The UK’s cybersecurity agency has warned that connected infrastructure could be targeted in cyberattacks and urged councils to better prepare themselves.
Connected places – often called smart cities – use devices and sensors linked over a network to improve the efficiency of services, for example, configuring traffic lights to cut congestion.
But the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is a part of GCHQ, has warned that such systems could appeal to hackers because of their critical nature and the potential disruption which could be caused by taking them offline.
It says that such networks must be protected from disruption and has published new tips for councils on how to better build and protect them.
Dr Ian Levy, the NCSC’s technical director, pointed to a classic British movie as an example of the potential impact of such disruption.
“One of the first Hollywood depictions of a cyberattack was against critical infrastructure,” he wrote in a blog.
“It was an attack against a city’s centralised…
