Axis Communications has announced the release of its latest whitepaper, Smart Buildings & Smart Cities Security, providing a detailed study of the benefits and challenges for smart buildings and city management
The smart buildings whitepaper is the third in a series looking at specific aspects of security and provides an in-depth review of the topic, addresses key questions and, importantly, provides recommendations that must be considered if the smart promise is to become a reality.
The promise of future cities and buildings built around a smart vision to reduce waste, drive efficiencies and optimise resources is a prodigious one with many inherent challenges, not least, security.
Smart technology enables the collection and analysis of data to create actionable and automated events that will streamline operations. To deliver this at far greater scale means bringing together a large number of very different systems and empowering them to communicate freely with access to important and often sensitive data.
The proliferation of IoT devices has witnessed in parallel an exponential increase in the number of threat exposures and attack vectors that put in jeopardy the systems that our smart cities and buildings will rely on.
With an ever-increasing number of cyber breaches and a common acknowledgement that ‘you are only as strong as your weakest link’, it is important that cybersecurity is considered and evaluated throughout the whole supply chain to protect data, maintain privacy and keep risk associated with cyber threats to a minimum. This process should always start by looking at device security and the vendors’ cyber maturity.
Managing cybersecurity in environments of this scale involves drawing up thorough risk assessments that go right back through the supply chain. Identifying vulnerabilities and mitigating the potential for damage that they could cause.
The associated disruption as a result of a cybersecurity breach of a smart system could be catastrophic. At a minimum, it would cause system downtime and impact its ability to operate. The loss of personal data or IP may also damage the reputation, impact a company’s share price or even cause actual physical harm.
Steven Kenny, industry liaison, architecture and engineering at Axis Communications commented: “At Axis, we believe that technology should be used in an ethical and responsible way. You might say that this whitepaper reflects the values of our business in that, used responsibly and with security front and centre, smart technology will help us address the big challenges of our time.”
Axis’ Smart Buildings & Smart Cities Security whitepaper is available here.
