IoT-Enabled Smart City Security Considerations and Solutions

Abstract

The City of Lumpkinsville is growing quickly. To attract new residents and businesses as well as improve the quality of life of residents, manage available resources such as roads and water in an economically sustainable manner, and reduce environmental pollution the city has begun transforming to a smart city. The transition to a smart city has been beneficial to the city, its residents, visitors as well as business and private entities located in the city. However – this transition and the interconnectivity across IT (Information Technology) and OT (Operational Technology) infrastructures has made The City of Lumpkinsville susceptible to cybersecurity risks. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offers new ways for businesses and governments to create value, however, the increased connectivity and data sharing with intelligent machines and their software come with significant risk of IT security issues; security for emerging IoT technologies must not be a development afterthought, the future of humanity and society is going to depend on it. With each additional access point sensitive data exposure vulnerabilities expand. Smart cities can be susceptible to numerous cyber-attack techniques, such as remote execution and signal jamming, as well as traditional means, including malware, data manipulation and DDOS (PricewaterhouseCooper, n.d). In this paper we will present to The City of Lumpkinsville a multilayered defense approach to keeping their smart city infrastructure and its associated data secure.