Energy Reports 7 (2021) 7999–8012

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Energy Reports
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr

Smart city and cyber-security; technologies used, leading challenges

and future recommendations
Chen Ma
Research Center for Smart Policing and Big Data Technology, China People’s Police University, Lang Fang, He Bei, 065000, China

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: Today, some cities around the world have tended to use new technologies and become smart city.
Received 5 July 2021 New technologies improve the quality of citizens’ life. However, the use of any technology raises
Received in revised form 5 August 2021 new issues and challenges. In a smart city, the vulnerable action of an individual or organization
Accepted 18 August 2021
can put the entire city at risk. Due to the reliance of various components of smart cities on
Available online 3 September 2021
information and communication technology, cyber-security challenges (such as information leakage
Keywords: and malicious cyber-attacks) in this field affect smart cities behavior. Therefore, in order to respond
Smart city to the enthusiastic acceptance of global smart city technologies, cyber security must develop in
Cyber-attacks same direction. The aim of this paper is survey and discus on explanation of cyber security, smart
Cyber-security cities, and survey of available relevant literature on security in that technology. For this purpose, the
Challenges and recommendations present study focuses on the four main components of a smart city, i.e. smart grid, Smart building,
Deep learning Smart transportation system, and Smart healthcare. In particular, summary of two deep learning
method and cyber-security programs as well as technology correlation in smart cities are discussed.
Furthermore, effective functional solutions in maintaining cyber-security and user privacy in smart
cities are explained. The next progress trends of smart city with cyber security are described. Solutions
need to be devised to address each of the security issues. The research in this study showed that
meeting these challenges depends on the hard work of governments, developers of equipment and
software and companies providing IT security services. In addition, designing flexible systems with high
information protection capabilities is essential to prevent serious security incidents as these incidents
can lead to disastrous financial, data, credit and loss of public trust.
© 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction providing appropriate and efficient services. Urban services can

The meaning of smart city implies the integration of current
substructure with new information and communication tech-
nologies to create a comprehensive system of efficient urban
services (Maruf et al., 2020). A smart city is a city that connects
physical infrastructure, information technology infrastructure, so-
cial infrastructure and business infrastructure to strengthen the
city’s collective intelligence (V et al., 2018). Smart city is huge, in-
tricate, and dependent technologies that face numerous technical,
economic, political, and social challenges and issues (Al-Saidi and
Zaidan, 2020). Economic and investment, the ever-changing re-
quirements of individuals, stakeholder cooperation, user-friendly
jointing, safety and security are instances of the issues and chal-
lenges that smart city faces (Aghajani and Ghadimi, 2018). There
are generally six areas in which cities can befit smarter: smart
government, smart people, smart economy, smart transportation,
environment and living (Razmjoo et al., 2021). Smart cities sup-
plied the requirements of businesses, citizens, and institutions by
E-mail address: mulanchenchen@sohu.com.
be expanded in various fields such as environment, transporta-
tion, health, tourism, energy management and homes safety (Vi-
tunskaite et al., 2019). Despite the benefits of developing smart
cities for citizens, businesses, the environment, etc., these cities
are exposed to numerous cyber-security threats that make it
difficult to create a security maturity in them (Baig et al., 2017). In
a smart city, the vulnerable action of an individual or organization
can put the entire city at risk (Zhou et al., 2021). This complex
city is also an important challenge for digital court investigations.
Ensuring security in a smart city means maintaining data and the
lattice from any attacks and bad actions (Sengan et al., 2020).
Cyber-security of software and hardware made for smart city
is not commonly assessed by their vendors. Therefore, the use
of such insecurity products can lead to the system being filled
with fake data, system stopped, and malfunction through hack-
ing (Sengan et al., 2021). In addition to cyber-security, another
issue is the protection of privacy and citizens’ relations with
the government (Chen, 2021). The possibility of intrusion into
users’ privacy and the lack of cyber security in smart cities will
make users’ use of this technology questionable (Lim et al., 2021).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2021.08.124
2352-4847/© 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-
nd/4.0/).
C. Ma
The first step in overcoming cyber security problems in smart
cities and protecting citizens’ privacy is to identify cyber security
challenges and threats to citizens’ privacy (El Hilali and Azougagh,
2021). Without being aware of such challenges, and providing
appropriate solutions, one cannot expect successful design, im-
plementation, and development of a smart city (Kashef et al.,
2021). On the other hand, according to data published by the
United Nations, the world’s population will reach about 7.9 billion
by the end of 2050. It is estimated that approximately 75% of the
population of world will be in the cities, and several cities will
have a population of over 10 million people.
Today, deep learning is widely used on data collected by
researchers. Deep learning is a type of machine learning and
artificial intelligence that actually mimics the way the human
mind uses to learn a particular subject, and has many appli-
cations in the smart city (Atitallah et al., 2020). Deep learning
can continuously gather and monitor information and help the
system adapt to new spaces (Singh et al., 2020). Deep learning
is a branch of artificial intelligence that benefits neural net-
works to machine learning. In recent years, compared to tra-
ditional machine learning methods, computer vision programs
have made significant advances in natural language processing,
robotics, and many other areas compared to traditional machine
learning methods (Belhadi et al., 2021). The purpose of this paper
is to identify and investigate the challenges of cyber security
in smart cities (according to deep learning), and to determine
practical and effective solutions to address or reduce the impact
of these challenges. In this regard, other sections of the present
paper are structures as:
In the second Section, after introducing the smart city, its
mechanisms and components are explained in detail. The third
section deals with the cyber-security situation relying to the deep
learning model in smart cities. Fig. 1 describes the use of that
pattern in the smart city based-cyber security. Then, literature
review of cyber-security challenges and threats to users’ privacy
in smart cities is provided. In the fifth Section, effective func-
tional solutions in maintaining cyber-security and user privacy in
smart cities are explained. Finally, the last section is devoted to
conclusion.
2. Concept definition
2.1. Smart city
In recent years, cities have moved towards using more tech-
nologies and becoming smarter. New technologies, along with
fast and simple communications, enable cities to make better
use of their sources, save money, and enable supreme services
to their citizens (Lebrument et al., 2021). Competition between
cities to attract capital, new residents and tourists has led to more
attention to providing a high quality of life and dynamic economic
situation (Thornbush and Golubchikov, 2021). Governments have
concluded that while limited budgets, scarce resources, and out-
dated systems frequently challenge their goals, innovative tech-
nologies can turn those challenges into opportunities (Secinaro
et al., 2021). According to Chen et al. (2021), a smart city is a city
that benefits system to automatize and modify municipal duties
and improve the citizens lives. Smart City benefits digital systems
to correct the performance and modality of urban services to
decline financial burden, and consumption of resource and to
communicate actively and efficiently with citizens (Barr et al.,
2021). With the smart city technology advent, sectors such as
government services and management of traffic, transportation,
energy, water, health, and waste have developed (Bjørner, 2021;
Behzad et al., 2021). The smart city consists of different types
of Internet of Thing (IoT) sensors. These sensors include smart
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parking sensors, structured health awareness, instantaneous ur-
ban noise mapping, traffic control, lane optimization, and smart
lighting (Nakano and Washizu, 2021). The IoT is an active tech-
nology used for the mentioned components of the smart city.
However, the cloud is an active platform for storing and interpret-
ing centralized smart city data (Qayyum et al., 2021). Smart city
architecture can include the following sections (as demonstrated
in Fig. 2):
1. Smart government: Smart government builds value for sustain-
able public production by leveraging ICT integration for planning,
management, and operations in a single layer or across layers.
In other words, in smart government, it is the implementation
of business processes based on information and communication
technology that activates the continuity of information between
government and the provision of high quality services. Smart
government is the next step for e-government (Chatfield and Red-
dick, 2019). The smart government uses instantaneous informa-
tion to reduce crimes by increasing the level of situational aware-
ness, providing effective and efficient response to accidents, in-
vestigating emergencies, and improving municipal services. Fig. 3
depicts the main goals of a smart government (Witanto et al.,
2018).
2. Smart healthcare: Smart healthcare is a health service that uses
technologies such as wearable, the Internet of Things, and mobile
Internet to dynamically access information, connecting people,
health facilities, and institutions. Finally, it actively manages the
needs of the ecosystem, and responds to them smarter (Wang
et al., 2021). Smart healthcare consists of several basic com-
ponents: physicians, patients, hospitals, and medical research
institutes. Intelligent health care has various dimensions includ-
ing disease prevention, patient monitoring, diagnosis and treat-
ment, hospital management, health decision making and medi-
cal research. Remote monitoring can be achieved by wirelessly
connecting smart devices to health centers and data analysis
systems (Singh and Chatterjee, 2021). The process in a smart city
equipped with smart healthcare is described in Fig. 4.
3. Smart energy: The traditional energy grid infrastructure does
not meet the growing needs of communities. Demand for relia-
bility, scalability, manageability, environmentally friendly energy
production and cost-effectiveness has necessitated a smart and
modern energy grid (Kourgiozou et al., 2021). A smart energy
grid equipped with IC technology capabilities can back two-way
communication and electrical currents between different entities
in the grid (see Fig. 5) (Ahmad and Zhang, 2021). The smart grid
enables immediate monitoring, ensuring optimal power flows
between the power grid and clients. It also enables the produc-
tion of environmentally friendly energy by integrating renew-
able energy sources into the grid (on both the Power Company
and consumers) (Behzad et al., 2021; Huang and Marefati, 2020;
Mehrpooya et al., 2021).
4. Smart transportation: In modern traffic management systems,
the optimal use of existing facilities and modern technologies is
in the goals of planners. In this regard, one of the ultimate goals
of traffic management systems is to increase network efficiency
as well as increase the safety of vehicles and humans and reduce
travel time. In order to achieve the above goal, the transportation
network needs efficient systems in order to serve the trans-
portation sector and on the other hand, proper management of
these systems (Jeong et al., 2021). The most important advan-
tages of using smart transportation systems are reducing traffic
congestion, increasing the level of safety, saving time, reducing
fuel consumption, and improving the level of service. Among
the notable devices of this system are monitoring and recording
systems of violations, meteorological status information system,
driver warning system and vehicle information system and ease
of fast and timely implementation of the law by the police and
C. Ma
Fig. 1. Application of deep learning model in the smart city and cyber-security (Chen et al., 2021).
Fig. 2. Architecture of smart city (Chen et al., 2021).
increasing social security. According to the definition of ERSI,
smart transportation systems can be divided into four groups:
active road safety to improve road safety, location based services,
cooperative traffic efficiency to improve traffic psychology, and
global internet services. Vehicular Ad hoc networks are part of
a smart transportation system created by a large number of
high-speed vehicles (Tao et al., 2021).
5. Smart building: Smart buildings use sensors and grid tech-
nologies to communicate between building equipment, report
a smart meter of recorded energy consumption to the smart
grid, and enable data to be transmitted from the smart grid to
the building. These buildings are expected to dynamically adjust
their energy profiles based on smart grid capabilities, as well
as allow building owners to remotely monitor building equip-
ment (Mehrpooya et al., 2021; Lyu et al., 2021). Obviously, the
interaction of the smart building with the smart grid leads to the
fulfillment of some of the main goals of the smart grid. Some
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of the most important benefits of this interaction are: demand
response, effective feedback, peak shaving, and energy exchange.
In general, the smart building platform has two parts: building
operational technology and external information technology (see
Fig. 6) (Eini et al., 2021).
In addition to the above components of architecture and smart
city components, smart economy, security, logistics, education,
and smart environment components can also be considered for
it (Al Dakheel et al., 2020; Li et al., 2020; Aborokbah et al., 2018).
2.2. Cyber security
Companies transfer sensitive information over systems when
conducting business. Meanwhile, cyber-security protects the in-
formation and information processing or storage systems by pro-
viding a set of hardware and software solutions (Tam et al., 2021).
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Fig. 3. Main goals of a smart government.

Fig. 4. Process in a smart city equipped with smart healthcare (http://anyk.com/)

The importance of protecting information increases with increas-
ing scale and complexity. Among these, social security data and fi-
nancial data are of high priority (Tam et al., 2021). Cyber-security
means protecting systems, networks and programs against digital
attacks. Accessing, alteration and destruction of important infor-
mation, extortion of money from users and disruption of business
processes are the goals of cyber-attacks (Hasan et al., 2021). Im-
plementing cyber-security effectively and correctly is one of the
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challenges of today’s world; because both the number of devices
has increased and hackers have become more creative (Katsanto-
nis et al., 2021). Cyber-security protects computers, servers, mo-
bile phones, and electronic systems from malicious attacks and its
function can be summarized: protecting the devices that people
use, protecting the information on these devices, and protecting
the identity of the people who use this information (Uchendu
C. Ma Energy Reports 7 (2021) 7999–8012

Fig. 5. Smart grid architecture (Sayed and Gabbar, 2017).

Fig. 6. Platform of smart building.

et al., 2021). Without cyber security, organizations cannot de-
fend themselves against data breaches and hacking attacks and
become a simple target for cyber-attackers. Security risks are
increasing due to the expansion of communications on a global
scale and the use of cloud services to store sensitive and personal
information (Alhayani et al., 2021). In general, cyber-security
threats are divided into three categories (Gunes et al., 2021):
(a) Cyber-crime: A person or group that targets systems to
monetize or sabotage;
(b) Cyber-attack: Often politically motivated with the goal of
purposefully gathering information;
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(c) Cyber-terrorism: Aims to intimidate by destroying elec-
tronic systems.
In addition, the most common methods of threatening cyber-
security include Malware (viruses, Trojans, ransom-ware, spy-
ware, Adware, and Botnets), SQL injection, Phishing, Man-in-
the-middle attack, Denial-of-service attack, and Social engineer-
ing (Huang et al., 2020). Table 1 summarizes the various security
solutions available to companies.
2.3. Deep learning
Deep learning is a part of machine learning and examines on
the study and development of machines that can learn (Liu and
C. Ma Energy Reports 7 (2021) 7999–8012

Table 1
A summary of the various security solutions available to companies and organizations.
Type of cyber security
Critical infrastructure
security
Network security
Improve security by relying
on security programs
Information security
Improve security by relying
on the cloud
Post-disaster recovery plan
Operational security
IoT security
User training
Application security
Description
Providing cyber-security to critical infrastructure means protecting communications networks, energy transmission networks,
water purifiers, traffic lights, points of sale, and health centers. These centers may not be directly related to cyber-attacks,
but they can be used as a platform for malware to enter the endpoints of the systems to which they are connected.
Network security protects the computer network from disruptors, which can be malware or hacking. Network security is a
set of solutions that enable organizations to keep computer networks out of the reach of hackers, organized attackers, and
malware.
Software and hardware solutions such as intrusion detection systems, firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, anti-virus, and
anti-malware can be used to protect applications.
Information security protects data integrity and privacy. This is done both in storage media and when transferring data.
Most organizations seek to use artificial intelligence to improve their businesses, enhance customer experience, and improve
performance. By implementing potential security solutions, cloud service companies are allowing organizations to store and
manage large amounts of data that are prone to security challenges outside of the corporate network.
In the event of a cyber-attack, it is best to use a post-disaster recovery program to restore healthy information so that
businesses can continue (disaster recovery and business continuity)
Operational security includes the processes and decisions that are taken to control and protect data.
Intelligent equipment and sensors that interact with the IoT ecosystem can best protect commercial equipment by providing
companies with instant information that provides accurate reporting on equipment performance.
User training refers to unpredictable cyber-security. Anyone can accidentally get a virus into the security system. User
training to remove suspicious email attachments, not connecting to anonymous USBs, and other critical issues should be part
of any company’s corporate security plan.
Application security focuses on the maintenance of software and devices. Before implementing the device or program, its
security must be provided.

Fig. 7. Classification of deep learning methods. (Note that: CNN: Convolutional Neural Networks; SPP: Spatial Pyramid Pooling; VGG: Visual Geometry Group; RBM:
Restricted Boltzmann machine; SPM: Spatial Pyramid Matching)

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Zhang, 2021). In other words, deep learning with data processing
and similar to a human, by learning pre-learned examples, tries
to extract specific features automatically, through the number of
sequential layers in its structure in order to create a model for
decision-making in solving a problem (Nagarajan et al., 2021).
The existence of this number of different layers allows deep
learning to be able to discover specific features of the problem
in each layer and use it to make better decisions in solving the
problem (Liu et al., 2020). Deep learning is based on uninter-
rupted investigation and discovery of complex data structures.
The learning process is achieved by building computational mod-
els called neural networks that are inspired by the structure of the
brain (Lee et al., 2021). The structure of the network consists of
several processing layers. Deep learning seeks the efficiency of the
unknown structure in the input distribution in order to discover
good representation by a hierarchical structure of concepts that
are the same as the processing layers (Zhang et al., 2021). Deep
learning is now able to create new data after learning from unla-
beled input data. Hence, it has become a ‘‘creative intelligence’’.
For example, conflict generating networks, which are the most
popular deep generating models today, can produce high quality
images, improve image quality, convert image to text, and be used
in cyber-security to simulate attacks, help medicine diagnose
cancer with new realistic scans and be used in a wide range of
other endless possibilities (Aslam et al., 2020). Note that, deep
learning following artificial intelligence has entered the field. This
learning has come to the aid of artificial intelligence to respond
more naturally to human needs and wants. Fig. 7 shows the
classification of deep learning methods with the work done with
each of methods. Convolutional and recurrent neural networks
are common types of neural networks.
The former is a deep learning algorithm that receives the input
image, and assigns importance to each of the objects/aspects in
the image and is able to distinguish them from each other. This
algorithm requires less pre-processing compared to other classifi-
cation algorithms. While the primary method filters are manually
engineered, the convolutional neural network acquires the ability
to learn these filters/specifications with sufficient training (Tem-
bely et al., 2021). Latter is a type of artificial neural network
used in speech recognition, natural language processing, as well
as in sequential data processing. Unlike convolutional, recurrent
neural networks have a feedback layer in which the network
output, along with the next input is returned to the network.
Recurrent neural network can remember its previous input due to
its internal memory and use this memory to process a sequence
of inputs. In other words, recurrent neural networks consist of a
recursive loop that prevents information from previous moments
from being lost and remains in the network (Su et al., 2021). Fig. 8
shows the illustrations of these two neural networks.
3. Cyber security in smart cities
Cities need to adopt new smart technologies to become smart.
Every new technology or urban system gives a new opportunity
to cyber attackers. For example, many communications between
traffic control systems and traffic lights in intelligent traffic con-
trol systems take place without any encryption or authentication,
allowing the attacker to modify or forge data (Tabaa et al., 2020).
One of the most important attacks on the smart grid is the denial
of service through channel congestion, computational flooding of
equipment with low computing power (such as smart meters),
distributed denial of service to SCADA, or delaying a time-critical
message that may cause widespread shutdown (Marahatta et al.,
2021; Ebrahimian et al., 2018). Forgery of data from various
sensors is another potential threat in the urban area; For example,
forging sensors to detect earthquakes, floods, shootings, etc. can
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cause erroneous warnings and cause public fear (Marahatta et al.,
2021). Eavesdropping on consumer data reported from a smart
building to a smart meter by an attacker is a major risk to
customer privacy. In addition, forging a customer identity by
an attacker to remotely control building equipment can cause
various damages to the customer (Parasol, 2016).
High dependence on the information network certainly ex-
poses the smart grid to possible vulnerabilities related to com-
munications and grid equipment. In traditional power grids, grid
control systems were kept isolated from insecure environments
such as the Internet. However, in the smart grid, cyber-attacks
on the grid infrastructure can be easily carried out from different
parts of the infrastructure (Ben Slama, 2021). For example, an
attacker does not need to access enclosed sites or systems (such
as generators, substations, command centers, etc.) to damage the
power delivery process. An attacker can easily launch an attack
from anywhere on the smart grid (Dehdarian and Tucci, 2021).
Malicious intrusion into the grid will have various severe conse-
quences for the smart grid. These consequences include leaks of
customer information, sequences of failures such as massive shut-
downs, and failure of generators and infrastructure (Singh et al.,
2021). The smart distribution grid is a set of new technologies
whose main purpose is to modernize the electricity distribution
grid by integrating telecommunication systems and information
technology in it. Smart distribution grid information infrastruc-
ture consists of a set of software and databases. Smart grid
information infrastructure software needs to communicate with
each other in order to function properly and coordinate (Panda
and Das, 2021). Millions of vital equipment is used in smart grid,
and this equipment is related to SCADA server. Cyber-attacks on
SCADA systems such as STUXNET are rigid threats to that sys-
tem. Currently, the Open-Source Vulnerability Database contains
1096 vulnerabilities related to industrial control systems (Ma-
sood et al., 2019). Table 2 describes the security threats of this
subsystem.
One of the security challenges of smart buildings is privacy
breaches. User privacy is a major concern in the smart grid. To
optimize smart grid performance and maximize user benefits,
high-frequency user power consumption data is transferred from
users’ smart meters to other smart grid entities (Li et al., 2021).
This compromises user privacy. Sensitive information about the
user may be disclosed, such as the user’s power consumption pat-
terns, the type of electrical equipment used, whether the building
is empty or full, etc. (Kumar et al., 2021). In addition, traces left
by electric vehicle charges can be used by various entities such
as charging stations and suppliers to profile the consumption
and location of electric vehicles and violate the privacy of users.
Furthermore, by eavesdropping the attacker may obtain private
information about the client and violate privacy (Xie et al., 2021).
Another security challenge of smart buildings is change or repeats
the message. An attacker could challenge the security of a smart
building by changing or repeating various messages. An attacker
could change messages containing smart meter measurement
data (Alanne, 2021). Since measurement data is used for a variety
of purposes (such as managing power flows in the grid, planning
future grid development, building new generation capacity, and
billing), manipulation of valid data can cause financial losses
to smart grid entities and undermine grid stability. An attacker
could insert new consumption messages or repeat old consump-
tion messages of a device into the smart meter and impose a
financial charge on the customer for energy that has not been
consumed (Kermani et al., 2021). The customer sells electricity to
the grid by installing distributed energy sources in the building
if needed. It also imports energy from the smart grid by using
an electric vehicle in an emergency to protect the grid from
overload breakdowns (Shamel et al., 2016). Any message sent
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Fig. 8. Illustrations of two common types of neural networks.

Table 2
Security threats to power grid subsystems (Ahmed Jamal et al., 2021; Al-Ghamdi, 2021; Alghamdie, 2021).
Type of security threat Description
Denial of Service One of the main goals of the attackers is to disrupt the monitoring and control activities of the SCADA Center. Traffic flood attacks
from various systems connected to SCADA can prevent the service of this center. Attackers try to disrupt the smart grid by
consuming computing resources and bandwidth.
Forgery of identity An attacker can disrupt the identity of any of the control and monitoring devices. For example, if an attacker poses as an
intelligent electronic monitoring device, it can send fake open/close messages to the switches, disrupting the subscribers’ power
protection and power outage systems.
Delay Some of the messages exchanged in the transmission and distribution system are time-critical and must be transmitted within a
short period of time (3 to 500 ms). It is enough for the attacker to delay sending these messages a little, to have the effect of
denial of service attack.
Distort the message Targeted change of messages sent to the control centers causes incorrect view of the grid status to the control center. As a result,
incorrect control messages are sent to various devices and the normal operation of the grid is disturbed.
Eavesdropping Eavesdropping on information sent from various equipment and sensors to the SCADA center gives the attacker sufficient
knowledge of the power situation and provides the potential for further attacks such as change or repetition.

from the smart grid to the smart building can be manipulated
by the attacker and cause large-scale instability of the smart
grid (Mashayekhi and Heravi, 2020). The malicious customer can
change the message containing the building consumption data
from the smart meter to the electricity company and refuse to pay
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for electricity consumption. Changing the messages containing
dynamic electricity price signals from the electricity market to
the customer causes receiving wrong prices from the customer
and as a result inappropriate decisions for when to use high-
consumption electrical appliances by the customer and finally
C. Ma
Fig. 9. Basic items of the security challenges of smart buildings.
impose a financial burden on the customer and increase load
on the smart grid (Salerno et al., 2021). In addition, an attacker
could act as a smart meter and report incorrect amounts of energy
consumption to the smart grid, and incorrectly request/enter
energy signals to be distributed to energy sources and electric
vehicles, or receive signals from the smart grid. The attacker
can also position himself as a customer and remotely control
the building’s electrical equipment. In the impersonation of the
device by the attacker, the customer makes a mistake in remote
control and does not control the considered device (Feng et al.,
2020). Fig. 9 shows the basic items of the security challenges of
smart buildings.
The types of security challenges in a smart transportation
system can be divided into suspend message, fake information,
denial of service, forgery of identity, eavesdropping, and hard-
ware manipulation. Fake information occurs when information
sent by an attacker, such as certificates, alerts, security messages,
and IDs, is incorrect. The attacker alters, falsifies, or repeats data
to mislead other drivers (Xie et al., 2020). Denial of service oc-
curs when attackers send large volumes of irrelevant messages,
clogging the communication channel and consuming computing
resources of other nodes. The purpose of this attack type is to
disable the case network of a vehicle that can have vital conse-
quences in the event of an emergency (Yan et al., 2020). Also,
forgery of identity occurs when an attacker pretends to be an
authenticated vehicle or a roadside unit. Attackers use malicious
IDs that have been hacked to inject malicious information into the
network and mislead other vehicles. Eavesdropping also occurs
when an attacker in a car or on a fake roadside unit eavesdrops
on wireless communications in a car network (Geng et al., 2019).
An attacker could gain access to the confidential data of the target
vehicles, including the real identity of the drivers, their priorities
or even their credit card information, and seriously infringe on
the drivers privacy. Message suspension occurs as an attacker
holds messages for a while before sending. An attacker electively
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holds messages packets from the system that may contain vital
data for specific recipients (Saharan et al., 2020). One purpose
of attack could be to forbid insurance authorities from being
aware of the accident involving the attacking vehicle or to avoid
reporting the accident to roadside access points. Eventually, hard-
ware manipulation occurs when in-vehicle sensors or roadside
unit hardware are tampered with by attackers. For example, an
attacker could manipulate traffic lights in front of him that are
always green (Chen et al., 2017).
Security vulnerabilities in smart healthcare technologies will
have different outcomes for sick. Security vulnerabilities in ser-
vice procurers can result in legal penalties, financial losses, or loss
of reputation (Cao et al., 2020). Since wearable medical devices
determine health status of an individual they can easily violate a
person’s privacy. In addition, because the device is accompanied
by the patient, the capability to show the system can easily
determine the absence or presence of a person in a specific place
and violate the spatial privacy of the user. Moreover, by tracking
the connections between the source and destination nodes, it is
easy to locate patients and service providers and thus violate
their location (Yang et al., 2021). Today, most applications of
private health have been expanded for tablets and smartphones.
Conservation approaches are mostly not sufficient for these appli-
cations. Many smartphone applications send information to third
parties without the user’s notice, including the unique device ID,
phone location, and even personal information such as age and
gender. Malware may access a variety of information, including
text messages, calls, videos, and call history, as part of a health
care program. Malware can forward fake messages to people in
the contact list or record audio (Zhong et al., 2021). On the other
hand, online health-based social networks are widely used by
users. There are several vulnerabilities in various components of
these social networks including client side code, server side code,
web server, etc. These vulnerabilities allow an attacker to perform
various attacks, including stealing a user’s session, changing a
C. Ma
website, publishing a worm, accessing unauthorized resources,
stealing an ID, etc. (Tian et al., 2019). The communication channel
that connects the nodes may be implemented by physical media
and various routing and communication protocols. The physical
layer of the network must be resistant to a variety of attacks,
including congestion, eavesdropping, and blocking. Most commu-
nications between monitoring devices, body sensors, and medical
care providers are wireless (Tariq et al., 2020). Therefore, secu-
rity issues of wireless communications in medical care networks
are also raised. Bluetooth, for example, which is widely used in
medical applications, is prone to man-in-the-middle attacks and
battery discharge. Finally, an attacker could exploit vulnerabilities
in the hardware of medical devices to launch attacks (Creaney
et al., 2021).
3.1. Literature review
In general, researchers have discussed cyber security chal-
lenges and threats to users’ privacy in smart cities from different
points of view, the most important of which are mentioned
below.
AlDairi (2017) with a detailed review of research related to
major security challenges and current solutions in smart cities
introduced infrastructure security as an effective factor on infor-
mation and data security in smart cities. There are many risks
and vulnerabilities in the physical-cyber substructure benefits in
urban intelligence. Urban infrastructure, including power sup-
ply, water distribution, streets, buildings, etc. faces numerous
security threats in main physical-cyber systems. These compo-
nents and systems include cameras, communication networks,
building management systems, transportation management sys-
tems. Ijaz et al. (2016) divided privacy challenges into commu-
nication and business privacy. Communication privacy challenges
included eavesdropping, denial of service, malicious manipulation
and attacks, channel attacks, detection, and secondary use. In
addition, phishing business privacy challenges included scams
and attacks on data integrity. Baig et al. provided a comprehen-
sive view of a smart city security prospect, identifying security
threats, and in-depth insights into digital smart city surveys.
They identified security challenges based on city institutions,
including smart grids, security of building automation systems,
drone safety, smart vehicles, IoT sensors, and cloud space. Arabo
(2015) investigated the functions and challenges of cyber-security
of smart devices in connected smart buildings. He studied some
of the backgrounds related to the development and demand for
connecting smart devices to provide different capabilities and
capabilities to users. Then he showed that these devices, de-
spite their capabilities, also have risks and challenges. Finally, he
discussed cyber-security issues related to smart devices in con-
nected smart buildings. According to that work, challenges such
as data leakage, data manipulation, data loss and malware are
considered as the main challenges facing smart buildings. Thing
(2014) investigated the prospect of existing global smart cities
and the security challenges and concerns in any of its main areas.
He presented the possibility for cyber security to create a smart,
safe and secure city. He identified security challenges and con-
cerns facing key parts of the smart city, including finance, health-
care, government, energy, and general security concerns. Khatoun
and Zeadally (2017) introduced the basic meanings of smart city
design and reviewed new layouts around the smart city. After
defining many privacy subjects and security vulnerabilities in
smart cities, they discussed various solutions, suggestions and
standards related to these issues applications. In addition, they
examined the main challenges facing smart cities from the per-
spectives of smart city cyber-security architecture and security
and privacy concerns of different parts of smart city. Alibasic et al.
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Energy Reports 7 (2021) 7999–8012
(2016) proposed three design and use checklists for encryption,
access permissions, authentication, and software updates when
performing new projects, manual and safe cancellation in all
urban systems, and develop operational plans and procedures to
respond to cyber-attacks solutions to maintain cyber-security and
privacy in smart cities. Cerrudo et al. (2015) proposed one of
the most feasible solutions for smart city cyber-security. In that
report, guidance was provided to infrastructures for choosing and
checking smart city-related systems. Their investigation was on
providing suitable evaluation and testing strategies when select-
ing these technologies and related vendors. Chen et al. (2021)
provided a general investigation of available cyber-security based
on six deep learning classifications. They presented the potential
study points in the cyber-security. Fard et al. (2020) proposed
a multi-view ensemble method that combined the findings of
single classifiers. Their study modified a low-cost lazy approach
with various points for threat hunting. Habibzadeh et al. (2019)
concluded that smart city usages were able to build security
vulnerabilities. In addition, destroying security vulnerabilities in-
volved both government and system entities. Smart cities could
be considered as a security level. Said and Tolba (2021) provided
a deep learning model to predict the IoT communication systems
performance based on a dynamic neural network approach to
achieve the prediction processes. They found that the model had
a significant positive impact on the sustainable smart cities and
eliminated the errors of the IoT communication system. Khan
et al. (2021) provided a combined deep learning approach for
traffic information prediction and assimilation. Results showed
betterment in accuracy, time, and faults. Ghiasi et al. (2021a)
investigated the Hilbert–Huang transform approach to detecting
false data injection attacks in the micro-grid. Their work was
based on the block-chain ledger technology and investigation of
the current and voltage signals in sensors. They found that the
proposed method could increase the security of data exchange
in the micro-grid and provide a more accurate and robust de-
tection method. Dehghani et al. (2021) determined the indexes
of the switching surface in the sliding mode controllers based
on the composition of singular value decomposition and Fourier
transform. They also examined the proposed design in different
types of false data injection attacks. The results showed that the
proposed method is able to reduce the detection time of the
attack. In addition, their design had 96% accuracy in detecting at-
tacks. Ghiasi et al. (2021b) investigated the resilience concepts in
power grids with introducing the evaluation process components.
They also provided a resilient substations optimum layout in the
Noorabad grid. They used the gray wolf optimization algorithm
to determine the optimal values of the grid. Results revealed that
the proposed method and the provided optimization are able to
improve performance and reduce grid costs.
4. Deep learning for smart cities
In a smart city, there are many Internet of Things sensors at
various data collection places to collect information on traffic,
citizen mobility, and drainage, so that the perceptions gained
from this data can be benefits to operate assets and resources (Ba-
sori et al., 2019). DL is widely used on information collected
by researchers. The following are important applications of deep
learning in smart cities (Li et al., 2019; Ashraf et al., 2021):
1- Urban modeling:
Numerous studies have used machine learning to identify low-
income areas, traffic rates in different areas for cities. Another
use for urban fashion refers to DL-assisted smart parking, which
identifies the most suitable place to park.
2- Infrastructure:
Infrastructure, as the backbone of cities, plays a key role in
solving urban challenges, and the best decision can be made by
C. Ma
Table 3
Most important points of cyber security.
Report a data breach
Obtain permission for business applications that require user data.
Do not disclose information publicly so that you do not have to answer to
legal entities.
Do not click on links in an email from an anonymous sender or an unfamiliar
website.
Use long, complex passwords with two-factor or multi-factor authentication
to secure access to user accounts. Given that the authentication mechanism
uses two or more different layers of security to secure access to accounts, if a
hacker can accurately guess the password to the account, there is still an
additional security step to take over the account. .
It is best not to use public Wi-Fi to connect to corporate networks or send
sensitive information, as it is possible for a hacker to intercept information.
Use antivirus software. This security solution detects and clears threats.
Remember to always keep your antivirus up to date.
using DL on monitored data such as traffic rates, energy con-
sumption, and so on. One of the applications is the use of ML for
network routing to prevent traffic congestion.
3- Transportation:
The transportation system connects people, vehicles, substruc-
ture and logistics copartners through the cloud platform and AI.
One of its applications is to create safety in transportation in the
event of accidents.
4- Urban management:
Public management plays an important role in analyzing gov-
ernance policies and urban characteristics and also helps to un-
derstand the changing needs of the smart city.
5- Resilience and sustainability:
Data production is rising over time. There is an urgent require-
ment to expand an effective system to portion the data that can
be benefits to improve smart cities. The most important challenge
is the limitation of environmental resources. This can be solved
by modeling a smart grid that can decline pollution rates, and it
contributes to a better life. For example, research has provided a
solution for optimal decision-making in the direction of industrial
waste management using neural networks.
6- Education:
Big data analysis provides an opportunity to analyze the psy-
chology of people under training. For example, a new emotion-
sensitive method for determining students’ interest in lessons
based on their head position and facial expressions has been
proposed using machine learning techniques. Such methods can
answer the major challenge we face in online learning, which is
not interacting with the teacher.
7- Health:
Artificial intelligence has paved the way for the development
of solutions of smart healthcare by new senses such as DL. Con-
cepts such as transfer learning models and DL had been very
useful in classification. For example, diagnosing and predicting
breast cancer using these techniques has been more accurate than
traditional methods.
8- Security and privacy:
Smart cities are the epitome of great innovation in ICT. Smart
cities citizens are jointed via smartphones and artificial and in-
tegrated tools such as the Internet of Things, which leads to an
unimaginable experience of comfort and improvement lifestyle.
Although systems such as smart meters, building equipment,
and health systems make such conveniences possible, they also
bring with them challenges; including data privacy and security
and maintaining information totality, as well as denying unau-
thorized access. DL and relevant systems had been prosperous
in equipping prosperous solutions for security breaches using
IoT. For example, one successful performance is the use of the
Random Forest algorithm, which is used to detect anomalies in
IoT distributed devices (Anomaly Detection).
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Energy Reports 7 (2021) 7999–8012
Hire a security expert to protect your information.
Anonymize data to protect people’s privacy.
In case of data deficiency, report it to the relevant authorities as soon as
possible.
Invest in the purchase and use of tools that restrict access to information,
restrict access by third parties or contractors to corporate information, and
continually scan devices, databases, and leaking information.
It is best to use secure communication mechanisms such as a virtual private
network to connect to the enterprise network. This prevents hackers from
easily implementing middle-man attacks.
Update your software and operating system. It is better to use the latest
patches - Patch.
Do not open attachments received from anonymous senders as they may
contain malware.
Challenges along the way include the need for lightweight ML
algorithms for limited resources, datasets used for in-depth learn-
ing programs that are sometimes not readily available enough
to validate results through simulation, and devices that ensure
security Deep learning-based systems include a camera, recording
servers and a video control center. These cameras are connected
to each other through a standard and secure protocol and are
processed by processors such as Intel. By using powerful pro-
cessors, not only does it increase the performance and power of
video analysis by 8–10 times, but also their storage space is opti-
mized (Ahmed et al., 2021). The advantage of cameras equipped
with deep learning system is that instead of sending all the videos
to the central operator, they send a warning as soon as an illegal
case is detected and red lines are set, and reduce the amount of
time delay before any action is taken. Most cities today have video
systems that have different cameras, ports and software at the
same time. Software development interfaces and kits generally
allow communication between hardware and software and are
managed by single cloud management software (Sahil and Sood,
2021).
5. Prospects of cyber security in smart cities
Over the past few years, governments have taken cyber-
security more seriously. The GDPR is a prime example of what has
required organizations operating in the EU to comply with strict
EU rules, an approach that has been able to significantly prevent
data breaches. The most important points of cyber security that
should be pay special attention are given in Table 3. There
are several promising directions for implementing deep learn-
ing techniques in smart cities. Clearly, an educational approach
makes exact findings when the results of the set and similar
features of the teaching and test information. Learning transfer
is the next study topic in which the repartition of teaching and
test is changed or transmitted from a system to other platform.
In addition, scholars can investigate on integrating semantic
systems into smart city usages to better performance.
6. Conclusion
In this study, two important and complex issues including
privacy and cyber-security in the smart city were examined. The
cyber-security of smart city is still in its infancy, and there are
still many policies, architectures, plans and technical solutions in
this important field. A review of the research literature in the
field of smart cities found that some studies have provided useful
guidance for policymakers and city managers who sought to
better define and implement smart city strategies and operational
plans. Other studies have described the architecture of deploying
and testing the IoT in the smart city to provide a platform for
C. Ma
testing and evaluating concepts on a large scale under real-world
conditions, but a limited number of studies have studied cyber-
security and privacy. Users in the smart city noticed that the
study gap in this area was noticeable. Security includes illegal
access to information and attacks that cause physical disruption
to access to services. With the growth of population information
technology in cities, it is imperative to have advanced manage-
ment approaches that use the latest technologies and platforms
to make urban services smarter. Smart cities are a new kind
of integration of information and communication technologies.
By connecting and integrating systems, the rate of attacks and
vulnerabilities will increase. On the other hand, the more data
is generated about the location and activities of digital citizens,
the more unstable privacy will be. Therefore, it is important to
provide solutions with a focus on sustainable cyber security and
risk reduction strategies. The research in this study showed that
meeting these challenges depends on the hard work of govern-
ments, developers of equipment and software and companies
providing IT security services. In addition, designing flexible sys-
tems with high information protection capabilities is essential to
prevent serious security incidents as these incidents can lead to
disastrous financial, data, credit and loss of public trust. Since
cyber security challenges and threats to users’ privacy are not
equally important in the smart city, and relevant authorities
and policymakers have limited resources to respond to them, it
is recommended that future research provide a mechanism for
assessing and rating.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Chen Ma: Conceptualization, Investigation, Formal analysis,
Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
National key R & D Program ‘‘Research on innovative business
operation and strategic technology system of invigorating police
by science and technology’’ (No. 2020YFC0832604); Key Scientific
Research Projects of the China People’s Police University ‘‘Intelli-
gent fire risk assessment and early warning technology based on
big data analysis’’ (No. ZDZX202102).
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