FEATURE: SMART CITIES
BY UTILISING SMART
CITY TECHNOLOGIES,
DUBAI’S PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE SECTORS
COULD ACHIEVE A
POTENTIAL AED 17.9BN
($4.87BN) IN VALUE
BY 2019, ACCORDING
TO A NEW STUDY FROM
CISCO CONSULTING
SERVICES.
T
he phrase ‘Internet of Things’
(IoT) has been a heavily discussed
topic in recent times, with more
companies curious to start working in the
space. But what exactly does it mean?
According to Gartner, the IoT is “the
network of physical objects that contain
embedded technology to communicate
and sense or interact with their internal
states or the external environment.”
Essentially, this refers to objects in the
physical world that transmit information
about their condition, environment or data
to be analysed with the help of embedded
re-configurability of the device.
Despite the fact that the IoT presents a
new software-driven and network-driven
opportunity, there are various security
challenges that need to be overcome.
Addressing the security
challenges
According to a recent forecast by Gartner,
twenty-six billion devices will be connected
to the Internet by 2020. By utilising smart
city technologies, Dubai’s public and
private sectors could achieve a potential
AED 17.9bn ($4.87bn) in value by 2019,
according to a new study from Cisco
Consulting Services.
The plethora of these new applications
and embedded devices will significantly
increase the amounts of data being
generated, which will prompt the need
for better storage and processing of such
data. But more importantly, there will be
a greater need to protect this data and
secure the new internet-connected devices
from the threat of hackers.
This is crucial in certain industries that
will experience big changes from the IoT,
such as manufacturing – where trucks,
appliances and manufacturing equipment
will be connected to the Internet. The
damage in these situations could depend
on the motives of those involved but
it could mean that malicious outsiders
gather private information or manipulate
more sinister objectives, such as deactivating an alarm or damaging critical
equipment in power stations.
According to the 2014 SafeNet Data
Security Confidence Index survey, in the
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INTELLIGENTCIO
first half of 2014 alone, more than 375
million customer records were stolen
worldwide, an increase of 31% compared
to the same period last year. The SafeNet
Breach Level Index (BLI) report concluded
that in the Middle East and Africa region,
there were 21 breaches recorded in the
same period, accounting for 7% of the
total worldwide breaches. Incidents
occurred in countries including the UAE,
Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Libya.
As our own homes and wider infrastructure
become increasingly connected,
it’s imperative that we have secure,
authenticated, encrypted connectivity
among everything – from refrigerators to
light bulbs to our cars. Only when security
challenges are addressed will we be
able to realise the full benefits of a truly
connected environment. But as systems
and applications become increasingly
“connectable” from the outside world,
security is a basic requirement that all
should consider.
With this in mind, how can system vendors
ensure that their intellectual property (IP)
is not susceptible to modification and that
data transmitted remains secure?
Despite a high degree of confidence in
effectiveness of perimeter security, Middle
East IT decision makers expressed lower
confidence in their companies’ ability
to protect data against growing security
threats.
Protecting your IP
Firstly, addressing the security issues
should start with a new set of rules
for software licensing, entitlement
management and IP protection. As a
starting point, the IoT environment would
need an “interpretation HUB” (server-type)
that can function as a knowledge base for
connecting all the diverse options.
The “HUB” would then require various
levels of security, starting with the
infrastructure and continuing to the
software embedded within each end
point device – preventing hacking and
tampering on the one end, and collecting
usage data and performance metrics on
the other.
Secondly, organisations need to put these
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