Safer cities: technology’s role in urban security

In the film Die Hard 4, New York detective John MacLane pits his wits against a technically-sophisticated crime syndicate that’s bent on plunging the US into cyber chaos. Before ultimately prevailing against his adversaries, our hero spends most of his time in a state of bewilderment while the digital terrorists hack into and take down urban transport, power, and communication networks.

An explosive action movie, the film naturally uses more than a little artistic licence in its depiction of cities’ vulnerability to cybercrime. But that’s not to say it is completely detached from reality.

In unsettling parallels with the film, in May this year hackers launched an audacious global cyber attack that affected more than 200,000 organisations in cities across 150 countries.

The ‘WannaCry’ ransomware – malicious software that demands payment from victims to unlock their computers – wrought havoc across the globe, freezing the IT systems of the UK’s National Health Service, the Russian interior ministry and Spanish telecom giant Telefonica.

Unfortunately, cyber crime is not the only security threat facing the world’s urban centres. Western European cities are wearily familiar with acts of terror targeting both their inhabitants and critical infrastructure. Madrid, Brussels, London and Paris have each suffered violent terrorist attacks in recent years. Intelligence agencies warn there could be more to come.

All this presents society with a major problem. With more than half of us already living in densely populated and wirelessly-connected urban centres and that proportion expected to rise exponentially in the coming decades, city life could become impossible if the authorities don’t take our security seriously.

If we can’t feel safe in our homes or as we walk the streets, and if we’re not able to trust city government to provide essential public services, then the metropolises we build will descend into anarchy.

That dystopian vision need not become a reality, however. Metropolitan authorities are waking up to these complex security problems. And they see sophisticated technology as part of the solution.

Pre-crime

Perhaps the most hi-tech security initiative is emerging in the realm of law enforcement. US cities from Los Angeles to Atlanta are racing to adopt futuristic ‘predictive policing’ systems, such as those being developed by the US firm PredPol. Its software uses sophisticated algorithms to analyse historical patterns of criminal behaviour to predict crime before it happens.

Using this system, law enforcement officials have been able to pinpoint city districts in which crimes are more likely to take place. This, in turn, means they can deploy police officers to the areas where they’re needed most. Microsoft, IBM and Hitachi have developed similar crime-fighting software.

Hi-tech also has a major role to play in protecting cities’ vital infrastructure, which intelligence agencies warn is a primary target for terrorists. Given their capacity to spread disease, water systems are particularly vulnerable. Among the problems city authorities face is that urban water supply systems are both complex and large – the average city has around 400 kilometres of pipes – which means they’re susceptible to accidental or deliberate contamination at countless points along the network. What is more, in the event of suspected sabotage, traditional water testing and sampling processes are cumbersome and can take up to three days to test for contaminants.

To contain this risk, local governments are working with water companies and security firms to develop equipment and software that can provide for early detection of bacteriological or chemical pollution. Radiation contamination equipment has also come into commercial use, deployed, for example, in the areas affected by the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan.

Digital crooks

Combating cyber-crime is also becoming a top priority.

As cities embrace new technologies to automate everything from power networks to water treatment and distribution systems, they inadvertently expose their inhabitants to digital attack. One reason for this is that most of the IT systems cities currently use are largely ill-equipped to fend off determined cyber criminals.Conventional anti-virus software and firewalls are just not up to the job.

An unlikely testament to this is the popular online computer game Watch Dogs, in which the lead character is a skilled hacker who unleashes cyber-hell on the citizens of Chicago. Unnervingly, every single hack in the game – of transport systems, utilities and communications networks – is based on examples that have occurred in the real world.

This is where breakthroughs in artificial intelligence could help.

Drawing inspiration from the workings of the human immune system, a new breed of IT security systems use ‘digital antibodies’ to detect intruders. Once potential viruses are identified and tagged, they are placed in quarantine for further analysis. This is the type of software being developed by companies such as Darktrace, a cyber-security startup based in the UK. Founded by former senior CIA, MI5 and NSA officials, the company has developed a range of intelligent, self-learning applications that can detect and overcome cyber-attacks in a fraction of the time of traditional security programmes.

It is clear, then, that cities must embrace security technology in all its forms to support the core requirements of society in the 21st century. Only then can they aspire to become urban paradises.