What is a Smart City
A ‘smart city’ uses advanced technologies and data analysis to improve the quality of life of its citizens, enhance sustainability, and increase efficiency in various areas such as:
- transportation
- energy
- healthcare
- public safety
- environmental management
Smart cities leverage the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and other emerging technologies to collect and analyze vast amounts of data in real-time. This data is used to inform decision-making and optimize city operations, ultimately leading to more effective and efficient use of resources, reduced costs, and improved services to citizens.
Examples of typical smart city initiatives include
- intelligent traffic management systems that use real-time data to reduce congestion and improve traffic flow
- smart lighting systems that adjust to real-time pedestrian and vehicle traffic
- smart waste management systems that optimize collection routes and reduce waste
Since smart cities leverage web technologies, they are vulnerable to cyber security threats. In what ways?
How Cyber Range Technology Can Help Smart Cities
By using cyber range technology, smart cities can train their cybersecurity teams to respond to cyber threats effectively and test their security measures in a controlled environment.
Here are some examples of cyber range exercises that can be useful for smart cities:
- Red team exercises: A team of skilled cybersecurity professionals simulate a cyber attack on the smart city’s infrastructure. The goal of the exercise is to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses in the system’s defences and provide recommendations to improve the security posture.
- Incident response exercises: The smart city’s cybersecurity team simulates a cyber attack and tests the effectiveness of their incident response plan. The exercise can involve multiple scenarios, such as a ransomware attack, a DDoS attack, or a data breach.
- Penetration testing exercises: Penetration testing exercises involve simulating a cyber attack by attempting to exploit vulnerabilities in the smart city’s infrastructure. The goal of the exercise is to identify weaknesses in the city’s security posture and to provide recommendations to improve the security measures.
- Cyber range training: The training can cover various topics, such as threat detection, incident response, and vulnerability management.
Vendor assessments: Smart cities often work with third-party vendors that provide technology solutions. Vendor assessments involve testing the security of the vendor’s technology and evaluating the vendor’s security posture to ensure that they meet the smart city’s security requirements.
How CybExer Can Help
At CybExer, we have been investing heavily on researching cyber security risk management solutions for smart cities. We are analyzing the existing cyber security interdependencies related to smart city solutions, and we also explore for instance the resiliency of smart city mobility solutions using cyber range technology.
Based on our ground-breaking work on researching cyber security for smart city solutions, in 2022 we received an additional €1.3 million grant for a project called ‘Applied research on cyber security of smart city mobility solutions based on cyber range technology’. The primary goal of this project is to improve our ability to identify areas of technical vulnerabilities and to rank the severity of various existing threats.
Our obvious end goal is to protect our cities and civilian infrastructure against cyber disruptions. To reach that goal, we need to understand better what the current and future potential threats are. With this understanding, we can help build secure and well defended future smart city networks.
