in genetics, which in turn results in fewer resources being needed to find medical cures for
diseases since experimentation does not require the analysis of a variety of specimens. An
associated disadvantage of monoculture is that a new variant of a disease can wipe out the
entire population because it will equally affect every individual.
This logic can also be applied to computer systems and IoT devices: increased monocul-
ture will lead to lower costs and ease of interoperability, whereas increased variability will lead
to lesser chances of a malicious attack being able to compromise an entire smart city. There
are areas of technology, such as the TCP/IP protocol, that are so fundamental to electronic
communication that there would be little advantage in attempting to create additional proto-
cols simply to diminish the risks associated with monoculture. However, in areas where there
is no one established standard, there can be benefits to variability. The impact of monoculture
on systems is an ongoing topic of discussion and debate in the cybersecurity community. It
has definite applicability to the concept and emergence of the smart city, and how things
develop will ultimately depend upon the total cost of implementation versus the perceived
risks that may be introduced.
Interspace Communication Will Be a Ripe Target
One of humankind’s greatest endeavors is our ongoing quest to colonize Mars. NASA plans to
send humans to Mars by the 2030s. Its engineers and scientists are working hard to develop
the technologies astronauts will use to one day live and work on Mars, and safely return home
from the next giant leap for humanity.
Establishing communications between Earth and Mars will be critical in making sure that
space agencies are able to successfully transmit crucial data related to the mission and that
humans are able to communicate with one another. NASA is aware of the importance of
securing communications during space missions:
Reliable communication between ground and spacecraft is central to mission success, especially in
the realms of digital communication (data and command links). Seen in the light of recent events,
these communication links are vulnerable to malicious intrusion. If terrorists or hackers illegally
listen to, or worse, modify communication content, disaster can occur. The consequences of a
nuclear powered spacecraft under control of a hacker or terrorist could be devastating. Therefore, all
communications to and between spacecraft must be extremely secure and reliable.There are various projects underway to facilitate interspace communication. For example,
NASA’s Optical Communications project is researching ways to use light to transmit data.
Space communication protocols need be robust enough to withstand delays, disruptions,
and disconnections in space. Glitches can happen when a spacecraft moves behind a planet,
or when solar storms or long communication delays occur. It takes from 4 to 20 minutes to
transmit data between Mars and Earth, so NASA’s systems have to tolerate such delays.
Therefore, instead of using TCP/IP, NASA has developed a protocol called Disruption-
CHAPTER 8: SECURELY ENABLING OUR FUTURE—A CONVERSATION ON(^246) UPCOMING ATTACK VECTORS