Smart cities more resilient to physical and cyber attacks

S4AllCities is a research project funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme that aims to revolutionise the way smart cities are more prepared and resilient to physical and cyber-attacks against their target targets, smart spaces, and critical infrastructures.

On 20-21 October, the consortium presented the results of the research at its final demonstration and workshop in Bilbao. The event marked the culmination of more than two years of research and full-scale technology demonstrations on the security of public spaces, and brought together partners with law enforcement, security operators, first responders, EU smart cities, scientific research organisations, as well as other related EU-funded projects.

The final workshop took place on Friday 21st and followed the successful demonstration of the S4AllCities solution in three European smart cities: Trikala, Greece; Pilsen, Czech Republic; and, Bilbao, Spain. The final pilot, which has completed the development of the project, was carried out by Ertzaintza, the autonomous police force of the Basque Country.

Over the course of the events, the project has demonstrated four advances:

• Successful and timely detection of suspicious events occurring in various areas within a smart city, through a combination of novel and legacy sensors and the integration of large amounts of heterogeneous data.
• Issuing alerts to city security operators, simultaneously presenting information on the risk and resilience of affected infrastructures. Information from the different detection elements is fused and recommendations for appropriate actions are provided, thus assisting the operator’s decision-making process.
• Robust operation and demonstration of the S4AllCities system over extended periods of time in relevant operational environments, leading to validation of the technical and system approach.
• Improved collaboration of city security stakeholders by providing them with a common operational picture of the various incidents occurring in their city and a central point of management of response personnel.

More about S4AllCities and smart cities

S4AllCities ‘Smart Spaces Safety and Security for All Cities’ is a project with a duration of 28 months (1 September 2020 to 31 December 2022) and a total budget of EUR 9.7 million. It brings together leading European academic and research institutions, law enforcement agencies, a transport operator, SMEs with expertise in the fields of software and security and three European smart cities.

Smart cities must ensure a secure physical and digital ecosystem for the well-being of EU citizens. Therefore, the S4AllCities project aims to increase the resilience of city infrastructures, services, ICT systems and the Internet of Things, while promoting the exchange of intelligence and information between security stakeholders.

To achieve this, it integrates advanced technological and organisational solutions into a unified, market-driven cyber-physical security management framework. The system focuses on risk-based security management of smart open spaces, cyber security shielding, suspicious activity, behavioural tracking, identification of unattended objects, real-time estimation of cyber-physical risks in multiple locations and activation of measures for effective crisis management. This work contributes to promoting good security practices in European cities.