Smart city technologies present fantastic opportunities for more innovative and sustainable communities, but they also introduce risks to our security and critical infrastructure.
The Cybersecurity Best Practices for Smart Cities guide has been released in collaboration with our international cyber security partners.
Smart cities can create safer, more efficient, more resilient communities through technological innovation and data-driven decision making. However, this opportunity also introduces potential vulnerabilities that are an attractive target for criminals and cyber threat actors.
Communities and organisations implementing smart city technologies should account for these potential vulnerabilities as part of their overall risk management approach.
This guide provides three recommendations for communities and organisations looking to implement smart city technologies: secure planning and design, proactive supply chain risk management, and operational resilience.
- Several specific strategies for secure planning and design are provided, to include enforcing multi-factor authentication, implementing zero trust architecture, protecting internet-facing services, and patching systems and applications in a timely manner.
- Proactive supply chain risk management recommendations include setting clear requirements for software, hardware, and Internet-of-Things (IoT) supply chains, and carefully reviewing agreements with third-party vendors, such as managed service providers and cloud service providers.
- In the event of a compromise, operational resilience strategies, such as workforce training and incident response and recovery plans, can prepare organisations to isolate affected systems and operate infrastructure with as little disruption as possible.
Find out more about this important joint initiative and read the full guide.