How a Secure Cloud Architecture Can Help Smart Cities

As cities deploy Internet of Things sensors and IP-connected surveillance cameras to help with everything from easing traffic congestion to improving air quality and public safety, they are also increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks. To help smooth adoption of smart city technologies while maintaining security, the Smart City and Community Challenge cloud privacy security rights inclusive architecture (SC3-cpSriA) action cluster last month released a blueprint for smart cities. Specifically, the blueprint outlines how cities can create a secure, hybrid cloud architecture, including multicloud, intercloud and federated cloud (to edge) service designs. It is aimed at supporting "security, confidentiality, access control, least privileges and safeguarding" personally identifiable information across the IoT and beyond. "You know about the Baltimore ransomware attacks, you know about the Atlanta one, you know about the two Florida cities that just paid off in bitcoin their ransomware attackers," Lee McKnight, a professor at Syracuse University who oversees the SC3-cpSriA action cluster's work on secure cloud architecture, tells GCN. "All that is a result of essentially a combination of legacy systems from cities with limited budgets.