Smart cities without strong cybersecurity can leave utilities extremely vulnerable

Average citizens may be the greatest liability to smart cities

Smart cities utilize massive datasets to enhance mobility, resource utilization, and public safety. However, this data can also be compromised if mishandled by residents, making citizen awareness of risks a key component of cybersecurity efforts.

Are smart cities a dumb idea?

Smart cities require vast troves of data to run, making their systems attractive to hackers. Listen to this one hour podcast to learn about the risks and what is being done to mitigate them.

The benefits and risks of smart grids, from improved efficiency to cybersecurity risks

By using a network of devices, including digital meters, sensors, and controllers, smart grids can quickly detect mechanical issues and fluctuations in supply and demand, automatically adjusting electricity flow to prevent cascading failures. While this is important for variable solar and wind power generation, many of these computer systems are designed to be controlled remotely, which increases the risk of malicious access.

Many issues facing urban environments cannot be solved by smart technologies

Although connecting systems to the Internet of Things can provide improved efficiency in municipal systems, problems such as limited affordable housing are driven by larger socioeconomic factors. Some experts suggest that local governments should focus resources on practical solutions to these issues rather than investing in smart technologies.

Connected technology improves infrastructure efficiency in smart cities

Through information and communication technologies, smart cities can provide enhanced public services and improved quality of life by managing traffic and dynamic safety policies. They can also promote sustainability by automating energy use and redirecting resources according to need.

As of 2025, there are no federal laws involving privacy and smart city technologies

Advancements in cloud technology and artificial intelligence allow cities to capture, store, and analyze more information than ever before. Experts warn that the unhindered ability to collect and use this data may infringe on residents' rights and endanger them if the data gets into the hands of malicious parties.

Artificial intelligence may further enhance smart city data analysis

Identifying patterns within systems in the Internet of Things may enable AI tools to make informed decisions regarding transportation, safety, and sustainability without human intervention. However, such tools will also need to successfully address concerns about privacy, digital equity, and algorithmic bias.

Smart city systems can increase positive feelings toward local government

A 2018 study analyzed 50 global cities to determine whether smart city technologies enhance residents' quality of life. It found that these technologies can decrease the time spent interacting with healthcare and government by 45% to 65%, while also decreasing the disease burden by 8% to 15%.

Minor technology failures can spiral into massive internet outages

A mix of centralized cloud infrastructure and legacy protocols leaves the internet susceptible to downtime from minor cyberattacks or software bugs, infrastructure damage caused by extreme weather, and human error if a DNS service provider—the internet's phone book—or a backend system, such as Amazon Web Services, were compromised.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

Discover what would happen in the US if the electric grid permanently went down

While the grid is designed with redundancies and to restart quickly in the event of an interruption, a long-term, widespread blackout would cut off most telecommunications, water, and sewage systems and cause supermarkets, which keep only about three days of inventory, to quickly empty. Without electricity and the transportation systems that rely on it, modern food production would also halt.

The Internet of Things connects everyday objects to the internet

The IoT enables physical devices to share data collected via sensors or specialized software, often without human intervention. Controlling the air conditioning and heating in one's home via an app, as well as receiving alerts when away from home about someone at the door, is made possible by the IoT.

Smart cities like Songdo, South Korea, have created isolating environments

Built as a futuristic, eco-friendly city filled with smart features like pneumatic trash systems and app-controlled homes, the town provides limited opportunities for face-to-face interactions amid sterile backdrops. A focus on high-rise housing amplifies the lonely, disconnected atmosphere.

Your device can become infected with malware by simply browsing the internet

During a drive-by download attack, security flaws in a program or operating system (e.g., Windows) used to access online content are exploited, and malicious code is downloaded—for example, when loading a hacked webpage—onto a user's device without their knowledge. Restricting internet browsing to safe sites and installing security updates helps prevent these attacks.

Explore the components of autonomous vehicles controls

A suite of cutting-edge hardware and computation-intensive software creates the potential for self-driving cars to be safer, more fuel-efficient, and more accessible to a broader range of drivers. However, automation also introduces potential cybersecurity threats.

Implanted neurotechnology can leave users vulnerable when manufacturers go under

Despite providing relief from neurological conditions, patients are left stranded when the companies that make these devices shut down. The lack of regulation means patients often face technical failure, insurance battles, or risky surgeries to maintain their quality of life.

Security technician hacks a voting machine to reveal its vulnerabilities

A technician bought an old, likely-decommissioned voting machine from 2013 and took it apart to see how a would-be hacker might be able to exploit its vulnerabilities. Get a sense of the needs for secure, up-to-date voting machines with this...

Technical vulnerabilities prevent full-proof anonymity when browsing the dark web

Despite encrypting data and relaying it within the Tor network, traffic between the network exit and the final destination is no longer hidden and can be captured. Law enforcement agencies can also attempt to deanonymize users by monitoring and matching data signal patterns entering and leaving the network via a correlation algorithm.

Explaining how open source systems like Linux can be secure, despite their public source code

While no computer system is immune to all cyberattacks and malware, the transparency of open-source technology means many thousands of developers can review and oversee the underlying code powering the software on an ongoing basis. This increases the likelihood of catching and patching vulnerabilities more quickly than smaller groups of cybercriminals looking to exploit them.

Prompt viruses can exploit and take advantage of integrated AI systems

AI agents—software that can complete requested tasks without ongoing human direction—are expected to increasingly communicate with one another as users and businesses incorporate AI. Providing malicious, self-replicating instructions through prompt injection attacks can cause damaging commands to cascade across systems and services (e.g., banking), without requiring human intervention.

The CISA’s strategy for secure 5G

CISA, through the National Risk Management Center (NRMC), is leading risk mitigation efforts by working with government and industry partners to ensure the security and resiliency of 5G technology and infrastructure.

How to prepare for cyberattacks

An easy-to-digest checklist on the many ways you want protect yourself from a cyberattack before it happens, if it happens, and after it happens.

Visualizing cyberattacks by country

Cyber crime is expected to cost the global economy trillions per year by 2025. This data illustration showcases the countries with the most severe cyber attacks from 2006-2020.

Noise from data centers may disrupt wildlife and local residents

Individuals living where local ordinances have allowed data centers to be built next to residential areas have reported that the constant humming and vibrations from cooling systems have prevented them from sleeping and exposed them to chronic noise, which the American Public Health Association says can lead to cardiovascular disease and increased stress.

Invasive species can harm infrastructure and threaten human health

The wildfires in Hawaii in 2022 were made worse by flammable invasive grasses introduced from Africa as livestock pasture, and Zebra mussels native to the Caspian and Black Seas have spread across Europe and the US, where they can clog power plant pipes. Invasive mosquitoes can carry diseases, such as dengue and malaria.

Sanctuary cities limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement

Sanctuary cities limit how local agencies help ICE—such as restricting detainers, jail transfers, or data sharing—while still enforcing criminal law, leaving immigration enforcement mostly to federal authorities.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

The American Society of Civil Engineers' infrastructure report card gave the US a C in 2025, its highest grade since the project launched in 1998.

An investigation suggests a Scottish island became awash in forever chemicals via seafoam and seaspray—raising questions about what that means for the safety of other coastal areas.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

Ebola infects and disables immune cells, triggering a cascade of events that leads to small blood clots throughout the body, weakening blood vessels and interrupting blood flow to key organs.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Studies suggest when you sleep is as important as how much you get, and syncing with your circadian rhythms may lead to less fatigue and improved long-term health outcomes

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Firework or sparkler burns, even if they cover a relatively small area of skin, can significantly affect our range of motion.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Mark Twain spent decades feuding with the US Postal Service, convinced its costs and regulations were bureaucratic overreach.