Cybersecurity and Privacy Issues Facing Smart Cities: Challenges and Policy Responses, Nir Kshetri ,The University of North Carolina

Abstract:
One estimate suggested that by 2025, 58% of the world's population or 4.6 billion people will live in cities. The development of smart cities has been a major global trend. The global smart city market is expected to reach US$1.565 trillion in 2020. This paper identifies and analyzes the unique challenges faced by smart cities from the privacy and cybersecurity standpoint. Since big data is a key component of smart city initiatives, the paper examines how various characteristics of big data are linked to privacy and cybersecurity in the context of smart cities. It also compares cyberattacks targeting smart cities and other forms of cyberattacks in terms of various criteria and parameters such as seriousness of threats, likely perpetrators and their modus operandi and possible defense responses. The paper also reviews how privacy issues in smart cities are shaped by enduring cultural models of privacy protection and political discourses around this issue. Also discussed are implications for policy makers, developers of smart city technologies, residents of smart cities and consumers.

Keywords: Cybersecurity, big data, privacy, smart cities, smart meters, Internet of Things, building automation systems