AI benefits of smart cities

Smart city concept implies the use of different types of electronic methods to collect data as well as IoT technologies. Smart technologies are being introduced into urban infrastructure to simplify the management of internal urban processes and ensure comfort and safety for the citizens themselves.

In a smart city, the use of smart technologies is aimed at optimizing aspects of city life, such as the operation of the transport system, management of parking areas, saving used resources, simplifying systems for paying utility bills and collecting data on utility costs, and improving the safety of citizens. 

Thus, a smart city is not based around a single device or system, but it is a multi-component concept that employs a wide variety of smart technologies and devices aimed at providing comfort and simplicity in urban life.

AI risks

The safety of residents directly depends on the safety and security of smart city systems. Attacks on elements of smart city systems can be very diverse and can include anything, from causing malfunctions of payment systems and stealing confidential data used in personal smart cards of citizens to sabotaging garbage collection services.

The first major security risk in a smart city is data privacy. Since all basic data about citizens is used in electronic format, any change can lead to a number of negative consequences.

The second risk of smart cities is the physical safety of citizens. Automated systems, such as unmanned public transport, can pose a physical hazard to people if an attacker succeeds in attacking the system.

Smart traffic control failure

Intelligent traffic lights are critical systems that let smart cities reduce traffic jams and control road traffic. If manipulated, they can stop the movement of the whole city and wreak havoc.

Object detection

Smart home camera can misidentify objects in case of intentional distractions.

Speech recognition

Smart device can verify someone else as owner in case of malicious voice modification.

LLMs and AI Chatbots

AI language models and chatbots such as GPT, Claude are vulnerable to various attacks: prompt injections, jailbreaks, data stealing, adversarial examples, and other safety bypass techniques.

Face recognition

Smart devices can verify someone else as the owner in case of deceptive glasses usage or any other accessoire.

The flip side: AI incidents

It is estimated that in 2025 around 10 million people will be living in 34 smart cities all over the world. However, more technology creates more risks. Security researchers have already demonstrated ways to compromise the traffic lights to cause potential traffic disruption and public safety degradation.

Smart cities provide hackers with more targets to attack. If adversaries manage to get inside the network, they could disable everything from alarm systems to water sanitation and cause overwhelming chaos.

How we can help with AI risk management

Our team of security professionals has deep knowledge and considerable skills in cyber security, AI algorithms, and models that underlie any content moderation system. Your algorithms can be tested against the most critical AI vulnerability categories that include Evasion, Poisoning, Inference, Trojans, Backdoors, and others.

We offer Solutions for  Awareness, Assessment, and Assurance areas to provide 360-degree end-to-end visibility on the AI threat landscape. 

• Secure AI Awareness to demonstrate AI risks and shape AI governance strategy. It consists of Policy Checkup, AI Risks Training Threat Intelligence for informed decisions;
• Secure AI Assessment helps to perform AI integrity validation and identify AI vulnerabilities through Threat Modeling, Vulnerability Audit, and automated AI Red Teaming;
• Secure AI Assurance helps to remediate AI risks and implement a lifecycle for AI integrity. It consists of Security Evaluation, Risk Mitigation, and Attack Detection.