How Smart Cities Are Protecting Against Coronavirus But Threatening Privacy

How Smart Cities Are Protecting Against Coronavirus But Threatening Privacy

by Simon Chandler, Contributor, forbes.com, 13 April 20

Smart cities and smart city technology are being increasingly
harnessed to help combat the spread of...  [+]
NURPHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES 

Smart cities can help us combat the coronavirus pandemic. In fact, in a growing number of countries, smart cities are doing just that. Governments and local authorities are using smart city technology, sensors and data to trace the contacts of people infected with the coronavirus. At the same time, smart cities are also helping in efforts to determine whether social distancing rules are being followed.

On the one hand, such applications of smart technology are exciting and invaluable, particularly in nations that have managed to keep Covid-19 case numbers relatively low, such as South Korea.

But on the other hand, the use of masses of connected sensors makes it clear that the coronavirus pandemic is–intentionally or not–being used as a testbed for new surveillance technologies that may threaten privacy and civil liberties. So aside from being a global health crisis, the coronavirus has effectively become an experiment in how to monitor and control people at scale.

I’m an Engineer, and I’m Not Buying Into ‘Smart’ Cities

Andrea Chronopoulos

I’m an Engineer, and I’m Not Buying Into ‘Smart’ Cities
By Shoshanna Saxe, Opinion, The New York Times, 16 July 2019

Dr. Saxe is an assistant professor of civil and mineral engineering at the University of Toronto.

Sensor-equipped garbage cans sound cool, but someone still has to take out the trash.

TORONTO — Like a classroom full of overachieving students, cities around the world are racing to declare themselves “smart” — using sensors, data and ubiquitous cameras to make themselves more efficient, safe and sustainable. Perhaps the most famous initiative is here in Toronto, where Sidewalk Labs, a sibling company to Google, recently released a 1,500-page master plan to remake two neighborhoods with things like snow-melting roads and an underground pneumatic-tube network.

Smart cities make two fundamental promises: lots of data, and automated decision making based on that data. The ultimate smart city will require a raft of existing and to-be-invented technologies, from sensors to robots to artificial intelligence. For many this promises a more efficient, equitable city; for others, it raises questions about privacy and algorithmic bias.

How to Keep the Internet of Things from Killing Us All

HOW TO KEEP THE INTERNET OF THINGS FROM KILLING US ALL
by DAVID M. PERRY, psmag.com, 9 October 2018

Author Bruce Schneier warns about the coming hyper-networked world where all your devices are talking to each other.

(Photo: ImKork/Unsplash)

The world is wired. Thanks to the Internet of Things (IoT), pretty much every electronic device we own can now talk to each of our other devices. While it might seem fun to be able to adjust settings on your refrigerator from your cell phone or track brush strokes from your e-toothbrush app, the IoT comes with a brand new set of vulnerabilities as well. Last spring, a computer security company revealed that hackers had stolen a casino's entire database of high rollers by exploiting vulnerabilities in an Internet-connected aquarium. What happens when cheap IoT devices can drive your car off a cliff or give you poisons instead of medicine?

In Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World, technologist and best-selling author Bruce Schneier argues that the emerging ability of connected devices to move and influence the physical world has created new threats for which we are woefully ill-prepared.

We Must Be Wary of Tech that Could Turn on Us

We must be wary of tech that could turn on us

by Clare Foges, thetimes.co.uk, 20 August 2018

Rather than simply accepting all new technology, we should be asking whether some of it is really necessary

Techsperts: the boffins at GCHQ know
that with every advance comes risk. Alamy

Caesar’s Palace, Las Vegas: once home to the boozing, carousing Rat Pack; now frequented by the rather stranger Hack Pack. Last week the hotel hosted DefCon, the world’s top hacking convention, where in one room techies who failed to crack various challenges had their laptops sledge-hammered by a man dressed as a hot-dog. Elsewhere, mighty brains were applied to exercises with wider implications. A group of delegates took just minutes to hack the voting machines used in 18 US states. One whizz demonstrated how to infiltrate police body cameras, download footage, edit a crime away and upload it again seamlessly. Meanwhile, a group of Chinese hackers had worked out how to hijack Amazon’s “smart speaker”, Echo, turning it into a surveillance device to eavesdrop on users.

Wherever there is connected technology, there are clever people trying — and often succeeding — to break in and manipulate it. Outside places like DefCon, many do so with intent to steal, scare, sabotage or kill. Yet while malign hackers become ever more ingenious, we become ever more complacent about opening up our lives, our homes, our streets and cities to technology that can be turned against us. Carelessly, and with very little debate, we are allowing connected technology to penetrate deeper into our physical environment — and we may come to regret it.

Concern Over IoT Security Grew for Most Black Hat USA Attendees in Past Year, Reveals Survey

Concern Over IoT Security Grew for Most BHUSA Attendees in Past Year, Reveals Survey
by RAY LAPENA, tripwire.com, 10 August 2018

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the greatest forces driving technology today. According to Statista, the number of IoT devices is expected to reach 1.2 billion by the end of 2018. That number will grow to over 20 billion by 2020, per Gartner’s estimates, with more than 65 percent of enterprises deploying IoT products at that time.

Such growth in IoT poses a risk to organizations. More devices means potentially more vulnerable products that digital attackers can infect with malware like Mirai and enlist in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. In total, Gartner predicts that a quarter of all identified attacks against enterprises will involve IoT by 2020.

With security obviously a major consideration with the Internet of Things, Tripwire decided to survey 167 Black Hat USA (BHUSA) attendees to determine how they felt about IoT security.

Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse

Thermostats, Locks and Lights: Digital Tools of Domestic Abuse
By Nellie Bowles, The New York Times, 23 June 2018

(Photo): In training sessions on domestic violence and technology, people have started asking about how to handle the use of connected home devices in abuse situations, said Erica Olsen, director of the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence.CreditTony Luong for The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — The people who called into the help hotlines and domestic violence shelters said they felt as if they were going crazy.

One woman had turned on her air-conditioner, but said it then switched off without her touching it. Another said the code numbers of the digital lock at her front door changed every day and she could not figure out why. Still another told an abuse help line that she kept hearing the doorbell ring, but no one was there.

Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck Testifies on Health Risks of 5G Small Cells, FCC Limits, WiFi in Schools and the Health Risks of the Internet of Things

Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck Testifies on Health Risks of 5G Small Cells, FCC Limits, WiFi in Schools and the Health Risks of the Internet of Things

"Article 4 section 51 of the Michigan Constitution States: 'the public health and the general welfare of the people of the state are hereby declared to be a matter of primary public concern. The legislature shall pass suitable laws for the protection and promotion of public health.'

Despite the convenience and the enormous economic growth potential associated with the Internet of Things our primary concern as legislators is not convenience, nor economic growth. As much as I love technology as per our Michigan constitution the public health and the general welfare of the people of our state are supposed to be our primary concern."

-Michigan State Senator Patrick Colbeck

Colbeck cites health as reason to slow ‘small cell’ rush (7 mn. - 15 March 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDDQqDVsbk

See:
https://ehtrust.org/michigan-senator-testifies-on-health-risks-of-5g-small-cells-and-the-internet-of-things/

5G And The IOT: Scientific Overview Of Human Health Risks

5G And The IOT: Scientific Overview Of Human Health Risks
Environmental Health Trust, ehtrust.org

5G is the term used to describe the next-generation of mobile networks beyond the 4G LTE mobile networks commonly used today. Currently there is no standard for 5G networks in place and it will be a combination of a variety of frequencies and modulations. Industry is developing exactly what 5G will be. It is assumed that 5G networks will not become commercially available until 2020 but several cities are rolling out 5G as test areas now.

Published peer reviewed science already indicates that the current wireless technologies of 2G, 3G and 4G – in use today with our cell phones, computers and wearable tech – creates radiofrequency exposures which poses a serious health risk to humans, animals and the environment. Scientists are cautioning that before rolling out 5G, research on human health effects urgently needs to be done first to ensure the public and environment are protected.

5G and IoT: Total Technological Control Grid Being Rolled Out Fast

5G and IoT: Total Technological Control Grid Being Rolled Out Fast
by Makia Freeman, Contributor, Waking Times, 23 March 2017

5G is being rolled out fast right now, with Verizon testing it out in 11 US cities and ATT also conducting experiments. For those who don’t know, 5G is the latest wireless system that telecommunications companies are trying to implement to service wireless communication. It’s designed to allow faster downloads of more data. It uses the 28, 37 and 39 GHz bands, also known as millimetre wave (mmW) spectrum. 5G, which comes from the term 5th generation, is designed to work in conjunction with what former CIA head David Petraeus called the Internet of Things or IoT. The agenda is to hook every single material thing on the planet, as well as humans themselves, onto a vast planet-wide web where everything and everyone become nodes on the network – connected by microchips which are nano-size and can be inhaled (like smart dust).