DHS Releases Guidance Helping Local Authorities Develop Secure Smart Communities

The Department of Homeland Security has released guidance to protect digital technologies and infrastructure used in cities and communities.

The guidance, titled “How to Write a Connected Community Strategy,” helps leaders create a plan for digitally connected infrastructure with the goal of keeping smart devices and services shielded against external and internal threats. The guidance has three parts: defining what a connected community is, identifying smart services and setting the parameters for secure service delivery.

The guidance is designed so future smart cities and smart communities can be created while keeping cyberthreats at bay.

The resource also informs municipal leaders of various cybersecurity grant programs available to state, local, territorial and tribal governments, the DHS said.

The guidance is one of several documents the DHS and its agencies issued to promote cybersecurity.

In mid-September, the DHS included a warning in its annual Homeland Threat Assessment report about how malicious actors use artificial intelligence to disrupt critical infrastructure operations. According to the report, state-backed hackers use AI to infiltrate services, as well as develop faster and more efficient malware for large-scale attacks.