India Soon to Reach Target of 100 Smart Cities

India is dreaming big, hoping to implement modern technology to reach its smart city target. With a forecast of soon reaching 8% growth, officials plan to use existing technology and the smart city concept to improve sanitation, infrastructure and basic services.

“With its ambitious plan, it is more crucial than ever for India to stay realistic and focused,” said Hany Fam, executive vice president, Enterprise Partnerships, Mastercard. “(For) Smart city planning and development, India needs a collaborative approach of shared technology, expertise, learning and governance. That is what India needs to keep focused on to meet their 100 Smart City goal.”

According to the United Nations, the strategy of developing smart cities includes 56 cities in Europe, Central Asia and North America.

“This is a trend that has global impact and is not specific to developing economies. So now, more than ever, there is a need to come up with technology that can be applied to the challenges cities face in order to make cities smarter, enabling business growth and quality of life,” Fam said.

These bold initiatives in emerging countries should be applauded, but security risks shouldn”t be overlooked.

As Indian service providers have recently been the target of DDoS attacks and breaches, their smart infrastructure could turn out to be just as exposed as it has in other countries where IoT infrastructures have reached overwhelming growth and exposure.

Securing the Internet of Things to minimize risks has become the greatest challenge for engineers and businesses worldwide. If researchers expect disaster should a mere toaster get hacked, what about a breach of a city”s sanitation system, for example?

Organizations and the population could face theft of trade secrets and confidential information, fraud, credibility loss, identity theft, or breaking and entering should hackers hack that smart video surveillance system.