Draft #2 Summary_ Reader Response:“Smart Buildings: What 'smart' really means”

In the article “Smart Buildings: What 'smart' really means”, Lecomte (2019) states that having certification with standardized metrics is fundamental for smart buildings to wholly emerge in the "built environment". According to the article, the lack of unanimity from various stakeholders has delayed the drafting of standardized rubrics. Hence, private and public sectors design their own metrics to assess smart buildings but their rubrics vary from one another. However, the article also states that current private and public metrics have been unsuccessful in tackling the complicated and expanding aspect that buildings will perform in "smart cities". Lecomte emphasizes that one crucial component needed to be included in the standardized rubrics will be cyber risk management as cyber threats "increase exponentially" along with more advanced and integrated technology in smart buildings. Lecomte concludes that holistic and reliable "smart building certifications and rubrics" will be the foundation of a "functioning market for smart real estate".

The author states that the cyber-risk management should be the focal point for all stakeholders when assessing smart buildings. However, the article fails to establish the significance of cyber-risk management. The importance of cyber-risk management can be justified to all stakeholders by stating its benefits on the operational, financial and business aspects.


First of all, cyber-risk management benefits a building by preventing operational disruptions. Buildings without cyber-risk management are more susceptible to cyber-attacks. The result of operation disruption can prove to be fatal. The incident that occurred in Southern California hospital has shown the social impact caused by operational interference due to cyber-attacks. Based on the article Mihalic (2017) wrote, he states that the services in the hospital are disrupted and patients with urgent conditions have to be send to other hospital nearby. Mihalic (2017) also mentioned that disrupted medical services includes "blocked access to patient records". However, cyber-threats does not only affect the operational systems in designated buildings like hospital. Bennett (2019) imply that "Insecure systems could be exploited to take building hostage - possibly by disabling the lifts or building entry systems". Plausible cyber-threats can even occur in common building services like lift system. Cyber-threats clearly shows how it can affect the operations as well as safety of the occupants in the buildings. Hence, cyber-risk management is essential in countering the potential cyber-threats.



Secondly, cyber-risk management has a positive impact on financial aspect of a building. Having cyber-risk management would mean acquiring strategy to resolve cyber-threats and mitigate loss in the least amount of time. Sobers (2019) explains that statistic have proven that “On average, companies take about 197 days to identify and 69 days to contain a breach according to IBM.". Sobers (2019) also mention that "Companies that contain a breach in less than 30 days save more than $1 million in comparison to those who take longer.”. There are also incidents that result in shutting down of building as cyber breach is not handled promptly and effectively. According to Zorz (2019), small companies have reported to shut down their business in the absence of cyber security. As cyber-risks in technology are inevitable, cyber-risk management has to be in place to reduce the loss. Therefore, the benefits of cyber-risk management has demonstrated its importance in smart buildings.

Lastly, cyber-risk management can enhance business aspect of a building. Cyber-risk management prevents data breach which allows business buildings to create intangible asset like trust and reputation. Chrisos (2019) indicate the most effective way create both trust and business is to have safeguard customers' data. Cyber-risk management which increases awareness on cyber-threats can have a positive impact on the employees. Anasia (2019) claims that spreading "awareness of risk assessment" makes the employees feel that "the data they form" is crucial to the corporation which will result in motivated staff. Hence, benefits of cyber-risk management can be seen in business-oriented buildings which shows its importance to private stakeholders as well.

In conclusion, the aim of describing the benefits of cyber-risk management is to show the importance due to the increasing cyber-threats . It is important to consider all the incidents that happened with regards to technology as the cyber-attack on these technologies can potentially happen in smart buildings. Although there might be arguments where cyber-risk management cannot fully prevent cyber-risk, cyber-risk management is still important to help to prevent recurrence of similar incident and serve as a platform to improve on.


References:

1) Lecomte, P. (2019, January 28). Smart Buildings: What 'smart' really means. Retrieved from https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/opinion/smart-buildings-what-smart-really-means.

2) Mihalic, A. (2017, August 21). Protecting Smart Buildings from Cyber Attacks. Retrieved from https://www.engineering.com/BIM/ArticleID/15476/Protecting-Smart-Buildings-from-Cyber-Attacks.aspx.

3) Sobers, R. (2019, March 13). Data Breach Response Times: Trends and Tips: Varonis. Retrieved from https://www.varonis.com/blog/data-breach-response-times/.

4) Chrisos, M. (2019, January 1). 5 Benefits of Concrete Cyber Security Risk Management Strategy. Retrieved from https://www.techfunnel.com/information-technology/5-benefits-of-concrete-cyber-security-risk-management-strategy/.

5) Bennett, T. B. T. (2019, September 24). COVER STORY: Property industry responds as smart buildings open up new cybersecurity threats - Which-50. Retrieved from https://which-50.com/cover-story-property-industry-responds-as-smart-buildings-open-up-new-cyber-security-threats/.

6) Anasia, D. M. (2019, July 8). Five benefits of cyber security risk assessment. Retrieved from https://www.iot-now.com/2019/07/08/97141-five-benefits-cyber-security-risk-assessment/.

7) Zorz, Z. (2019, October 1). Danish company Demant expects to suffer huge losses due to cyber attack. Retrieved from https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2019/10/01/demant-cyber-attack/.

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