Securing Smart City Infrastructure

With the promise of improved citizen services and more efficient use of scarce resources, the smart city trend is picking up momentum across the globe. A "smart city" integrates technology with critical infrastructure components and services to make urban development more intelligent, interconnected, and efficient. At least seven core infrastructure components and services make up a smart city: healthcare; education; real estate; transportation; utilities; city administration; and public safety. Tangible examples of smarter infrastructure include smart power grids and buildings. Some of the technologies used to enable smart infrastructure include the pervasive use of sensors, radio frequency identification (RFID), IP-based communication, and location-based networks combined with analytics to predict outcomes and behavior. There are many security and privacy concerns in a smart infrastructure, and threat vectors will increase nonlinearly as systems rely on other systems to connect physical and IT infrastructure. Security professionals must insist that security be an early consideration and design point in every phase of a smart infrastructure deployment.