Smart Cities & The Internet of Things (IoT)

While 2018 was filled with a number of successful smart city deployments, it also revealed significant challenges that will only intensify in years to come. The most pressing challenge to be addressed throughout 2019 is earning the public’s trust in smart city projects. Towards the end of 2018, we saw major data privacy concerns emerge from citizens. From these concerns a heated, but healthy discourse between citizens, local governments, and private sector companies rose to mainstream media prominence. Citizens’ expectations of privacy have begun to challenge the murky data privacy policies described by many in the private sector. 2019 will be the year of the smart city for the citizen.

New research advances techniques for finding and exploiting known vulnerabilities in IoT devices automatically.

Karen Tay, Singapore's Smart Nation director,  was recently in Washington D.C. to run a workshop for the World Bank on how to develop “smart cities."  She says: “'Smart cities' is honestly a buzzword... when I get invited to speak, most people expect me to start with cool tech like AR, VR, AI, modeling and simulation, blockchain and the like. The fact is that cities are complex ecosystems with very established ways of operating. If we want to disrupt them with technology in a way that benefits the masses (i.e. not just the upper middle class), we need dedicated work from the ground-up, coupled with political commitment." Karen Tay's five tips for smart city efforts come from conversations and projects with smart city leaders around the world.

Takeaways from a talk on IoT security at a New America event in D.C. include two-factor authentication, encryption methods, and more.