Cybersecurity Challenges during Pandemic in Smart Cities

This paper focuses on the Cybersecurity challenges faced by smart cities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the pandemic still there, cybercriminals and state-sponsored groups have taken advantage of attacking intelligent cities worldwide. This research primarily focuses on a correspondence between the increase in the attacks on different cyber-sectors in smart cities and the ongoing pandemic. When people are still adjusting to the new norm of working from home (WFH) and online classes, there had been many cases of cyber criminals trying to taking over some popular video conferencing platforms such as Zoom, and Google meet. Hijacking the sessions and displaying their agenda or demands are among the attacks which Cybercriminals have mounted on these platforms. There is a genuine concern regarding the cybersecurity of smart cities with the rise of cyber threats during the Corona virus pandemic. This paper studies the increase of cyber threats and issues on smart cities globally in the ongoing pandemic and different ways to confront them using technologies like Blockchain, Internet of Things, Software-defined networks, Artificial Intelligence, and data-driven security concepts.