Cybersecurity in the Age of Smart Cities: Are Our Laws Prepared?

India's Smart Cities Mission, initiated in 2015, had envisioned making urban governance smarter through data, automation, and connectivity.

- RITIKA GOSWAMI

After a decade, more than 100 cities are embedding Internet of Things (IoT) devices, smart transport systems, e-governance platforms, and surveillance networks into day-to-day infrastructure. The digital revolution promises efficiency and citizen-centric administration—but it also sets a new horizon of cyber vulnerabilities that India's legal apparatus is not entirely prepared to tackle.

Smart cities are built on a complex network of technology: CCTV surveillance systems with face detection, smart energy grids with automation, intelligent water meters, AI-driven traffic management, and cloud-based data centers with real-time processing. Every level of this infrastructure, as it enhances operational efficiency, is a vulnerability for cyber attacks.

In 2024, for example, several Indian municipal corporations were hit by ransomware attacks that crippled property tax websites and e-payments in Pune and Bhopal. While the digital dependence of city systems increases, so does the attack surface—which poses grave issues of public safety, national security, and data privacy.