City security: How Fort Lauderdale deals with cyber threats

Cities across the world are grappling with an almost apocalyptic-sounding array of challenges. Many are dealing with dramatic upticks in natural disasters, choking traffic, air pollution, measles outbreaks, the threat of active shooters and, in some U.S. cities, a quick rise in homelessness.

And then there is city security as it relates both to networking and software. “Cybersecurity is probably my number one concern,” said Michael Lee Sherwood, the director of information technology for the city of Las Vegas, which has launched one of the most ambitious smart city programs in the country. “Guess how many attacks you think the city of Las Vegas gets in a year,” Sherwood said at the CIO Visions Leadership Summit conference in Las Vegas. “Half a billion. Right now we’re being attacked. And when we have a big event in Las Vegas, they spike up.”

The risk is growing daily as are the number of prominent victims in the past five years.

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