Opinion | Why smart cities should also be cybersecurity cities

Civic leaders around the world are looking to automate the infrastructures that make their cities run in a drive to reduce costs and cope with rising populations.

From transit networks and utilities to refuse collection and street lighting, connecting services to the internet is proving an appealing prospect for those in charge of cities and large towns.

In fact, UBS predicts that Asia’s smart city market could reach US$800 billion in 2025, leading the continent’s fourth industrial revolution. The UN projects that 66 per cent of the population in Southeast Asia will be living in urban areas by 2050, and many of its cities are looking to smart solutions to address their challenges.

However, in their rush to automate cities, civic managers need to ensure that they also build in cybersecurity that will protect them from threat actors wishing to create chaos for their own nefarious ends.

The severity of the threat

Looking to connect any of the infrastructure under their jurisdiction will be an unknown territory for many civic leaders.