December 20, 2023 - securitylinkindia

National

Navigating the Future: Smart Cities and Transportation’s Harmonious Blend for Urban Mobility

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaDecember 20, 2023November 14, 202406 mins

Chandrika Behl, Managing Director, Exhibitions India Group In the ever-expanding landscape of urbanisation, smart cities have emerged as a pivotal solution to address the challenges posed by rapid population growth and escalating urban demands. At the core of this paradigm shift lies the need for a well-integrated and efficient transportation system to ensure seamless urban mobility. ‘Smart’ Transportation for Modern Cities Urbanisation has brought about an unprecedented surge in the demand for sustainable transportation. Worldwide, cities are leveraging technology to create intelligent transportation ecosystems that cater to the diverse needs of their residents. Transportation in Smart Cities is not just about moving people from point A to point B; it is about creating an interconnected network that optimises efficiency, minimises congestion, and reduces environmental impact. Achieving seamless integration in urban mobility involves harnessing technology to connect various modes of transportation, making the entire system more responsive and user-friendly. One cornerstone of this integration is the adoption of smart public transportation systems. Advanced technologies such as real-time tracking, automated payment systems, and data analytics enable cities to enhance the reliability and accessibility of public transport. Commuters benefit from timely information, streamlined ticketing processes, and optimised routes, leading to a more efficient and sustainable urban transit experience. Furthermore, integrating alternative transportation modes is pivotal in a Smart City’s mobility strategy. This includes promoting cycling, walking, and micro-mobility solutions such as electric two-, three-, and four-wheelers. By seamlessly incorporating these options into the urban fabric, cities reduce traffic congestion and contribute to a healthier and more sustainable environment. Intelligent Traffic Management shaping Urban Mobility Smart cities are increasingly investing in intelligent traffic management systems. These systems utilise real-time data from sensors and cameras to optimise traffic flow, mitigate congestion, and improve overall road safety. Adaptive traffic signals, for instance, dynamically adjust signal timings based on current traffic conditions, reducing wait times and fuel consumption. The integration of smart parking solutions is another facet of enhancing urban mobility. Real-time parking availability information and automated payment systems ease the parking process for users. Conclusion Data interoperability and open standards are crucial elements in achieving seamless integration. Smart cities emphasise the importance of breaking down data silos to enable different systems and modes of transportation to communicate effectively. This interoperability facilitates a holistic view of urban mobility, allowing for better-informed decision-making and resource allocation. The concept of Smart Cities is intricately linked with the transformation of urban transportation. Achieving seamless integration in urban mobility is more than adding layers of complexity; it’s about simplifying and optimising existing systems. By leveraging technology, promoting alternative modes of transportation, and emphasising data interoperability, cities can create a cohesive and efficient transportation ecosystem that addresses the evolving needs of its residents. As urbanisation continues to shape our cities, integrating smart transportation solutions remains paramount in ensuring a sustainable and accessible future for urban mobility. About Convergence India & Smart Cities India expo Organised by the Exhibitions India Group (EIG) and ITPO, the 31st Convergence India and the 9th Smart Cities India expo is scheduled to take place at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, from 17-19 January 2024. Convergence India has been at the forefront of India’s digital and telecom revolution. It showcases emerging and disruptive technologies and innovations in IoT, AI, design applications, blockchain, Big Data and analytics, Telecom/ Satcom, 5G & 6G networks, E-commerce solutions, Cloud, Embedded Tech, Fintech, and more. The Smart Cities India expo focuses on the latest technologies and solutions in green buildings, energy, transport, clean environment, etc. It integrates them into urban development to optimise resources and make cities smart and sustainable. www.convergenceindia.org

Feature

Cyberthreat Predictions for 2024

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaDecember 20, 2023November 14, 2024038 mins

Vishak Raman Vice President of Sales, India SAARC and Southeast Asia at Fortinet An Annual Perspective from FortiGuard Labs Adversaries always discover new ways to compromise networks, yet executing successful attacks hasn’t always been straightforward or quick. But today, thanks to the growth of the Cybercrime-as-a-Service (CaaS) market and the rise of generative AI, cybercriminals have more ‘easy’ buttons than ever. The result? Attackers will expand their ‘work smarter, not harder’ approach to cybercrime by relying heavily on the new capabilities in their respective toolboxes. This year’s threat predictions report examines a new era of advanced persistent cybercrime, discusses how AI is changing the attack game, shares fresh trends to watch for in 2024, and more. Here’s a look at how we expect the threat landscape to evolve and our best tips for protecting your organization. The Evolution of Old Favorites We’ve been discussing numerous attack trends for years, including in our 2023 threat predictions report, noting how we expect these fan-favorite tactics to evolve in the days ahead. For example, we’ve witnessed advanced persistent cybercrime become more sophisticated and targeted, the rise of more intense turf wars occurring between cybercrime groups, and a shift in how AI is used to support attacks. Below is a look back at some key 2023 predictions and our thoughts regarding how these longstanding trends across the threat landscape will change in 2024 and beyond. A new era of advanced persistent cybercrime For the past several years, we’ve predicted that the growth of new vulnerabilities combined with more pre-attack activity among adversaries would pave the way for the expansion of the CaaS market. Today, as cybercriminals and advanced persistent threat (APT) groups continue working together (there are more on the dark web than ever), it’s safe to say our prediction came true. Unfortunately for security practitioners, it’s only the tip of the iceberg. APT activity is on the rise. In the first half of 2023, we witnessed significant activity among APT groups, with 41 (about 30%) of the 138 groups that MITRE tracks being active during this time. Of those, Turla, StrongPity, Winnti, OceanLotus, and WildNeutron were the most active, according to our FortiGuard Labs malware detections. Looking ahead, we predict that even more of these APT groups will become more active – even beyond the 138 identified by MITRE and those that CISA outlines with active cycles – likely engaging in dual cybercrime and cyber-espionage activities. We also expect to see a trend in which more APT groups will transition to employing even more stealthy, innovative methods to initiate attacks. Techniques such as HTML smuggling are gaining popularity, and we foresee additional novel methods emerging in the coming year. Their tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) continue to evolve, evading security products with outdated analytics. Alongside what’s sure to be a banner year for new Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs), we should expect the growth of TTPs and, therefore, the MITRE ATT&CK framework. In addition to the evolution of APT operations, we predict that cybercrime groups will continue diversifying their targets, looking for hidden (and highly lucrative) gems among a long list of already-compromised organizations. For example, in the operational technology (OT) space, the manufacturing industry has historically been the top target among cybercriminals. Going forward, we expect OT attacks to increasingly reach beyond manufacturing, with malicious actors setting their sights on industries such as healthcare, utilities, finance, oil and gas, and transportation. These attacks will also move beyond data encryption and focus primarily on the extortion of their targets. They’ll also continue embracing supply chain attacks, working to disrupt critical services and organizations. In our 2023 threat predictions report, we also said that edge attacks would go mainstream, and we expect to see even more of this activity in the future. Not only did this happen, but we anticipate that attackers will work to diversify their targets beyond what we typically think of as an edge device. With Flipper Zero and other such tools at their fingertips, money or device mules could hack IoT devices in person by cloning RFID cards or hotel key cards and then running arbitrary commands on devices such as phones and laptops. Recently, Flipper Zero made it possible for attackers to avoid plugging in USB devices in a BadUSB attack. It only takes one employee to connect via Bluetooth before malicious commands get executed. With a zero-day exploit, user interaction may not even be required. The bottom line: The sheer breadth of potential targets and more left-hand activity in the attack chain ensures a constant stream of victims and profitable payouts for cybercriminals. Get off my lawn: The cybercrime turf wars intensify We predicted several years ago that we’d see turf wars emerge between cybercrime groups, with multiple adversaries focusing on the same targets. Today, we’re seeing just that, as multiple cybercrime groups try to infiltrate the same target in a short period – sometimes in a matter of 24 hours or less – deploying ransomware variants of AvosLocker, Diamond, Hive, Karakurt, LockBit, Quantum, and Royal in different combinations. Many organizations that experienced this had similar attacks made against them within days, all led by various adversaries. We can assume other cybercriminals closely monitor communications on the dark web and then run the same attack or piggyback off attacks initially executed by rival threat actors. The growth of this emerging trend prompted the FBI to issue a warning to organizations in September 2023, urging security leaders to review and enhance their defenses to guard against ransomware incidents. We saw that roughly two-thirds of all categorized MITRE ATT&CK techniques were actively used in attacks in the first half of this year, with defense evasion being the top tactic and process injection being used across the board for evasion on compromised systems. Stolen credentials are like an all-access pass for bad actors, enabling them to infiltrate your network to launch ransomware and other attacks. Given how valuable stolen credentials are to threat actors, we predict that the emerging trend…

Hikvision India is Taking AIoT Security Solutions to the Next Level with ‘Make-in-India’ 2.0 Vision

MassMediaLink India LLP SecurityLink IndiaDecember 20, 2023November 28, 2024016 mins

Ahish P. Dhakan MD & CEO Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd. Hikvision India is one of the leading video security solution providers in India. In addition to the security industry, the company extends its reach to Smart Home Products and Solutions, Industrial Automation, and Robotics to achieve its expansion plan. The endeavour is to provide superior pre-sales and post-sales service through collaboration with local distributors and its allied partners. Driven by the ‘Make-in-India’ vision, the company manufactures a wide range of video security products at its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility near Mumbai. Building on innovation and research and development initiatives, Hikvision India is committed to provide best quality products with agile technical support through its Pan India branches and employees. Recently, SecurityLinkIndia had an opportunity to speak to Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India Pvt. Ltd. in length, here are some excerpts: Where do you see the security industry is heading in India? We as one of the leading stakeholders in the Indian physical security market are driving the AIoT product innovations and solutions. We are offering myriad solutions based on the top technology trends that are shaping the future of the security industry. These are AI enabled applications, AIoT technology and multi-dimensional perception capabilities. The cloud computing and cloud based security services are experiencing good growth in the Indian security market. Developments and applications of cutting-edge technologies in this ever-evolving industry such as AI, machine perception, and IoT, are breaking boundaries. We have seen security systems become deeply integrated and more comprehensive. It is expanding capabilities to do more intelligent tasks to improve efficiency in security as well as other operational functions. And all this is happening across many different industries and types of organizations. Hikvision India is experiencing a good growth, while metro cities are the key markets for the advanced AIoT technology driven security products. In the meanwhile Tier-II and Tier-III cities are the emerging markets, they hold big potential for the growth and expansion. How do you find the security market today in India, and what are your strategies to stay ahead in competition? Indian security market continues to be the most lucrative market for products and solutions. The market is brimming with huge opportunities as Indian economy is soaring to new heights. The regional supply chain complexities, policy frame work and price sensitivity continue to be some of the challenges. In the Indian scenario the fastest growing verticals are Homeland Security, Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) and Real Estate. The other key vertical markets like retail, education, transportation, heavy industries, manufacturing and hospitality, are also experiencing growth due to increased demand for security solutions. We continue to bank on customer centric approach and ecosystem partners in the wake of growing competition. What are the key security technology trends that are defining the future of the India security industry? The latest security technology trends are driven by the AIoT technology and diverse applications developed around it. The key trends are as follows: AI applications and open ecosystems We have seen more diversified AI products and applications that help solve intricate problems daily and meet customers’ fragmented needs. AI’s acoustic and textual capabilities are also being explored by the industry, beginning with visual AI. For example, AI-powered audio anomaly detection is being used to detect equipment failures in industrial environments for heightened levels of worker safety. Furthermore, AI technology itself is evolving to the stage of self-learning with training and optimizing itself much faster than supervised learning. All of these require more ecosystems with open technologies, open resources, and even open protocols, for collaborations in the industry. Open technologies, such as container technology and virtualization technology, have significant potential for our industry, which are making hardware products more open. AIoT Trends continue Taking artificial intelligence further, we believe the combination of AI and IoT (AIoT) will continue to be a major trend, reshaping the scope of the security industry. More AIoT solutions have been introduced that will not only provide intelligent protections but also help advance the efficiency of operations in a multitude of industries and organizations. AIoT will create an important path for boosting digital transformation across several industries. This can be done by creating a digital twin, bridging the physical and digital worlds. For example, in industrial park management, virtual sites can be created by applying 3D modeling, using VR and AR technologies to represent and reflect the real ones, empowering them with the dynamic insight to act quickly to make the whole site run smoothly. Visual experiences improve Capturing security imaging with sharp clarity and color around the clock is a core demand for users of video security, but dim light at night has always been the biggest challenge to achieving this. Now, with the development of several new imaging technologies, we are seeing these challenges removed. Bi-spectrum image fusion technology that employs two sensors is being used to combine IR and visible-light imaging to reproduce vivid colors in dim lighting conditions. Artificial Intelligence-based image signal processing (AI-ISP) technology leverages deep-learning algorithms to radically improve visual noise reduction for nighttime image optimization. Multi-dimensional perception capabilities For security applications, perception capabilities are going far beyond visible light, extending out along the electromagnetic spectrum to expand capabilities of perceiving the physical world in new ways. And these multi-dimensional perception capabilities also converge to create innovative solutions that can accomplish a multitude of new operations, such as radar assisted video systems for perimeter protection, integration solutions of video and sonar arrays for traffic management, and alarm systems with a wide range of detectors for smart home applications. Why video security audits are gaining importance in the security industry? Despite all the buzz around AI and IoT, what has not changed over the years in security management is the resilience, discipline, alertness and due diligence, now it is required more than ever despite having the best hardware and software systems. The security managers have a hard task to justify the huge investments incurred in…