Overview of Critical Information Infrastructure Protection

Abstract

The present volume aims to provide an overview of the current understanding of the so-called Critical Infrastructure (CI), and particularly the Critical Information Infrastructure (CII), which not only forms one of the constituent sectors of the overall CI, but also is unique in providing an element of interconnection between sectors as well as often also intra-sectoral control mechanisms.

One problem faced by research on C(I)I is the extreme range of scales at which security problems may arise. This is true for the time dimension where policy-level decisions such as the deployment of physical infrastructure like roads and high-tension transmission lines have impacts measured in decades whilst industrial control systems must provide guaranteed and secure real-time responses in the millisecond range. It is, moreover, also the case for the physical extent of infrastructures where single physical facilities such as vaccine plants may be a vital element of national or supra-national infrastructures, but where the trans-national electrical power or natural gas transmission networks span entire continents.

The book hence surveys not only key high-level concepts and selected technical research areas with an emphasis on control systems as a highly active research area, but also seeks to include policy aspects as well as a discussion on models for validation and verification. This is rounded off by several studies of specific issues and challenges faced by individual CI sectors including the telecommunications, electricity, transportation, and financial services sectors.