We Should Make Our Cities Secured Before making them Smart
There is a serious discussion among the town planners to upgrade some of the existing big cities as smart cities. But before that a serious thought to be given to few more pertinent issues :
The paramount importance is city surveillance. At the moment our big cities are struggling with multiple risks of increasing crime rate, atrocities against women, communal tension, social and class unrest and thus a fertile ground for terrorist attacks.
Technology can be great enabler to make our cities safer. It is equally important to make police force ready to face challenges of modern time, empowering the policeman with latest weapons and smart connectivity is the need of the day. There is also an urgent need to create a system and atmosphere where ordinary citizen should not only have faith in the police administration but also be assured of its response time.
While technology is needed to safeguard our system, but technology it can create a security nightmare. Now a days everything from traffic lights, public transport, water supply to power plants go on internet, that is why it carries a catastrophic risk. Accessing a secured system is not a big job for a hacker, few months back, someone used mobile phone to run a porn clip on the display board at Rajiv Gandhi Metro Station in Delhi. In 2008, a 14 year old Polish boy hacked into Lodz Tram System with a modified TV remote and derailed for trams resulting injury of 12 commuters. If hackers succeed the cities can face complete power failure, gates of dams may suddenly opened resulting in severe floods. This is not a scenario from a from SiFi but a reality. During 2015 Xmas holidays, Ukraine suffered power cut following a series of cyber attacks on three local energy companies's systems. The suspects were from Russia and their identity could not be established. In another incident in USA, hackers were succeeded in infecting 70 per cent of storage devices that recorded data from DC Police's surveillance cameras just few days before President Trump's inauguration, forcing re-installation. Russian meddling in US election through social media is under serious investigation. All such incidents have its own political implications especially when the hacker is from rival nation. For a city, even traffic control system hack can turn the city into chaos.
Law and surveillance itself is not enough. There is a need to enforce law alongwith technology, even the very nature of crime is changing and getting digital. Conventional thieves have taken smart digital avatar, now they do not need deadly weapons, they now walk away with an ATM's stash just by using a laptop, some wiring and a hole in ATM, such incidents are already happening across Europe, America and Russia. In fact connected devices and internet has exposed the city infrastructure and services to new set of security threats which are lurking in the cyberspace, right from international hackers and terrorist organization while they are sitting in any part of globe.
How to Fight This Menace
Now cyber security threat to cities are real. It is not only city fathers but the central and state governments have to act in sync and that too very fast.The exact data is not available with me, but governments across the globe are investing in technology to protect cities from the high tech risks Recently Australian Government pledged Au Dollar 730 million in Next Gen Technologies to incubate creative solutions to protect the nation from such threats.
City fathers across the country need to create cyber security leadership, also to include freelancers and ethical hackers in the group. This problem can not be solved by merely passing legislation as the tentacles of cyber bullies are far and wide, most of the time beyond geographical limits. It is also equally important to educate the citizens about the possible threats as they are also stakeholder in the city administration.
- Is it safe for a woman to walk alone in the street after 10 pm in the night.
- What is city's preparedness for sudden terror attack
- Whether city is prepared for natural calamity and disaster.
- Whether the police system is equipped to handle cyber security threats
- Are the tourists and migrants feel safe in the city.
- Who will immediately take charge of situation in case vital installations in the city crash down
- How well prepared is the city administration to respond to any kind of emergency situation
These are the basic questions require scrutiny before upgrading cities as smart city.
The paramount importance is city surveillance. At the moment our big cities are struggling with multiple risks of increasing crime rate, atrocities against women, communal tension, social and class unrest and thus a fertile ground for terrorist attacks.
Technology can be great enabler to make our cities safer. It is equally important to make police force ready to face challenges of modern time, empowering the policeman with latest weapons and smart connectivity is the need of the day. There is also an urgent need to create a system and atmosphere where ordinary citizen should not only have faith in the police administration but also be assured of its response time.
While technology is needed to safeguard our system, but technology it can create a security nightmare. Now a days everything from traffic lights, public transport, water supply to power plants go on internet, that is why it carries a catastrophic risk. Accessing a secured system is not a big job for a hacker, few months back, someone used mobile phone to run a porn clip on the display board at Rajiv Gandhi Metro Station in Delhi. In 2008, a 14 year old Polish boy hacked into Lodz Tram System with a modified TV remote and derailed for trams resulting injury of 12 commuters. If hackers succeed the cities can face complete power failure, gates of dams may suddenly opened resulting in severe floods. This is not a scenario from a from SiFi but a reality. During 2015 Xmas holidays, Ukraine suffered power cut following a series of cyber attacks on three local energy companies's systems. The suspects were from Russia and their identity could not be established. In another incident in USA, hackers were succeeded in infecting 70 per cent of storage devices that recorded data from DC Police's surveillance cameras just few days before President Trump's inauguration, forcing re-installation. Russian meddling in US election through social media is under serious investigation. All such incidents have its own political implications especially when the hacker is from rival nation. For a city, even traffic control system hack can turn the city into chaos.
Law and surveillance itself is not enough. There is a need to enforce law alongwith technology, even the very nature of crime is changing and getting digital. Conventional thieves have taken smart digital avatar, now they do not need deadly weapons, they now walk away with an ATM's stash just by using a laptop, some wiring and a hole in ATM, such incidents are already happening across Europe, America and Russia. In fact connected devices and internet has exposed the city infrastructure and services to new set of security threats which are lurking in the cyberspace, right from international hackers and terrorist organization while they are sitting in any part of globe.
How to Fight This Menace
Now cyber security threat to cities are real. It is not only city fathers but the central and state governments have to act in sync and that too very fast.The exact data is not available with me, but governments across the globe are investing in technology to protect cities from the high tech risks Recently Australian Government pledged Au Dollar 730 million in Next Gen Technologies to incubate creative solutions to protect the nation from such threats.
City fathers across the country need to create cyber security leadership, also to include freelancers and ethical hackers in the group. This problem can not be solved by merely passing legislation as the tentacles of cyber bullies are far and wide, most of the time beyond geographical limits. It is also equally important to educate the citizens about the possible threats as they are also stakeholder in the city administration.
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