A combination of job prospects, local amenities and other attractions is drawing more people to city living than ever before. Indeed, the UN estimates that by 2050 two-thirds of the global population will be living in cities, up from just over half currently. However, at the same time central government investment for urban areas continues to shrink, with UK cities being on “life support” due to lack of funding from Westminster for instance.
To cope with increasing populations and tightening budgets, civic managers are looking at better ways of doing more with less through automation technologies. While the creation of these “smart cities” has the potential to drive efficiencies and improve services, their implementation needs to be coupled with robust cybersecurity solutions and practices to mitigate the vulnerabilities that would make them attractive targets for threat actors.
