The Convergence of Physical and Digital Infrastructure

Cyber everywhere in smart cities and communities

Smart cities and communities aim to increase economic competitiveness, strengthen sustainability efforts, and improve the quality of life of its people. The components of a smart city or community are designed to increase convenience and open the door to new services and communications in an ever-increasing mobile society.

As urban hubs become increasingly connected, many economic, environmental, and quality-of-life benefits are realized. However, with cyber everywhere, this connectivity comes with unique privacy and cybersecurity risks.

In a converging physical and digital world, relying on perimeter cyber defense is not enough. City and community leaders should, therefore, embrace a broader future-minded approach to grow anywhere, safely.

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New “connected” mission-critical considerations

Connected city initiatives are seeking ways to integrate infrastructure and processes with technologies such as big data, IoT, cloud computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence to spark a transformative change that benefits their population. In doing so, new considerations will have to be part of the strategy.

Smart city and smart community programs and processes are now increasingly connected—and highly dependent on each other. As cities gain new efficiencies and improved services with innovative technologies, it is more important than ever to monitor for cyber incidents. This also requires detailed incident response plans. When a cyber incident does occur, it is also important for leaders to have rehearsed crisis response, with detailed continuity plans.

City and community IT systems comprise many different technologies, often with different protocols, standards, and security mechanisms. As more technologies are introduced through smart city initiatives, it is critical to have cross-agency, -city, and -enterprise IT policies, standards, protocols, and a security architecture that govern and enforce minimum levels of security for technologies connected to the city’s IT ecosystem.

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We manage cyber everywhere so you can innovate anywhere. From the visionaries reimagining businesses and the disruptors changing industries to the pioneers creating new markets, Deloitte is helping the smart city and smart community leaders solve their complex problems. So, they can build a confident future—one idea, innovation, and breakthrough at a time.

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