How Can We Bridge The Smart City Security Divide?
As you travel the world in 2018, you will notice two very different perspectives on smart cities.
On one side are thousands of stories, conferences and case studies advocating for smart cities in various channels. But if you flip the page and discuss smart cities within the cybersecurity community, the messages are much more negative. In fact, some are saying the sky is already falling. (I have previously noted that the RSA Conference in February was dominated by “hacking IoT” stories — including smart cities.)
In this debate, like so many others, both sides passionately believe what they are saying. And there isn’t much listening to the other side to get to a workable middle ground. Another trouble is that there are few mainstream media articles and virtually no conversations on the pros and cons of smart city developments or potential trade-offs with security. As a result, there is minimal movement towards delivering a roadmap for smart city security.
City planners, tech startups and innovators describe to city leaders in tantalizing detail the amazing opportunities that will come to innovative smart cities. Meanwhile, security pros tell scary hacking stories at security conferences and in technology and cyber magazines to other security pros. This is what makes answering the simple question of the significance of smart city security concerns so hard. They are of utmost significance to one camp and of seemingly little significance to the other.
What’s the answer? Can we bridge this smart city security divide – or not?
There are plenty of organizations that seem to be working on answers to secure smart cities.
For example: Securing Smart Cities at Securingsmartcities.org offers the promise to make smart cities cyber-safe. Their mission is to “help the world build smart cities with cybersecurity in mind.”
The web portal has well-written research, references relevant news articles and highlights various events. In particular, I really like some of their research pieces “Fooling the Smart City” and “(Ab)using Smart Cities.” This not-for-profit global initiative first appeared to be a near-perfect one-stop shop to solve problems. They include a long list of respected contributors, researchers and support organizations like IOActive, Kaspersky, the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA), Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT), the Center for Internet Security (CIS) and many others.
Other answers come from the United Nations, NIST and vendors. This presentation will offer case studies from Deloitte, Cisco, IBM and PwC on various aspects of securing smart cities.
This smart cities security presentation based upon research completed for two top-rated CSO Magazine articles: https://www.csoonline.com/article/3205764/internet-of-things/who-cares-about-smart-city-security.html and https://www.csoonline.com/article/3252844/internet-of-things/bridging-the-smart-cities-security-divide.html will be a lively, fresh perspective on difficult challenges facing the both the technology industries driving the Internet of Things as well as the Security Industry as a whole.
Both groups will be given a set of homework assignments and suggestions that can move the conversation forward and bridge the divide facing secure smart cities.
Desired Learning Outcomes
This session hopes to achieve the following goals:
- Educate the audience on the current state of smart city global initiatives.
- Show government funding and opportunities to engage smart city projects.
- Demonstrate ongoing security challenges with smart city projects, including recent data breach incidents.
- Begin to build the bridge between the two sides, by showing resources, research, articles and experts that are available to help.
Quick Abstract (for mobile app)
There is a fierce debate raging over smart city security, with one side fueling the hype while the other conjures nightmare scenarios. What can be done? Can we bridge the divide? Come learn more.
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