Smart Cities

Smart cities are microcosms of critical infrastructure. There are water and energy control systems, there are big transportation systems, there are automation systems, there are robotics and so much more. Cities are going through the same amount of transformation as the more traditional industrial sectors, a transformation into the fourth industrial revolution with use of internet-connected devices such as IoT. The end goal is increased efficiency through a maximisation of interconnectivity.

Why are Smart Cities vulnerable to cyber attacks?

Smart Cities, like many industrial organisations, want to provide a good service to their citizens and visitors, and therefore are attempting to maximise their use of data. For this reason, they are investing in newer supervisory and data analysis systems (Industry 4.0) which connect existing Operational Technology (OT) networks with Information Technology (IT) networks and Internet of Things (IoT) networks.

Unfortunately, this opens up the cities legacy equipment to increased threat of cyber attack. If disruption were to occur on these legacy systems, then operational continuity could slow down to a complete halt, and have quite a significant detrimental effect to the way of life for those in the city.

Cyber Security Regulation - Your responsibilities

Smart cities are under more pressure from governments, from society and from the opposition to ensure a most robust and “up-to-date” service. From a cyber security perspective it is advised to follow the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF), which is tailored too owners and administrators of OT. More IT-specific standards are also available, such as ISO 27001.

We can help you

Awen Collective are specialists in Smart City Cyber Security:

1. We were one of 30 Smart Cities solution providers chosen for by UK Department for International Trade for the Tech Export Academy (2020/2021), promoting our solutions to the Asia Pacific Region [link].

2. We are a key member of the Steering Board (2020/2021) for the Smart Cities group at techUK - the UK’s trade association for the technology sector [link].

3. We were one of 3 companies chosen by the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) for their Smart Cities Security technology innovation acceleration programme in 2021, in collaboration with Wayra UK [link].

We have years of experience in cyber security, digital forensics, incident response, software engineering and data consultancy (including for the public sector). We also understand the unique challenges and requirements of Operational Technologies (OT). We develop software solutions from the ground up with these OT-specific challenges and requirements in mind, and we know that we cannot simply re-purpose (or re-brand) existing IT tools.

Perhaps you would like to make the whole NIS Directive auditing process a lot simpler, and a bit more collaborative - avoiding complex excel spreadsheets with dodgy versioning. Profile is built with the NCSC Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) at its core, with more standards and regulations being supported. If this sounds of interest, then Profile is definitely for you.

Maybe you are looking for a more in-depth understanding of the OT or IoT assets and their vulnerabilities, but in a way that is automated but still safety and security critical. Dot currently has support for BACNet, Modbus, Siemens S7, DNP-3, Ethernet-IP and more. If this sounds of interest, then Dot is for you.

Or perhaps you are looking for something a bit more bespoke, or require some consultancy. If we can help, we will. If we can’t help, then we will work with our partners to deliver the services and systems that you require.

Contact us today to get a quote, or to just chat about possibilities - with a guarantee of no hard-sell.
hello@awencollective.com