The Term "CYBERSPACE" was coined by William Gibson, a science-fiction writer. In the book Mr. Gibson describes cyberspace as "a consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators" and "a graphic representation of data abstracted from the banks of every computer in the human system." The myriad connections forged by these computing devices have brought tremendous benefits to everyone who uses the web to tap into humanity's collective store of knowledge every day. But data breaches are becoming ever bigger and more common. Last year over 800m records were lost. The potential damage, though, extends well beyond such commercial incursions. America's president, Barack Obama, said in a White House press release earlier this year that cyber-threats "pose one of the gravest national-security dangers" the country is facing. Securing cyberspace is becoming harder. Cyber-security, which involves protecting both data and people, is facing multiple threats, notably cybercrime and online industrial espionage, both of which are growing rapidly. A recent estimate by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CEIS), puts the annual global cost of digital crime and intellectual-property theft at $445 billion—a sum roughly equivalent to the GDP of a smallish rich European country such as Austria. There is also the risk of cyber-sabotage. Terrorists or agents of hostile powers could mount attacks on companies and systems that control vital parts of an economy, including power stations, electrical grids and communications networks. Such attacks are hard to pull off, but not impossible. The biggest day-to-day threats faced by companies and government agencies come from crooks and spooks hoping to steal financial data and trade secrets. One is to ensure that organizations get the basics of cyber-security right. There is also a need to provide incentives to improve cyber-security, be they carrots or sticks. Cyberspace is about to undergo another massive change. Over the next few years billions of new devices, from cars to household appliances and medical equipment, will be fitted with tiny computers that connect them to the web and make them more useful. But unless these systems have adequate security protection, the internet of things could easily become the internet of new things to be hacked. Plenty of people are eager to take advantage of any weaknesses they may spot. Hacking used to be about geeky college kids tapping away in their bedrooms to annoy their elders. It has grown up with a vengeance.