Friday, April 02, 2021

PRESS RELEASE from Mesa's Digital Newsroom: "A Smart City Strategic Plan" for Downtown: Kiosks for Citiizen Engagement

Another thrilling story from Mesa Now was posted yesterday on April Fool's Day to publicize one more momentous milestone along the path of "The Salvation Train" east of The Gilbert Road Valley Metro Lightrail Transit Center:
Mesa installing downtown kiosks as key part of dynamic citizen engagement platform 
April 1, 2021 at 3:09 pm
As part of the City of Mesa’s Smart City strategic plan, the City has partnered with Smart City Media to install ten dual screen smart digital kiosks throughout downtown Mesa and along the light rail corridor east to Gilbert Road. The digital kiosks will each offer two 55-inch touch screen displays with "way finding" functionality for people to locate specific businesses or receive Mesa focused content such as event promotions and safety alerts.
"The new kiosks amplify our efforts to engage residents and visitors in innovative ways, while supporting our business community and highlighting the great amenities in Mesa's downtown," Mayor John Giles said. "The resources provided through the kiosks will connect our residents, businesses, visitors and stakeholders in one common thread."
Each kiosk offers multi-language support.
The kiosks are connected to the City of Mesa's Wi-Fi network and there is a companion mobile application for both IOS and Android.
"I am very excited to have these kiosks come to Downtown Mesa. We have so many businesses, restaurants, breweries, entertainment venues and museums throughout downtown; this will be a fantastic and fun way for everyone who visits the area to find and experience them," Vice Mayor and District 4 Councilmember Jenn Duff, who represents downtown Mesa, said.
Examples of Mesa focused content offered by the kiosks include
> events at the Mesa Convention Center, Mesa Arts Center and downtown museums;
> mapping to City offices and local resources
> public service announcements
> and real-time bus and light rail information.
In addition, local Mesa businesses will have access to promote and advertise themselves, and the Downtown Mesa Association will have direct access to promote activities and events.
One fun part of the kiosks is that they are "selfie" stations giving you the ability to take selfies and send them via email or text.
Smart City Media is providing the kiosks at no cost to the City. Smart City Media, LLC | LinkedIn
> The City is installing the kiosks
> The City and Downtown Mesa Association are managing the content.

Public Information and Communications
Contact: Kevin Christopher
Tel. 480-644-4699
kevin.christopher@mesaaz.gov 
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RELATED CONTENT
Smart City Kiosk Market Sales Projections Forecast Positive Growth Through 2027                

ByTMR Research

Mar 27, 2021
Market Dynamics:
The smart city kiosk systems increase the public safety by delivering info to users about immediate incident or accident; also it helps the citizens to associate with emergency services. Also, merchants in the smart city kiosk market are focusing on improving the security of kiosk by keeping the information on the server as it rather than on the device and deploying each device with a unique password so that hackers could not access others kiosks.
Introducing innovative IP67 SCB1000/1200 - Smart City Box for surveillance  - YouTube
These factors are motivating the development of the smart city kiosks market.
High development cost and cyber threats such hacking of the data and malware attacks are the major restraining factors to the adoption of smart city kiosks.
Market Players:
Smart city kiosk market is very competitive, the leading players in the market are Intel Smart City Media, Corporation, Soofa, Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., Ferrograph Ltd., Smart City Holdings, LLC, Smartlink Holdings Limited, CIVIQ Smartscapes LLC and OLEA kiosks Inc.
 
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March 31, 2021

Eden Strategy Institute Announces The Top 50 Smart City Governments in 2021

Singapore, Seoul, and London earn top spots in 2021 Smart City Government rankings

SINGAPORE, March 31, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Singapore, Seoul, and London earn top positions in the second edition of the Top 50 Smart City Government rankings published by Eden Strategy Institute today.

The study focuses specifically on the role of city governments as a key driver for smart city development. Beyond the efficacy and outcomes of technological solutions, the study hopes to shed light on the importance of strategy, leadership, people-centricity, policies, ecosystem, incentives, and talent in determining the success and effectiveness of technologies deployed in smart cities.

"Top smart city governments in the 2020/2021 rankings were able to collaborate and partner with public and private sector stakeholders; use digital solutions and data to deliver services and make decisions; all while considering implications on inclusion and citizen trust", says Mr. Calvin Chu Yee Ming, Managing Partner at Eden Strategy Institute.

 

More than 230 cities were evaluated and examined by Eden Strategy Institute, and city governments were invited to a Call for Proposals to submit supporting details, reports, and outcomes

The full report, including detailed feature articles covering topics such as COVID-19, sustainability, data privacy, financing, and social inclusion; city as well as regional highlights; and detailed scores, is available for download on www.smartcitygovt.com.
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Smart City & Retail Network

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Smart City Media News & Media

Smart City Firm, Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Deploy Innovative Contactless Kiosk Feature for Public Health

Smart City Media and DART work together to address public COVID-19 concerns through touchless kiosk engagement; SCM expanding offerings in other U.S. feature cities. (PRWeb August 20, 2020) Read the full story at https://www.prweb.com/releases/smart_city_firm_dallas_area_rapid_transit_dart_deploy_innovative_contactless_kiosk_feature_for_public_health/prweb17339467.htm

Capitol Outdoor and Smart City Media Announce Pro Bono Partnership to Use the Power of Out of Home Advertising to Share Timely, Relevant Messages about the COVID-19 Crisis

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Capitol Outdoor (Capitol) and Smart City Media (SCM) today announced a purpose driven partnership to immediately and proactively broadcast timely, relevant messages about the COVID-19 crisis through their shared out of home networks, at no cost to...

Thursday, April 01, 2021

Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love (Official Music Video)

Does My Neighborhood Determine My Future? Zipcodes + Census tracts

THE HANDMAID'S TALE Season 4 Final Trailer (NEW 2021) Elisabeth Moss

Uranus is Flaring, Dark Energy Is Magnetism | S0 News Apr.1.2021

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes (Secret World Live)

60-Day Sprints for Cyber Security??

How bad can "Home Land Security" be??

DHS chief Mayorkas outlines cybersecurity plan after hack attacks

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Wednesday warned that "cyberthreats are coming dangerously close to threatening our lives" as he announced a series of "sprints" designed to counter online attacks.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Philadelphia earlier this month. Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images

 

Why it matters: "Our government got hacked last year and we didn’t know about it for months," Mayorkas said. It wasn't until cybersecurity firm SolarWinds "got hacked itself and alerted the government" when federal officials learned the extent of the problem, he noted.

More
What to watch: Other agency sprints will center on strengthening the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the cyber workforce, and bolstering the security of industrial control systems.
The Biden administration is working on an executive order to bolster federal cybersecurity following the hacking of SolarWinds and the Microsoft Exchange Server — which was targeted by a cyber espionage unit backed by the Chinese government, it emerged earlier this month.

 

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08 March 2017 >

O Shit! ....Lots of Leaks, Spills + Now A Stinky Huge Data Dump

One of your MesaZona blogger's most reliable and trusted news sources, Wired.com came out with this 'bomb' today:
HOW THE CIA'S HACKING HOARD MAKES EVERYONE LESS SECURE
WikiLeaks, already in headline news for a long time, dumped its 8,000+ document  zero-day stash one day ago then, strongly suggests that the CIA—along with other intelligence agencies—has long allowed Americans to remain vulnerable to those same attacks. Now that those hacking secrets are public, potentially along with enough details to replicate them, the danger of the feds leaving major security flaws unfixed only escalates. . .
Balancing the needs of a critical intelligence agency with the digital security of the rest of the world isn’t easy. But the US intelligence community’s hacking techniques leaking—not once, but at least twice now after hackers known as the Shadow Brokers breached an NSA server and published reams of NSA code last August—means that the balance needs to be reconsidered, says New American Foundation’s Bankston. “All of of these vulnerabilities were in iPhones and Android phones that hundreds of millions of people used if not billions,” he says. “That has serious cybersecurity implications.”
Do we the people get this or approved it?
SPOONS GONE WILD
“The deal we make in a democracy is that we understand we need military and intelligence services. But we want want oversight in the executive branch and across the three branches of government,” . . “If the CIA says ‘we’re suppose to do this, but we’re just not going to,’ or ‘we’re going to do it just enough that the White House thinks we are,’ that starts to eat away at the fundamental oversight for which we have elected officials.”

End of Countries Blaming Each Other of Cyber Espionage?

More

First reported by Reuters
US CyberSpy vs CyberSpy Incompetence
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December 2020

U.S. cybersecurity firm FireEye discloses breach, theft of internal hacking tools

FireEye, one of the largest cybersecurity companies in the United States, said on Tuesday that is has been hacked, possibly by a government, leading to the theft of an arsenal of internal hacking tools typically reserved to privately test the cyber defenses of their own clients
Montana Roué: What me... worry?

The hack of FireEye, a company with an array of business contracts across the national security space both in the United States and its allies, is among the most significant breaches in recent memory.
The FireEye breach was disclosed in a blog post authored by CEO Kevin Mandia. The post said "red team tools" were stolen as part of a highly sophisticated, likely "nation-state" hacking operation. It is not clear exactly when the hack initially took place. . .

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