NCSC Annual Review 2021

Following joint research with the CPNI and industry, the NCSC published a set of principles - believed to be the first in the world - outlining how to securely design, manage and build ‘smart cities’. Smart cities use networked technology, such as Internet of Things (IoT) devices and sensors, to improve the efficiency of services for their inhabitants. This makes them potential targets for cyber attackers, due to the critical functions they provide and the sensitive data they process. The NCSC’s ‘Connected Places Cyber Security Principles’ helps system owners, designers, vendors and operators to consider the high level security requirements that should govern smart cities.

To help bring the risks to life in a relevant way for the public, the NCSC’s Technical Director Dr Ian Levy cited the 1960’s film classic, The Italian Job, which featured one of the first Hollywood depictions of a cyber attack. For the launch Dr Levy said: “It was an attack against a city’s centralised traffic management system. As part of an elaborate heist, a dodgy computer professor [played by Benny Hill] switches magnetic storage tapes for the Turin traffic control system to create a gridlock. Chaos ensues and the thieves escape with the gold.

“A similar ‘gridlock’ attack on a 21st-century city would have catastrophic impacts on the people who live and work there, and criminals wouldn’t need physical access to the traffic control system to do it.”

The NCSC has worked closely to support DCMS policy development on securing connected places, as well as promoting the security principles guidance to local authorities. This work includes NCSC playing a critical role in broadening awareness of the security risks among government departments and highlighting the broad scope of technology issues captured under the connected places umbrella.