Cyber firms launch effort to secure ‘smart’ cities

A cadre of security experts on Tuesday launched an initiative to secure increasingly Internet-dependent cities, citing worries the public and private sectors aren’t moving fast enough.

Securing Smart Cities is backed by security bigwigs IOActive Labs and Kaspersky Lab, along with a number of prominent security researchers.The group’s backers fear that countries are dumping money into creating “smart,” Internet-connected cities, but not building in basic security measures.

To counter this trend, they’re aiming to bring together researchers, private companies and public officials to create cybersecurity standards for all infrastructure being brought online.

“If not addressed early on, the cost and complexity of creating a smart city could make it far more difficult to address security problems further down the line,” the initiative’s website says. “In the end, the city would be left vulnerable.”

This vulnerability could expose critical infrastructure networks that control the water system, electrical grid and even traffic lights to cyber adversaries.

It’s currently believed several foreign governments, including China, Russia and Iran, have already infiltrated critical systems.

Although the White House last February issued voluntary guidelines for private sector companies to help secure their networks, a researcher with the group told The New York Times that it hasn’t really helped things thus far.

“What I found is that there are a lot of security problems — the situation is really bad — but I didn’t want to just point out problems without offering solutions,” said Cesar Cerrudo, chief technology officer at IOActive Labs.

Lawmakers have also failed to move on any substantial cybersecurity legislation to combat the growing threat of hackers by exchanging more data between the public and private sector.

Senate leaders have vowed action on a House-passed bill that would shield companies from legal liability when sharing cyber threat data with the government. But a small group of privacy-minded senators have expressed opposition to the bill, which could derail its chances.

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