Cybersecurity for Smart Cities: A Brief Review

ICT, or information and communications technology, continually improves, and as time passes we are more able to take advantage of these advancements to implement Smart Cities. However, as these Smart Cities rely on technology, it becomes increasingly important for us to consider the cybersecurity consequences of this reliance, and ways in which we can combat them. As such there are certain measures we must take the ensure no one can take over things like traffic lights, speeding cameras, and so on.

There is a developed checklist of things a Smart City operator must consider when considering the security of their city. This includes things like regularly checking for proper encryption, authentication, and authorization to ensure there is still consistency in how the system works. It also includes asking all companies the government uses to provide transparent security updates, and the expectation that they will provide all-day lookouts for security breaches. However, there is no such thing as 100% protection, so the checklist has items that account for when a breach inevitably happens. It includes things like implementing fail safes and manual overrides for when it needs to be manually taken over by a trusted operator, and making sure Smart City workers are aware of procedures to take in cases of security breaches.