FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
Risks growing exponentially around smart solutions
As numbers of connected devices scale out so does the attack surface . Fortinet ’ s Kalle Bjorn pins down five areas to focus on .
Car navigation systems that can predict where and when traffic jams might occur , by siphoning data from sensors in roads and other vehicles . Cameras that can spot litter in public places and call in the cleaning crew . Self-adjusting street lamps .
These are just a few of the scenarios that could become commonplace as smart cities take hold over the next few years . Driven by rising urbanisation and fueled by technologies such as the Internet of Things and data analytics , smart cities are on the cusp of explosive growth . Glasgow , Barcelona , Nice , New York City , London and Singapore have already embarked on the trek . The smart city technology market could be worth $ 28 billion annually by 2023 , according to Navigant Research .
Smart city initiatives are driven by public sector initiatives . However , they will have a big impact on businesses . CIOs will have to learn how to tap on the new connected city infrastructure for their business . Smart city technologies like IoT and data analytics are expected to drive innovative business ideas in the future .
But the new wave of smart city services and technologies are also expected to create new security vulnerabilities . Here are five areas CIOs should watch out for .
1
IT fragmentation
The last few years saw a rapid proliferation of cloud services and mobile device adoption in the workplace . The trend has transformed business productivity . But it has also wrecked the tight-fisted control that CIOs used to be able to exert on their IT systems .
CIOs now have to grapple with the idea of employees using unsanctioned cloud services via unsecured phones to hook up to corporate servers and accessing sensitive business data . The expected explosion of IoT devices - researchers estimate that by 2020 the number of active wireless connected devices will exceed 40 billion worldwide - will result in a further fragmentation of IT in businesses .
Instead of fighting the losing battle of trying to lock down devices and services , CIOs should look at protecting
26 Issue 03 INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS