The Opening Ceremony of Cloud Expo Asia 2017 – Information Security Summit
Opening Speech by Dr. Hon Elizabeth QUAT JP, Legislative Council Member,
Co-founder & Chairman of Steering Committee Smart City Consortium
Dr David Chung, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
On behalf of the Smart City Consortium it gives me great pleasure to extend to you all a very warm welcome.
We are particularly grateful to ITB, HKMA, OGCIO and the SFC who have gracefully accepted our invitation to convene this Information Secuirty Summit focusing on IoT and FinTech Security of Smart City, here in the Cloud Expo.
Ten years ago, if you told me that someone's mobile phone can be used to steal my email account password or to take a copy of my fingerprint data, I would have said you have an overactive imagination. But today, when I tell you that criminals can use your smart TV to monitor you at home and to break into your Bank account, you know I am not kidding and you may consider pulling the plug from your TV tonight.
Welcome to the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), where digitally connected devices are encroaching on every aspect of our lives, including our homes, offices, cars and even our bodies. IoT is growing at a dangerously fast pace, and researchers estimate that by 2020, the number of active wireless connected devices will exceed 40 billion.
The upside is that we will be able to do things we would never have imagined before. But as with everything good, there’s a downside to IoT: It is becoming an increasingly attractive target for cybercriminals.
More connected devices mean more attack vectors and more opportunities for hacker.
Unless we move fast to address these rising security concerns, we’ll soon be facing certain disaster.
Smart City Consortium or SCC was formed a year ago with a vision to build Hong Kong as a world class Smart City. SCC connect professionals from all walks of life to provide opinions and suggestions to the Government for formulating related policies and standards in the development of Hong Kong as a world-class smart city. We also encourage worldwide collaboration with different stakeholders to create the right ecosystem which fosters innovation and sustainable economic growth for Hong Kong.
In the past year, with the support of over 200 members, we have signed 13 MOU, to establish platform to collaborate and exchange ideas relating to Smart City issues. We have also organized over 80 events and activities for professionals from different industries to exchange their views and opinions on building our smart city.
Information Security is one of the areas that SCC is actively addressing and we are looking for better assurances to protect our society to keep up with the fast development of Smart City.
We do wish that this Summit can provide a platform for participants to exchange knowledge and to collaborate so that everybody will be able to enjoy the new era of smart city under a safe environment.
Thank you very much for your participation.
