444 ITU‐T's Technical Reports and Specifications management tools in order to ensure that services return to their normal operational status, and to minimize the disturbance caused to users. Ultimately, modern cities compete with each other to attract businesses, talent, skills and taxpayers. As a result, administrations are increasingly valuing the role of innovation, technology, marketing and communication practices. In turn, private sector companies are attracted into cities by the ease of doing business – in terms of cost efficiency, infrastructure (e.g. office space, broadband, telecommunications, as well as utilities such as energy, water and transportation), and general quality of life for their staff (e.g. residential, health care and educational systems). The adoption of effective governance structures as part of SSC strategies is closely linked to the effectiveness of cybersecurity measures. It is vital to ensure adequate preparedness and operational efficiency, as well as to take advantage of opportunities, address emerging needs, and overcome the security challenges faced by smart sustainable cities. Further information on SSC governance can be found in the FG‐SSC Technical Report on “Engaging stakeholders for smart sustainable cities”9. 9 Recommendations to ensure SSC service continuity Smart sustainable cities should prioritize providers who offer solutions and methodologies for security, backup, data loss prevention, archiving and disaster recovery, and who are able to protect and manage heterogeneous environments resulting from legacy systems and newer deployments, including open source, managed mobile devices, and virtualized systems. Protecting information proactively SSC contexts increasingly involve big data considerations, and subsequently the need to centralize and manage the vast amount of information that is continuously generated and used. Taking an information‐centric approach, embedding security within data and taking a content‐aware approach to protecting information, is vital for identifying ownership of: (a) the location of sensitive information, and (b) who has access to it. Classifying data and utilizing encryption helps to secure sensitive information and to restrict access to unauthorized individuals. Authenticating users Strong authentication enables organizations to protect public assets by verifying the true identity of a smart device, system or application. This prevents individuals from accidentally disclosing credentials to an attack site, and from attaching unauthorized devices to the infrastructure. Leveraging threat intelligence In order to understand the major attack trends, city officials and CIOs can count on an established observatory, like the Global Intelligence Network, to provide one of the most extensive and accurate vendor‐neutral analyses of trends on malware, security threats and vulnerabilities from security research centers around the world. The same information is also used to compile the annual Internet Security Threat Report, which contains vital information about current and emerging threats and vulnerabilities. 9 FG‐SSC deliverable, Technical Report on engaging stakeholders for smart sustainable cities. Available at: http://www.itu.int/en/ITU‐T/focusgroups/ssc/Pages/default.aspx