On Dec 8, 2020 odix CEO Dr. Oren Eytan joined a lively panel, hosted by iHLS, on Smart Cities.

In his remarks Dr. Eytan focused in the importance of protecting urban infrastructure and securing citizens privacy from the ever-growing threat of cyber risk. We will recap some of Dr. Eytan’s most notable insights from the panel below.

Protecting the infrastructure

“Protecting critical infrastructure in urban environments involves fully utilizing state of the art cyber security tools as well as decades of infosec knowledge to build a comprehensive picture of strategic risks and create a policy of legacy systems, advanced technology and human capital to protect vital resources from hackers and cyber criminals.”

Managing service providers is key

“One of the major Achilles’ heel of smart cities implementation and optimization is the management of various hardware, and software vendors. These vendors provide the essential services which help city planners minimize traffic backups, coordinate utilities and manage public transportation and thus must be coordinated accordingly to maximize efficiently and decrease wasted resources. In practice, many known cyber-attacks originate through sub-contractors who provide fraction of the service while greatly expanding situational risk.”

Privacy must be mandated

“While many nations haven’t been as firm in establishing clear privacy protocols as Europe with the GDPR, it is clear broad and internationally encored privacy standards must be implemented to safeguard citizens basic privacy. In smart cities, where data is amalgamated nearly instantaneously, the individuals who are being impacted by these tracking mechanisms must be given a level of protection.  Privacy should follow international standards such as the GDPR in Europe. If privacy standards are mandated by law the vendors will follow suite.”

To see Dr. Eytan’s remarks in full watch the video.