It's been exactly one year since the launch of the Securing Smart Cities alliance, the global non-profit initiative that aims to raise awareness and solve current and future digital security issues facing "smart cities".
Since then, the community supporting the initiative has tripled, now counting over 30 digital security experts from around the world. In addition, the number of organizations supporting the alliance has increased from four to fifteen.
Over the past year, Securing Smart Cities supporters and partners have successfully raised awareness of the potential problems digital security in "smart cities". The initiative has published several surveys that can help city authorities consider how they can to adopt "smart" technologies " and how to organize one Security Department for a "Smart City". Many practical research considerations have also been carried out and their findings have been published. All of the above cover important security issues for "smart" cities, problems with monitoring systems, as well as urban communication networks and their availability to intruders.
At the same time, the representatives of the Securing Smart Cities initiative have participated in a series of events. Among others, the representative of the initiative informed the US government on the security situation of "smart cities". Also, a partner of the initiative helped the European Union Network and Information Security Agency in conducting two studies on the possible digital security issues that "smart cities" can face.
“One thing we've learned this year is that there is a significant need to give more priority in "smart city" security research. The community "Securing Smart Cities"Is trying hard to develop research in this area and there is still much to be done. Overall, we had a successful first year. Our research and work is already being used by leaders and decision-makers around the world to design and develop their strategies. Indeed, we are looking forward to achieving even more in the coming year, said Mohammad Amin Hasbini, Securing Smart Cities Board Member and Security Specialist at Kaspersky Lab.
In the future, the Securing Smart Cities initiative will continue its efforts to raise awareness of the 'smart cities' security issues and share its experience with city authorities by publishing safety guides and researches devoted to various areas related to the security of the cities of the future.
Today, there is a tremendous need for greater awareness of the issue of digital city safety. Cities are becoming "smarter" and are continually incorporating new technologies into their infrastructure, but often ignore the importance of digital security. The Securing Smart Cities initiative plays an essential role in educating key stakeholders (eg governments, infrastructure and service providers, professionals, etc.) about current digital security issues and possible solutions for ' smart cities ".
"During the first year of its operation, the Securing Smart Cities Cooperative Initiative has made significant progress. Before we started our action, the issue was seldom discussed, but now many more people are aware of the digital security issues of "smart cities" and have begun trying to address the issues we have raised. While we feel we have just begun and there is a lot of work ahead of us, the results of the first year were amazing - and this is a great incentive to continue working hard to help cities around the world be safer and protect their their citizens in the best possible way ", commented Cesar Cerrudo, member of the Board of Directors of the Securing Smart Cities initiative and its CTO IOActive.
