A Glance into the Future: The Security and Privacy Challenges (Cyber Attacks) of Smart Cities and How to Overcome Them
Smart cities are already prevalent throughout the world. With various data, algorithms, and sensors, urban centers are optimizing functionality to improve the lives of the inhabitants. With smart city technology, you can interact and live without the hassles. That makes the cities more efficient, reduces resources, offers more services, and much more.
The push for smart city integration is inevitable. Companies use data in every facet of their business. Therefore, it’s just a matter of time before the world governments embrace this approach and apply those technologies in everyday life.
Despite the many advantages that come from a smart city, there are many cautions to consider, too. There’s tons of personal information collected from citizens on their mobile device options. This brings up the risk of privacy issues and cybersecurity problems.
What Is a Smart City?
The exact definition of the smart city is blurred because there are various technologies and approaches considered to be smart. In a sense, they’re cities that leverage IoT to optimize functions. This is especially true when collecting information from a user’s device, analyzing it with algorithms, and using it in various ways.
They want to take advantage of the latest developments in technology along with data insights. This approach can improve the lives of everyone, boost efficiency and productivity, cut back on consumption of energy resources, enhance adaptability, reduce costs, and more.
In fact, the UN has estimated that two-thirds of the entire population should be living in cities by 2050, which is up from about half in previous years.
Though the benefits are plentiful, there are various concerns about smart cities. These include cyber security attacks, data breaches, and infrastructure problems.
What Are the Four Types of Cyber Attacks?
There are primarily four types of cyber-attack including:
- Malware attack
- Phishing and Spear Phishing attacks
- Credential stuffing
- Brute-force attacks
Cyber security focuses on all of those, and an intelligence service is essential to protect the cities. However, this requires each city to have plenty of security officers within the network and infrastructure. These people are always connected to the resources of the city, and therefore, they must be trustworthy.
How Does a Cyber Attack Happen?
In a sense, cyber attacks happen when cybercriminals try gaining access to electronic data illegally, which is stored in a network or computer infrastructure. They are often successful in gaining information without proper authorization. The information they get can include passwords, Social Security numbers, and other data.
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Smart City?
There are various economic and practical benefits of smart digital technologies and smart cities. However, there are also concerns. Here are some of the advantages:
- Ability to make data-based decisions effectively
- Better transportation services
- Safer communities
- Efficient public services
- Reduction of the city’s environmental footprint
- Increase digital equity
- New economic development options
- Infrastructure improvement
With that, though, come a few disadvantages:
- Limited privacy – There are intelligence systems and digital security cameras everywhere, so anonymity is challenging.
- Social control – With the ability to centralize and track data, the person handling that information has more power. If in the wrong hands, it can be used for manipulation and control.
- Excess network trust – You must put the entire city on networks and electronics, so they are always connected.
What Are the Potential Cyber Security Challenges Faced in Securing Smart Cities?
City administrators are tempted by the possibility of controlling and monitoring processes and assets remotely throughout their districts. This means they’re already implementing smart technologies throughout a wide host of services. These include utilities, traffic control, transportation, and street lighting.
However, with more connectivity comes the greater risk of a successful cyber attack on the city’s electricity grid. That could knock out power to the entire area for an extended period. With that, companies can’t operate, residents don’t have heating, cooking facilities, and lighting, and much more.
Plus, IoT (Internet of Things) sensors are often used in these smart cities to notify refuse collectors to pick up trash. Those are taken down because there’s no electricity. The result is that trash piles up, creating a significant public health risk.
On top of the physical impact of the cyber attack, such systems must run on huge amounts of data. This is another tempting target for would-be thieves.
Again, a smart city must be connected at all times, so information gets where it needs to go. The easiest way to do that is through the IoT and other network solutions. They can facilitate rapid communication between servers, data-collecting devices, and their points of action.
Data is sent to central servers to make decisions or to other smart mobile devices that can influence the actions. In a sense, it’s like the body’s physical nerves, which directs information where it must go.
In a sense, the information is all stored on the cloud, which is highly secure. However, that doesn’t mean cybersecurity is easy. Hackers can still get into these systems and affect other related software. Sometimes, they do that with no one knowing, including the government.
With that, there are various data streams coming together to tell people what’s going on in the city. Real-time data is combined with historical information to make better decisions. This can include local traffic and much more. Relevant info is fed into algorithms to decide on the right action with human operatives available, too.
Ultimately, this approach can offer solutions to various problems and enhance things. Cities figure out the best time for traffic lights to turn green or when streetlights should brighten up because people walk by.
Risks
The smart city does have risks, even though the benefits and improvements that technology brings are beneficial. The most prominent concern is cybersecurity, especially if a malfunction or attack causes a full system failure or a large-scale data breach.
Hacker Attacks and Failures
Smart cities often combine various aspects that make them vulnerable. They’re centralized, so integration is key, and they’re connected to the internet. Such online access gives a window of opportunity to attackers, who can access those vital systems and services. Integration and centralization open up the door to do significant damage to the infrastructure, even when it’s in the cloud.
In the past, those system options were usually offline, and the infrastructure (power grids) were localized, so it was almost impossible to cause a mass destruction without widespread violence or invasion.
Though hackers could infiltrate one power plant, it wasn’t a widespread threat to the existence of the city, and now it is. These malicious threats focus primarily on integration, which means more services and infrastructure are opened up for attack. What’s more, hackers don’t have to be in the same country to hurt a business through computers.
Such attacks can come from sophisticated gangs, but the biggest threat is actually from nation-state groups that want to stop everything and cause disruptions related to the city and local government.
