Cyber Security Threats to the Smart Cities by Mukhtar Adan

 As the population in the world is intensively growing, the number of people coming from rural areas to cities after the industrial revolution is increasing day after day, to get an environment that can stimulate production and helps economy growing.
  the last calculation of United Nation says, "68% of the world population will live in cities by 2050, adding another 2.5 billion people to urban areas, the fast majority in Asia and Africa. All these newly minted urbanites will need some where to live and work” Wainwright. This huge population gathering in to the cities need to collect and protect all their information and privacy, but to use this big data in the right way is the real challenges confront of smart cities’ builders.
     It is certain that more complex systems are more vulnerable to all kinds and levels, and Smart Cities is one of the most interconnected and complex systems in the world, which increases the level of risks and threats from cyber security attacks. And with the intensive efforts to make the cities more connected to its inhabitants it became necessary to use the Internet of things for all the related systems to control them easily, and to increase the interaction of these systems with the users, artificial intelligence were used, that makes systems more responsive to the users' desires.
       When cyber-attacks targets change from hunting individual to a whole city, which can pose real threat to the national security.  All these advanced technologies used in the basic installations for the construction of smart cities and other technologies has facilitate for hackers and saboteurs to get security gaps for those systems and exploit it for penetration and full control.
       Rather than upgrading serves by special workers, smart cities are using artificial intelligence which gives every system Automatic upgrading permissions and acquiring experience to react with the environment needs, to solve its problems itself, smart systems need to gather more information from other interconnected devises "In the current setting, each new Smart City application created requires its own unique way to fit in and become accessible to its users. What is lacking—and what defines the future—is an underlying common platform allowing such applications to become plug-and-play components in this environment" Cassandras.
              As long as there are more diverse interconnected systems there is no one shred of doubt that hackers will get their way to penetrate these systems and possess full control, by using like viruses and other malicious software which antiviruses can’t get a handle on it after they exploit security gaps. With full control permission hackers can disable more serves which has been connected to the IoT technology (Internet of things) such as vehicle control systems, digital electricity meter, advanced cooling systems parking meter, and such more internet connectable devices.
              Privacy of the users, Classifying and safety of the big data is what information security workers concern mostly, although it may applied different security levels on it, so that the system never be devoid of security gaps which can facilitate partially system penetration “System designers and builders’ aim is to actualize the basic principles of information security, regardless of the risks and attacks which possibly can make it vulnerable” Salih.

         In conclusion, the big data controlling and keeping protected is not easy at all, even when using permissions is allowed only for information technology experts which begs the question how secure the smart cities will be in the next future as long as no way to keep all controlling power and permissions in the hands of experts, because of more valuable information sharing necessity, artificial intelligent machines will meddle in that case. This makes compulsory to put forward a new policies of security protection specified for the smart cities.

1. Author: Eng. Mukhtar Adan Isak

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Work cited
Cassandras‏. G Cassandras. “Smart cities as cyber-physical social systems”, Engineering 2 (2), 156-158, 2016. ‏
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809916309420
Saleh. Mansur. ”Information security of the smart cities”, Science and technology magazine, edition 111, KACST, May 2014,Pp(34-37)
Wainwright. Oliver. “The next era of human progress: what lies behind the global new cities epidemic” The Guardian, 8 Jul 2019.
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jul/08/

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Pros and Cons of College Education by Mukhtar Adan

Posted by: Mukhtar Adan Isak
            In this world, every system has pros and cons so that it’s necessary to be under persistent development all the time, and we all aware of the developing revolutions which involved in every system in this world to reduce its negative sides, which begs the question is the education system also developed enough especially that we are using in the collage?.
            Going to collage became a traditional act for all those interest the science. Truth to be told colleges has positive side and this era it’s considered the most popular source of general science. Every student have ability to study the faculty he interests in specific terms with different education scores. It is basically based to choose the student what will be the future according with his interests. The well prepared curriculum is designed to direct students with different hobbies, attitudes, interests and also going to work in different environments in order to manage successfully their future life.
        In the college atmosphere student will be able to learn useful lessons about the life rather than those he gets from the teachers, meeting with different faces enforces to learn the student powerful communication skills. Working on the college schedule may teach the student to manage his time, where all are “busy, busy time, between class, studying, extracurricular, relaxation and socializing, it might seem that there are just not enough hours in the day. Saying that time manage is a handy skill would be a big understatement. The ability to properly map out your time and navigate a busy schedule is imperative” Wignall.
   

        When we want to compare between a college graduated person and ungraduated in job opportunities we will get that we have to consider the difference sides and important points that can make a big difference between the two, like difference in faculties and specializations, the more experience they gained of the work and other factors that specifies work opportunities and amount of the salaries, but in generally it has no one shred of doubt that the college certificate makes difference in the labor market, because it became the key of jobs world in some cases, “getting a college degree is a pretty good idea. Indeed, if you’re someone who can get into college, going is practically a no-brainer. Those who go to college make more money and have more opportunities than those who don’t” Indiviglio.
               Although all colleges are not same, for example according to many aspects in private institutions, community or public colleges, all defer in stigmas, quality of education, socialization e.c.t , and any student may can get confuse the pest avenue to advance his education, writing about stigmas and facts of community college, Lewis says “with the increasing demand for a higher education degree, coupled with the increased cost of both public and private four year institutions, community college has become an intriguing and advantageous academic avenue for students to consider when making their decision about advancing their education”.
             Colleges have numerous stigmas that differ in its’ assessment among researchers in the teaching systems, and these stigmas are often discussed by critics of the current educational system in the world. The method of differentiation between the students or what known as examinations is not based on scientific outcome of the student, but almost tests, the natural strength of his memory, “encourage cramming rather than true and applicable knowledge; a game of chance and skill; standard of making not uniform; personal moods and approach of the examiners may effect objectivity; one year’s efforts tested in just two-three hours” Soumya. Using same method of communication with different talents gathered in one classroom is absolutely causes misunderstanding ideas to get across, in another word that is like dealing all students as if they are inventors, in that way most of them lose the opportunity of innovation and also the opportunity of gaining acquires of labor market requirements. This increases unemployment problems between graduates around the world for lack of practical experience and also innovation talents. 
             There is special way that we can eliminate some of the college stigmas and that is experiential learning “more colleges have embraced experiential learning, which refers to activities that let students apply the skills they’ve learned in the classroom in a real-world setting. While these opportunities have typically taken the form of study abroad, co-ops and internships, more colleges are experimenting with immersive approaches that go a step beyond such programs” Schwartz.

         Experiential learning that can gain students from the collages can boost their work skills which is a significant way to make real science refer form science fiction “Recent research backs the idea, students who have internships related to their classroom learning or who complete long term projects are more likely to feel engaged with their work upon graduation. And experiential learning is associated with a deeper understanding of course material and the ability to work well with others” Schwartz.


Author: Eng Mukhtar Adan Isak

References:

Indiviglio, Daniel, “The importance of college: A self-Fulfilling prophecy” The Atlantic, Jun 27, 2011 
Lewis, Benjamin, “Removing the stigma of community college” Involvio Blog, 20, Mar, 2018
Schwartz, Natalie, “Colleges get hands-on to teach students real world skills” Educationdive, 30, Jan, 2019
Soumya, “Essay on examinations are a necessary evil” Preserve articles.
Wignall, Allison, “ what you get out of college (besides a degree)” College raptor 2016

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