Imagine someone shut down all of the traffic lights in New York City at 4 pm.<\/p>\n
That idea has been stuck in my head since Ryan Naraine mentioned it at a round table talk on securing smart cities at Black Hat.<\/p>\n
Although the conversation was held primarily among some very technical researchers, the idea of the traffic lights failing in one of the world\u2019s busiest cities was one that I could not shake. Nowadays, everything is connected online \u2014 your phone, TV, watch, fitness tracker, maybe even your front door. But did you know that our traffic lights<\/a>, train systems<\/a>, and power grid<\/a> are also online?<\/p>\n It is actually quite scary to think about what could happen if one of the industrial systems that are vital to our everyday lives were to be turned off.<\/p>\n Power? Any of those three could be quite deadly if used improperly. But as with many things, security for smart cities is not where it needs to be.<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BIqLhaeA32B\/<\/p>\n Bureaucratic red tape and development times for the systems mean security becomes an afterthought in many cases.<\/p>\n The conversation surrounding this issue on the security end is equally annoying. It goes in circles within the security community \u2014 and doesn\u2019t go anywhere outside of the security world because average Joes don\u2019t think about it at all, although they should. <\/p>\n When it comes to security, we often focus on the things that we personally use day to day: computers, mobile devices, fitness trackers, and so forth. But those items, as essential as they may feel, are really luxuries, not daily necessities. It\u2019s a huge pain when they get hacked, but they are not typically something that could, say, kill you.<\/p>\n Hacking electricity, water, and food https:\/\/t.co\/puKzqEPXTa<\/a> #ICS<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/L4ibbptbXM<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Kaspersky (@kaspersky) July 15, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nTrains?
\nTraffic lights?<\/p>\n\n