanwhile, documentary footage shows the extent of the massive cyber attack on South Sylvania.

All financial transactions are cancelled by the ‘Banking Union’ until The Switch can be brought back online – but in a cashless society, this means people will be unable to pay for basic groceries…

Now, of course Trend Micro isn’t saying such a situation will definitely befall us come 2020, but it’s important that we all start thinking about our cyber future so we can better prepare against such possibilities.

In a world so fully reliant on digital channels for communicating, interacting with the government and consuming goods and services, what happens if the bad guys manage to interfere?

In a world where the internet of everything has finally been realised, where billions of inter-connected sensors across the globe enable richer and more comfortable lives for us all, what happens when it all comes crashing down?

Project 2020

This innovative series of web videos is based on a white paper produced by Trend Micro and Europol for the not-for-profit International Cyber Security Protection Alliance.

The idea was to bring to life the issues described in the research in an engaging and dynamic way, which will help to broaden the debate to reach all walks of life.

At Trend Micro we work day and night to provide the vital 3 C’s of cyber security: complete end-user protection, cloud and data center security; and cyber security defenses.

Our ability to continue doing so as threats morph over the next decade depends on a proactive, forward-looking approach company wide.

Protecting data in the cloud; capturing threats at a network level to secure the evolving internet of everything; and creating user-centric security which protects data and privacy as individuals jump between networks and profiles, are already a major priority for Trend Micro.

Hopefully with Project 2020 we can all think a little more clearly about our cyber future and where the next major threats may come from. Each episode is only a few short minutes so click through today to follow the story so far.

Check out Episode 3 below:

To watch Episode 1 click here

To watch Episode 2 click here

By Rik Ferguson – VP Security Research – Trend Micro