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Smart cities potential target for hackers, says expert

DUBAI, March 13, 2016

Smart cities create a host of new opportunities for businesses and residents to improve efficiency and overall quality of life. However, the very same platform also becomes a magnet attracting relentless attacks by hackers, said an industry expert.

"These cities are developed with an interconnected ICT infrastructure and innovative digital services that ride on an embedded mesh of sensors and controls, undertake advanced analytics, and offer rapid connectivity and world-class services to all users – residents, visitors and businesses. Since these are greatly dependent on technology and applications they become vulnerable to potential security and data breaches," stated Aji Joseph of RadarServices Middle East, a leading managed security service provider headquartered in Austria.

The company, which has operations in the UAE, Germany, Poland and Russia, caters to banks, insurances, industrial companies, operators of critical infrastructure and governmental institutions worldwide.

According to Joseph, the Middle East region has been witnessing a steady growth of smart cities over the past few years, with the UAE leading the way with initiatives such as the Dubai Plan 2021 and the Dubai Smart City programme that aims to launch 1,000 smart government services by 2017.

A well-coordinated and managed security framework needs to be established to ensure the vast amounts of data that a smart city generates are analysed - offering meaningful insights for the city’s growth, and yet remain elusive to individuals with malicious intent, observed Joseph.

Such issues are further forced in the era of the Internet-of-Things (IoT) where multiple connected sensors govern the city’s key infrastructure.

"A breach of security here could potentially bring the city to a complete standstill or worse impact national security.  To avoid such situations, smart city stakeholders need to proactively come up with appropriate and timely responses to prevent possible attacks as well as keep the city services future-proof," he added.  
RadarServices, a key player in the European market for pro-active IT security monitoring and IT risk detection as managed services, will address major challenges faced by smart cities at the Gulf Information Security Expo and Conference taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre from March 29 to 31.-TradeArabia News Service




Tags: smart city | Hackers |

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