ECS’ Josh Salmanson: Cybersecurity Should Be Baked Into Smart City Development Process

Josh Salmanson, chief architect and a vice president at ECS, said in an interview that smart cities should implement more resilient architectures and robust cybersecurity platforms, operations and engineering should be integrated from the beginning of the smart city development process.

“In the long run, taking the time to create strong, secure, resilient infrastructure will protect residents from myriad security threats, be they minor intrusions or catastrophic system failures,” he said.

The Department of Homeland Security has defined 16 critical infrastructure sectors and Salmanson said those sectors are working with industry partners to improve their cybersecurity posture. 

“Through sector-specific peer collaboration, member-driven nonprofit organizations like the Information Sharing and Analysis Centers help members share sector-specific security threat intelligence and mitigation strategies for owners, operators, and stakeholders,” he said. “This helps increase assurance in current and future infrastructures.”

Salmanson discussed how smart cities benefit residents and enable city administrators to manage and streamline operations. He also talked about how internet of things-based devices and lax network security could lead to security, safety and privacy issues within smart cities.