Tech talking mayors: Where cities stand on ransomware, AI, 5G, smart cities and more
At its recent annual meeting, the U.S. Conference of Mayors issued resolutions ranging from support of a free press, humanitarian treatment of asylum seekers and better gun policies to backing the Equal Rights Amendment. Members of the official non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more also voiced support for a number of tech-related initiatives. Here's a rundown:
Cybersecurity
Acknowledging the damage that ransomware attacks can cause, the mayors agreed that it's important to de-incentivize attackers, so they resolved that the conference "stands united against paying ransoms in the event of an IT security breach." This motion comes more than two months after a ransomware attack that crippled Baltimore's IT systems is still being felt. More recently, several smaller cities, including two in Florida -- Lake City and Riviera City -- paid attackers the ransom to regain access to the systems and files.
As cities become more dependent on big data and the electricity grid and deploy more technology -- including drones, autonomous vehicles and edge computing and analytics -- their IT infrastructure needs to be much be persistent, secure and resilient, the mayors said. The Data Protection at the Edge Resolution calls on public and private entities to look for solutions that secure the continuity of data systems. It also calls on the administration and Congress to encourage fault-tolerant technology solutions and protect public and private data ..
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