The national grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures face an unprecedented threat from prolonged blackouts,which could last over a year and pose a severe risk to national security.Whether caused by phy...The national grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures face an unprecedented threat from prolonged blackouts,which could last over a year and pose a severe risk to national security.Whether caused by physical attacks,EMP(electromagnetic pulse)events,or cyberattacks,such disruptions could cripple essential services like water supply,healthcare,communication,and transportation.Research indicates that an attack on just nine key substations could result in a coast-to-coast blackout lasting up to 18 months,leading to economic collapse,civil unrest,and a breakdown of public order.This paper explores the key vulnerabilities of the grid,the potential impacts of prolonged blackouts,and the role of AI(artificial intelligence)and ML(machine learning)in mitigating these threats.AI-driven cybersecurity measures,predictive maintenance,automated threat response,and EMP resilience strategies are discussed as essential solutions to bolster grid security.Policy recommendations emphasize the need for hardened infrastructure,enhanced cybersecurity,redundant power systems,and AI-based grid management to ensure national resilience.Without proactive measures,the nation remains exposed to a catastrophic power grid failure that could have dire consequences for society and the economy.展开更多
The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) serves as a voluntary guideline aimed at helping organizations, tiny and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and critical infrastructure operators, effectively manage cyber ris...The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) serves as a voluntary guideline aimed at helping organizations, tiny and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and critical infrastructure operators, effectively manage cyber risks. Although comprehensive, the complexity of the NIST CSF can be overwhelming, especially for those lacking extensive cybersecurity resources. Current implementation tools often cater to larger companies, neglecting the specific needs of SMEs, which can be vulnerable to cyber threats. To address this gap, our research proposes a user-friendly, open-source web platform designed to simplify the implementation of the NIST CSF. This platform enables organizations to assess their risk exposure and continuously monitor their cybersecurity maturity through tailored recommendations based on their unique profiles. Our methodology includes a literature review of existing tools and standards, followed by a description of the platform’s design and architecture. Initial tests with SMEs in Burkina Faso reveal a concerning cybersecurity maturity level, indicating the urgent need for improved strategies based on our findings. By offering an intuitive interface and cross-platform accessibility, this solution aims to empower organizations to enhance their cybersecurity resilience in an evolving threat landscape. The article concludes with discussions on the practical implications and future enhancements of the tool.展开更多
Communities depend on critical infrastructure systems to support their regular operations and future develop-ment.Destructive events,such as natural disasters,threaten to disrupt service to these systems and the commu...Communities depend on critical infrastructure systems to support their regular operations and future develop-ment.Destructive events,such as natural disasters,threaten to disrupt service to these systems and the commu-nities they support.Strategies designed to reduce the impacts from disasters and other events are therefore an important consideration for community planning.At a regional level,coordination between communities sup-ports the efficient use of resources for implementing disaster risk reduction(DRR)measures and completing post-disaster repairs to meet the needs of all residents.Coordination is challenging,however,due to the complex-ity of regional systems and competing stakeholder interests.This work presents a case study model of regional water,wastewater,and power systems,and demonstrates the effect of seismic hardening and increased resource availability on post-earthquake repair requirements and critical infrastructure recovery.Model results indicate that implementing DRR strategies can reduce required repair costs by over 40 percent and outage severity by approximately 50 percent for the studied sectors.Not all strategies are effective for all sectors and locations,how-ever,so this work discusses the importance of comprehensive,coordinated,and accessible emergency planning activities to ensure that the needs of all residents are considered.展开更多
Protection of urban critical infrastructures(CIs)from GPS-denied,bomb-carrying kamikaze drones(G-BKDs)is very challenging.Previous approaches based on drone jamming,spoofing,communication interruption and hijacking ca...Protection of urban critical infrastructures(CIs)from GPS-denied,bomb-carrying kamikaze drones(G-BKDs)is very challenging.Previous approaches based on drone jamming,spoofing,communication interruption and hijacking cannot be applied in the case under examination,since G-B-KDs are uncontrolled.On the other hand,drone capturing schemes and electromagnetic pulse(EMP)weapons seem to be effective.However,again,existing approaches present various limitations,while most of them do not examine the case of G-B-KDs.This paper,focuses on the aforementioned under-researched field,where the G-B-KD is confronted by two defensive drones.The first neutralizes and captures the kamikaze drone,while the second captures the bomb.Both defensive drones are equipped with a net-gun and an innovative algorithm,which,among others,estimates the locations of interception,using a real-world trajectory model.Additionally,one of the defensive drones is also equipped with an EMP weapon to damage the electronics equipment of the kamikaze drone and reduce the capturing time and the overall risk.Extensive simulated experiments and comparisons to state-of-art methods,reveal the advantages and limitations of the proposed approach.More specifically,compared to state-of-art,the proposed approach improves:(a)time to neutralize the target by at least 6.89%,(b)maximum number of missions by at least 1.27%and(c)total cost by at least 5.15%.展开更多
Due to the drastic increase in the number of critical infrastructures like nuclear plants,industrial control systems(ICS),transportation,it becomes highly vulnerable to several attacks.They become the major targets of...Due to the drastic increase in the number of critical infrastructures like nuclear plants,industrial control systems(ICS),transportation,it becomes highly vulnerable to several attacks.They become the major targets of cyberattacks due to the increase in number of interconnections with other networks.Several research works have focused on the design of intrusion detection systems(IDS)using machine learning(ML)and deep learning(DL)models.At the same time,Blockchain(BC)technology can be applied to improve the security level.In order to resolve the security issues that exist in the critical infrastructures and ICS,this study designs a novel BC with deep learning empowered cyber-attack detection(BDLE-CAD)in critical infrastructures and ICS.The proposed BDLE-CAD technique aims to identify the existence of intrusions in the network.In addition,the presented enhanced chimp optimization based feature selection(ECOA-FS)technique is applied for the selection of optimal subset of features.Moreover,the optimal deep neural network(DNN)with search and rescue(SAR)optimizer is applied for the detection and classification of intrusions.Furthermore,a BC enabled integrity checking scheme(BEICS)has been presented to defend against the misrouting attacks.The experimental result analysis of the BDLE-CAD technique takes place and the results are inspected under varying aspects.The simulation analysis pointed out the supremacy of the BDLE-CAD technique over the recent state of art techniques with the accuy of 92.63%.展开更多
This article is dedicated to the creation of the analytical model of quantitative estimation of cybersecurity of Information Systems of Critical Infrastructure (ISCI). The model takes into consideration the existence,...This article is dedicated to the creation of the analytical model of quantitative estimation of cybersecurity of Information Systems of Critical Infrastructure (ISCI). The model takes into consideration the existence, in the discussed ISCI, of both the intelligent tools of detection, analysis and identification of threats and vulnerabilities and means for restauration and elimination of their consequences. The development of the model also takes into consideration probabilistic nature of flow of events happening in ISCI and transferring the system between different states of cybersecurity. Among such probabilistic events we mean any operational perturbations (that can cause extreme situations) happening in ISCI under the influence of cyber-threats, as well as events concerning restoration and elimination of consequences of such cyber-threats. In this work, as methods of modelling, there have been used methods of system-oriented analysis based on theory of probability, theory of reliability and theory of queues. These methods enabled to describe analytically dependence of effectiveness indices of ISCI operation on abovementioned probabilistic processes.展开更多
The importance of a nation’s infrastructure is a vital core for economic growth, development, and innovation. Health, wealth, access to education, public safety, and helping prepare for global crises like pandemics a...The importance of a nation’s infrastructure is a vital core for economic growth, development, and innovation. Health, wealth, access to education, public safety, and helping prepare for global crises like pandemics are all dependent on functioning and reliable infrastructures. In decades, the substantial threats affecting infrastructures globally whether in the form of extreme weather, Covid-19 pandemic, or the threats of state and non-state actors’ hackers, demanded urgency in building resilience infrastructures both during crises and in more stable conditions. At the same time, the adoption of emerging and innovative technologies boosts the development of the infrastructures using information, communication, and technology (ICT) platform. This shift accelerated its evolution toward digitization where interdependent and interconnected cyberspace demands collaborative and holistic strategies in protecting critical and high risks infrastructure assets from a growing number of disruptive cyberattacks. These ever-evolving cyber threats are creating increasingly dangerous and targeted cyberattacks to damage or disrupt the critical infrastructures delivering vital services to government, energy, healthcare, transportation, telecommunication, and other critical sectors. The infrastructure’s high risks assets present serious challenges and are crucial to safety, efficiency, and reliability. Any nation must recognize and determine how to cope with any type of threats to their critical infrastructure as well as the strategies to remain resilient. This article first describes the challenges and the need for critical infrastructure protection including the related global risks challenges. It then reviews the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States’ strategies, priorities, and urgencies of critical infrastructure protection. Subsequently, it surveys the critical infrastructure protection resilience strategies including ISO, IEC, ISA, NIST, CAF and CMM frameworks.展开更多
Critical Infrastructures(CIs),which serve as the foundation of our modern society,are facing increasing risks from cyber threats,physical attacks,and natural disasters.Additionally,the interdependencies between CIs th...Critical Infrastructures(CIs),which serve as the foundation of our modern society,are facing increasing risks from cyber threats,physical attacks,and natural disasters.Additionally,the interdependencies between CIs through-out their operational lifespan can also significantly impact their integrity and safety.As a result,enhancing the resilience of CIs has emerged as a top priority for many countries,including the European Union.This involves not only understanding the threats/attacks themselves but also gaining knowledge about the areas and infrastruc-tures that could potentially be affected.A European Union-funded project named PRECINCT(Preparedness and Resilience Enforcement for Critical INfrastructure Cascading Cyber-Physical Threats),under the Horizon 2020 program,tries to connect private and public stakeholders of CIs in a specific geographical area.The key objec-tive of this project is to establish a common cyber-physical security management approach that will ensure the protection of both citizens and infrastructures,creating a secure territory.This paper presents the components of PRECINCT,including a directory of PRECINCT Critical Infrastructure Protection(CIP)blueprints.These blueprints support CI communities in designing integrated ecosystems,operating and replicating PRECINCT components(or toolkits).The integration enables coordinated security and resilience management,incorporating improved’installation-specific’security solutions.Additionally,Serious Games(SG),and Digital Twins(DT)are a significant part of this project,serving as a novel vulnerability evaluation method for analysing complicated multi-system cascading effects in the PRECINCT Living Labs(LLs).The use of SG supports the concentrated advancement of innovative resilience enhancement services.展开更多
Natural hazards impact interdependent infrastructure networks that keep modern society functional.While a va-riety of modelling approaches are available to represent critical infrastructure networks(CINs)on different ...Natural hazards impact interdependent infrastructure networks that keep modern society functional.While a va-riety of modelling approaches are available to represent critical infrastructure networks(CINs)on different scales and analyse the impacts of natural hazards,a recurring challenge for all modelling approaches is the availability and accessibility of sufficiently high-quality input and validation data.The resulting data gaps often require mod-ellers to assume specific technical parameters,functional relationships,and system behaviours.In other cases,expert knowledge from one sector is extrapolated to other sectoral structures or even cross-sectorally applied to fill data gaps.The uncertainties introduced by these assumptions and extrapolations and their influence on the quality of modelling outcomes are often poorly understood and difficult to capture,thereby eroding the reliability of these models to guide resilience enhancements.Additionally,ways of overcoming the data avail-ability challenges in CIN modelling,with respect to each modelling purpose,remain an open question.To address these challenges,a generic modelling workflow is derived from existing modelling approaches to examine model definition and validations,as well as the six CIN modelling stages,including mapping of infrastructure assets,quantification of dependencies,assessment of natural hazard impacts,response&recovery,quantification of CI services,and adaptation measures.The data requirements of each stage were systematically defined,and the literature on potential sources was reviewed to enhance data collection and raise awareness of potential pitfalls.The application of the derived workflow funnels into a framework to assess data availability challenges.This is shown through three case studies,taking into account their different modelling purposes:hazard hotspot assess-ments,hazard risk management,and sectoral adaptation.Based on the three model purpose types provided,a framework is suggested to explore the implications of data scarcity for certain data types,as well as their reasons and consequences for CIN model reliability.Finally,a discussion on overcoming the challenges of data scarcity is presented.展开更多
The everyday functioning of infrastructures and the capacity of their owners to provide high-quality services are critical to the well-being of communities and societies.When disruptions endanger society's well-be...The everyday functioning of infrastructures and the capacity of their owners to provide high-quality services are critical to the well-being of communities and societies.When disruptions endanger society's well-being,security,and economy,some of these infrastructures are relevant and,as a result,are designated as critical for an entire nation.Therefore,research has focused on a peculiar infrastructure ability,or capacity,that summarizes these concepts in one word:resilience;its quantification,however,is not straightforward.Many authors have attempted to assess resilience using different subjects,infrastructures,resilience phases,and models.Therefore,through a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol,this work presents an overview of quantitative methods and techniques developed over the past decade to numerically assess the resilience of critical infrastructures(CIs).A total of 111 papers were included in the study,which focused on studies published between April 2014 and April 2024.This article focuses on a model-based classification,highlighting strengths and weaknesses in the proposed methodologies,and performs a SWOT analysis on the modeling approaches identified within the retrieved papers.Future works could be useful to extend this research to those papers that describe and quantify single domains,stages,and features of CIs resilience,exploring the possibility of searching protocols to identify and correctly address them.展开更多
This article introduces a new approach for stress-testing the resilience of critical infrastructures exposed or potentially exposed to adverse events,polycrises,or disasters.This approach focuses on extreme threats(x-...This article introduces a new approach for stress-testing the resilience of critical infrastructures exposed or potentially exposed to adverse events,polycrises,or disasters.This approach focuses on extreme threats(x-threats or XTs)and the functionality testing during such events.The methodology relies on resilience indicators,considering both the threat side and the asset side of adverse events.This enables simultaneous consideration of factors such as increased intensity,impact potential,complexity,systemic risks,and interconnectedness or cascading effects.The resilience of critical infrastructures is analyzed across phases of the resilience cycle:analysis of potential risk,preparation,absorption,recovery,and adaptation/transformation.The proposed stress-testing approach builds on the author’s previous work in EU projects and standards organizations(ISO-the International Organization for Standardization,DIN-German Institute for Standardization),incorporating recent developments like the EU regulations(the Critical Entities Resilience CER Directive)and the use of AI in resilience analysis.Specifically,it extends the stress-testing concept proposed in DIN SPEC 91461 and links it to applications for resilience assessment within EU projects and industry.展开更多
Bangladesh aims to become a high-income country by 2041,requiring investment in critical infrastructure sectors.Disruptions in one sector can affect others,so prioritizing actions for key sectors is essential when res...Bangladesh aims to become a high-income country by 2041,requiring investment in critical infrastructure sectors.Disruptions in one sector can affect others,so prioritizing actions for key sectors is essential when resources are limited.Since no country has endless resources,the current strategy is to focus on developing infrastructure in order of importance.This means that the most critical infrastructure is given priority when allocating resources.The aim of this study was to identify the critical infrastructure sectors and their interdependencies in Bangladesh.While the science of critical infrastructure protection and resilience is well-developed in high-income and developed economies,this research sheds light on identifying critical infrastructure in developing nations like Bangladesh.To identify the critical infrastructure sectors,a comprehensive literature survey was conducted,which was verified and validated by country experts.Policymakers,practitioners,and researchers were consulted through key informant interviews(KII).Interpretive structural modeling(ISM)was applied to determine the interdependencies among identified sectors.Furthermore,cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification(MICMAC)analysis was applied to categorize the identified sectors based on driving power and dependence of sectors.The study found that 14 sectors-energy,information and communication technology(ICT),media and culture,law enforcement,transportation,among others-need extra protection measures.It also identified infrastructures with driving power and dependencies in the country’s context.Additionally,this article offers recommendations for improving policy and institutional actions to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure in the country.展开更多
Modern critical infrastructure,such as a water treatment plant,water distribution system,and power grid,are representative of Cyber Physical Systems(CPSs)in which the physical processes are monitored and controlled in...Modern critical infrastructure,such as a water treatment plant,water distribution system,and power grid,are representative of Cyber Physical Systems(CPSs)in which the physical processes are monitored and controlled in real time.One source of complexity in such systems is due to the intra-system interactions and inter-dependencies.Consequently,these systems are a potential target for attackers.When one or more of these infrastructure are attacked,the connected systems may also be affected due to potential cascading effects.In this paper,we report a study to investigate the cascading effects of cyber-attacks on two interdependent critical infrastructure namely,a Secure water treatment plant(SWaT)and a Water Distribution System(WADI).展开更多
Cyber-physical systems(CPSs)in critical infrastructure face serious threats of attack,motivating research into a wide variety of defence mechanisms such as those that monitor for violations of invariants,i.e.logical p...Cyber-physical systems(CPSs)in critical infrastructure face serious threats of attack,motivating research into a wide variety of defence mechanisms such as those that monitor for violations of invariants,i.e.logical properties over sensor and actuator states that should always be true.Many approaches for identifying invariants attempt to do so automatically,typically using data logs,but these can miss valid system properties if relevant behaviours are not well-represented in the data.Furthermore,as the CPS is already built,resolving any design flaws or weak points identified through this process is costly.In this paper,we propose a systematic method for deriving invariants from an analysis of a CPS design,based on principles of the axiomatic design methodology from design science.Our method iteratively decomposes a high-level CPS design to identify sets of dependent design parameters(i.e.sensors and actuators),allowing for invariants and invariant checkers to be derived in parallel to the implementation of the system.We apply our method to the designs of two CPS testbeds,SWaT and WADI,deriving a suite of invariant checkers that are able to detect a variety of single-and multi-stage attacks without any false positives.Finally,we reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our approach,how it can be complemented by other defence mechanisms,and how it could help engineers to identify and resolve weak points in a design before the controllers of a CPS are implemented.展开更多
This paper introduces to security management that is conducted at infrastructure installations and their corre-sponding technical assets.Malicious activities at those infrastructures lead to a loss of service provisio...This paper introduces to security management that is conducted at infrastructure installations and their corre-sponding technical assets.Malicious activities at those infrastructures lead to a loss of service provision or can even introduce cascading effects towards other connected infrastructures.If an infrastructure satisfies a signifi-cant societal need,it is considered a critical infrastructure.The cascading effects can cause secondary effects at the connected infrastructures,such as airports.Airport operations are central to long-distance societal mobility and even small disruptions have knock-on effects throughout the air transport network.The cascading effects that can affect the airport and that originate at linked infrastructures and real-time use of the corresponding infor-mation for airport management and collaborative decision-making purposes in an Airport Operations Center are not well known.In what operational way can an Airport Operations Center make use of early awareness of and information about attacks on linked critical infrastructures?In how far do attacks on separate,but interconnected critical infrastructures have an effect on the operations of an airport?By looking at the existing state of the art and ongoing projects in infrastructure security research,disaster and airport management,this paper conducts a gap identification.The identified weaknesses and limitations are already partially addressed by current research projects.What is still unknown is the necessary airport-centric security management view in order to answer the research question.As a consequence,this paper proposes ideas for future necessary airport-centric infrastructure security research.展开更多
Over the past few years,major investments have been directed toward building new railway lines and upgrading existing ones.Many of these lines include critical infrastructure where operational and safety conditions mu...Over the past few years,major investments have been directed toward building new railway lines and upgrading existing ones.Many of these lines include critical infrastructure where operational and safety conditions must be carefully considered throughout their life cycle.Recent advancements in science and technology have enabled more effective structural monitoring of railway systems,largely driven by the adoption of intelligent strategies for inspection,maintenance,monitoring,and risk management.Research continues to expand and deepen the knowledge in this area;however,it remains a challenging field due to factors such as the complexity of railway systems,the high cost of implementation,and the need for reliable long-term data.展开更多
The increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters,exacerbated by global warming,necessitate novel solutions to strengthen the resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems(CISs).Recent research reveals the si...The increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters,exacerbated by global warming,necessitate novel solutions to strengthen the resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems(CISs).Recent research reveals the sig-nificant potential of natural language processing(NLP)to analyze unstructured human language during disasters,thereby facilitating the uncovering of disruptions and providing situational awareness supporting various aspects of resilience regarding CISs.Despite this potential,few studies have systematically mapped the global research on NLP applications with respect to supporting various aspects of resilience of CISs.This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by presenting a review of current knowledge using the scientometric review technique.Using 231 bibliographic records from the Scopus and Web of Science core collections,we identify five key research areas where researchers have used NLP to support the resilience of CISs during natural disasters,including sentiment analysis,crisis informatics,data and knowledge visualization,disaster impacts,and content analysis.Furthermore,we map the utility of NLP in the identified research focus with respect to four aspects of resilience(i.e.,preparedness,absorption,recovery,and adaptability)and present various common techniques used and potential future research directions.This review highlights that NLP has the potential to become a supplementary data source to support the resilience of CISs.The results of this study serve as an introductory-level guide designed to help scholars and practitioners unlock the potential of NLP for strengthening the resilience of CISs against natural disasters.展开更多
This study discussed the water sector as a critical infrastructural element in Jordan where the sector is exposed to the extreme events. The exposure of the country to extreme events has initiated this study. Such eve...This study discussed the water sector as a critical infrastructural element in Jordan where the sector is exposed to the extreme events. The exposure of the country to extreme events has initiated this study. Such events are Pollution accidents, flooding, draughts, overexploitation, failure in electricity supply, climate changes, earthquakes, landslides, failure of dams, failure of wastewater treatment plants, failure of desalination plants, sabotage, fire, water theft, migration and demographic changes (immigration and urban migration), relations to neighboring countries, epidemics, and others. These extreme events are discussed in this article and the results show that failures in the water infrastructure and water supply, in Jordan, with its water sector situation have rigorous percussions on the country’s health, food supply, economy, societal stability, the built environment, and on other water-related issues. The study concludes that developing national programs to protect the water infrastructure in the water-fragile country has become very crucial to reach a robust and resilient water sector which not only means providing the inhabitants with quantitatively sufficient and qualitatively healthy water but also aims to incorporate guaranteeing social, economic and political stability.展开更多
The United States of America faces an increasing number of threats to its critical infrastructure due to cyber-attacks. With the constant advancement of technology and the interconnectedness of various systems, the vu...The United States of America faces an increasing number of threats to its critical infrastructure due to cyber-attacks. With the constant advancement of technology and the interconnectedness of various systems, the vulnerabilities in the nation’s infrastructure have become more pronounced. Cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, such as power grids, transportation networks, and financial systems, pose a significant risk to national security and public safety. These attacks can disrupt essential services, cause economic losses, and potentially have severe consequences for the well-being of individuals and communities. The rise of cyber-terrorism is also a concern. Cyber-terrorists can exploit vulnerabilities in cyberspace to compromise infrastructure systems, causing chaos and panic among the population. The potential for destructive attacks on critical infrastructure is a pressing issue requiring constant attention and proactive measures.展开更多
Industrial Intelligence and Secure Interconnection,Industrial intelligence and secure interconnection serve as the foundational platform and critical information infrastructure for new industrialization,carrying signi...Industrial Intelligence and Secure Interconnection,Industrial intelligence and secure interconnection serve as the foundational platform and critical information infrastructure for new industrialization,carrying significant strategic importance.They not only function as the core engine driving the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing sector and ensuring stable socioeconomic operation but are also vital to enhancing national technological competitiveness and safeguarding industrial security.Currently,the global industrial landscape is undergoing profound transformation.Major Western countries and relevant authoritative bodies,leveraging their first-mover advantages in industrial network standards and protocols,are actively constructing technical barriers and exclusive industrial ecosystems.According to the 2024 Industrial Network Market Share Report,foreign standards account for over 90%of the market share in mainstream industrial network protocols.Concurrently,China's industrial AI technology remains largely built upon the technical framework defined by Western academia and industry,characterized by deep learning and reinforcement learning.There is widespread reliance on AI computing equipment。展开更多
文摘The national grid and other life-sustaining critical infrastructures face an unprecedented threat from prolonged blackouts,which could last over a year and pose a severe risk to national security.Whether caused by physical attacks,EMP(electromagnetic pulse)events,or cyberattacks,such disruptions could cripple essential services like water supply,healthcare,communication,and transportation.Research indicates that an attack on just nine key substations could result in a coast-to-coast blackout lasting up to 18 months,leading to economic collapse,civil unrest,and a breakdown of public order.This paper explores the key vulnerabilities of the grid,the potential impacts of prolonged blackouts,and the role of AI(artificial intelligence)and ML(machine learning)in mitigating these threats.AI-driven cybersecurity measures,predictive maintenance,automated threat response,and EMP resilience strategies are discussed as essential solutions to bolster grid security.Policy recommendations emphasize the need for hardened infrastructure,enhanced cybersecurity,redundant power systems,and AI-based grid management to ensure national resilience.Without proactive measures,the nation remains exposed to a catastrophic power grid failure that could have dire consequences for society and the economy.
文摘The NIST Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF) serves as a voluntary guideline aimed at helping organizations, tiny and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and critical infrastructure operators, effectively manage cyber risks. Although comprehensive, the complexity of the NIST CSF can be overwhelming, especially for those lacking extensive cybersecurity resources. Current implementation tools often cater to larger companies, neglecting the specific needs of SMEs, which can be vulnerable to cyber threats. To address this gap, our research proposes a user-friendly, open-source web platform designed to simplify the implementation of the NIST CSF. This platform enables organizations to assess their risk exposure and continuously monitor their cybersecurity maturity through tailored recommendations based on their unique profiles. Our methodology includes a literature review of existing tools and standards, followed by a description of the platform’s design and architecture. Initial tests with SMEs in Burkina Faso reveal a concerning cybersecurity maturity level, indicating the urgent need for improved strategies based on our findings. By offering an intuitive interface and cross-platform accessibility, this solution aims to empower organizations to enhance their cybersecurity resilience in an evolving threat landscape. The article concludes with discussions on the practical implications and future enhancements of the tool.
基金funding for this work was provided in part by the Canadian Safety and Security Program(CSSP)under project number CSSP-2018-CP-2351titled“Disaster Risk Reduction Pathways:Incentives for Mitigation&Adaptation Investments”.
文摘Communities depend on critical infrastructure systems to support their regular operations and future develop-ment.Destructive events,such as natural disasters,threaten to disrupt service to these systems and the commu-nities they support.Strategies designed to reduce the impacts from disasters and other events are therefore an important consideration for community planning.At a regional level,coordination between communities sup-ports the efficient use of resources for implementing disaster risk reduction(DRR)measures and completing post-disaster repairs to meet the needs of all residents.Coordination is challenging,however,due to the complex-ity of regional systems and competing stakeholder interests.This work presents a case study model of regional water,wastewater,and power systems,and demonstrates the effect of seismic hardening and increased resource availability on post-earthquake repair requirements and critical infrastructure recovery.Model results indicate that implementing DRR strategies can reduce required repair costs by over 40 percent and outage severity by approximately 50 percent for the studied sectors.Not all strategies are effective for all sectors and locations,how-ever,so this work discusses the importance of comprehensive,coordinated,and accessible emergency planning activities to ensure that the needs of all residents are considered.
基金supported in part by Interbit Research and in part by the European Union under(Grant No.2021-1-EL01-KA220-VET-000028082).
文摘Protection of urban critical infrastructures(CIs)from GPS-denied,bomb-carrying kamikaze drones(G-BKDs)is very challenging.Previous approaches based on drone jamming,spoofing,communication interruption and hijacking cannot be applied in the case under examination,since G-B-KDs are uncontrolled.On the other hand,drone capturing schemes and electromagnetic pulse(EMP)weapons seem to be effective.However,again,existing approaches present various limitations,while most of them do not examine the case of G-B-KDs.This paper,focuses on the aforementioned under-researched field,where the G-B-KD is confronted by two defensive drones.The first neutralizes and captures the kamikaze drone,while the second captures the bomb.Both defensive drones are equipped with a net-gun and an innovative algorithm,which,among others,estimates the locations of interception,using a real-world trajectory model.Additionally,one of the defensive drones is also equipped with an EMP weapon to damage the electronics equipment of the kamikaze drone and reduce the capturing time and the overall risk.Extensive simulated experiments and comparisons to state-of-art methods,reveal the advantages and limitations of the proposed approach.More specifically,compared to state-of-art,the proposed approach improves:(a)time to neutralize the target by at least 6.89%,(b)maximum number of missions by at least 1.27%and(c)total cost by at least 5.15%.
基金supported financially by Institution Fund projects under Grant No.(IFPIP-145-351-1442).
文摘Due to the drastic increase in the number of critical infrastructures like nuclear plants,industrial control systems(ICS),transportation,it becomes highly vulnerable to several attacks.They become the major targets of cyberattacks due to the increase in number of interconnections with other networks.Several research works have focused on the design of intrusion detection systems(IDS)using machine learning(ML)and deep learning(DL)models.At the same time,Blockchain(BC)technology can be applied to improve the security level.In order to resolve the security issues that exist in the critical infrastructures and ICS,this study designs a novel BC with deep learning empowered cyber-attack detection(BDLE-CAD)in critical infrastructures and ICS.The proposed BDLE-CAD technique aims to identify the existence of intrusions in the network.In addition,the presented enhanced chimp optimization based feature selection(ECOA-FS)technique is applied for the selection of optimal subset of features.Moreover,the optimal deep neural network(DNN)with search and rescue(SAR)optimizer is applied for the detection and classification of intrusions.Furthermore,a BC enabled integrity checking scheme(BEICS)has been presented to defend against the misrouting attacks.The experimental result analysis of the BDLE-CAD technique takes place and the results are inspected under varying aspects.The simulation analysis pointed out the supremacy of the BDLE-CAD technique over the recent state of art techniques with the accuy of 92.63%.
文摘This article is dedicated to the creation of the analytical model of quantitative estimation of cybersecurity of Information Systems of Critical Infrastructure (ISCI). The model takes into consideration the existence, in the discussed ISCI, of both the intelligent tools of detection, analysis and identification of threats and vulnerabilities and means for restauration and elimination of their consequences. The development of the model also takes into consideration probabilistic nature of flow of events happening in ISCI and transferring the system between different states of cybersecurity. Among such probabilistic events we mean any operational perturbations (that can cause extreme situations) happening in ISCI under the influence of cyber-threats, as well as events concerning restoration and elimination of consequences of such cyber-threats. In this work, as methods of modelling, there have been used methods of system-oriented analysis based on theory of probability, theory of reliability and theory of queues. These methods enabled to describe analytically dependence of effectiveness indices of ISCI operation on abovementioned probabilistic processes.
文摘The importance of a nation’s infrastructure is a vital core for economic growth, development, and innovation. Health, wealth, access to education, public safety, and helping prepare for global crises like pandemics are all dependent on functioning and reliable infrastructures. In decades, the substantial threats affecting infrastructures globally whether in the form of extreme weather, Covid-19 pandemic, or the threats of state and non-state actors’ hackers, demanded urgency in building resilience infrastructures both during crises and in more stable conditions. At the same time, the adoption of emerging and innovative technologies boosts the development of the infrastructures using information, communication, and technology (ICT) platform. This shift accelerated its evolution toward digitization where interdependent and interconnected cyberspace demands collaborative and holistic strategies in protecting critical and high risks infrastructure assets from a growing number of disruptive cyberattacks. These ever-evolving cyber threats are creating increasingly dangerous and targeted cyberattacks to damage or disrupt the critical infrastructures delivering vital services to government, energy, healthcare, transportation, telecommunication, and other critical sectors. The infrastructure’s high risks assets present serious challenges and are crucial to safety, efficiency, and reliability. Any nation must recognize and determine how to cope with any type of threats to their critical infrastructure as well as the strategies to remain resilient. This article first describes the challenges and the need for critical infrastructure protection including the related global risks challenges. It then reviews the United Nations, the European Union, and the United States’ strategies, priorities, and urgencies of critical infrastructure protection. Subsequently, it surveys the critical infrastructure protection resilience strategies including ISO, IEC, ISA, NIST, CAF and CMM frameworks.
基金funded by the European Commission,Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.101021668.
文摘Critical Infrastructures(CIs),which serve as the foundation of our modern society,are facing increasing risks from cyber threats,physical attacks,and natural disasters.Additionally,the interdependencies between CIs through-out their operational lifespan can also significantly impact their integrity and safety.As a result,enhancing the resilience of CIs has emerged as a top priority for many countries,including the European Union.This involves not only understanding the threats/attacks themselves but also gaining knowledge about the areas and infrastruc-tures that could potentially be affected.A European Union-funded project named PRECINCT(Preparedness and Resilience Enforcement for Critical INfrastructure Cascading Cyber-Physical Threats),under the Horizon 2020 program,tries to connect private and public stakeholders of CIs in a specific geographical area.The key objec-tive of this project is to establish a common cyber-physical security management approach that will ensure the protection of both citizens and infrastructures,creating a secure territory.This paper presents the components of PRECINCT,including a directory of PRECINCT Critical Infrastructure Protection(CIP)blueprints.These blueprints support CI communities in designing integrated ecosystems,operating and replicating PRECINCT components(or toolkits).The integration enables coordinated security and resilience management,incorporating improved’installation-specific’security solutions.Additionally,Serious Games(SG),and Digital Twins(DT)are a significant part of this project,serving as a novel vulnerability evaluation method for analysing complicated multi-system cascading effects in the PRECINCT Living Labs(LLs).The use of SG supports the concentrated advancement of innovative resilience enhancement services.
基金partially funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of IKARIM and the PARADeS project,grant number 13N15273,the ARSINOE project(GA 101037424)the MIRACA(GA 101093854)under European Union’s H2020 innovation action programme.
文摘Natural hazards impact interdependent infrastructure networks that keep modern society functional.While a va-riety of modelling approaches are available to represent critical infrastructure networks(CINs)on different scales and analyse the impacts of natural hazards,a recurring challenge for all modelling approaches is the availability and accessibility of sufficiently high-quality input and validation data.The resulting data gaps often require mod-ellers to assume specific technical parameters,functional relationships,and system behaviours.In other cases,expert knowledge from one sector is extrapolated to other sectoral structures or even cross-sectorally applied to fill data gaps.The uncertainties introduced by these assumptions and extrapolations and their influence on the quality of modelling outcomes are often poorly understood and difficult to capture,thereby eroding the reliability of these models to guide resilience enhancements.Additionally,ways of overcoming the data avail-ability challenges in CIN modelling,with respect to each modelling purpose,remain an open question.To address these challenges,a generic modelling workflow is derived from existing modelling approaches to examine model definition and validations,as well as the six CIN modelling stages,including mapping of infrastructure assets,quantification of dependencies,assessment of natural hazard impacts,response&recovery,quantification of CI services,and adaptation measures.The data requirements of each stage were systematically defined,and the literature on potential sources was reviewed to enhance data collection and raise awareness of potential pitfalls.The application of the derived workflow funnels into a framework to assess data availability challenges.This is shown through three case studies,taking into account their different modelling purposes:hazard hotspot assess-ments,hazard risk management,and sectoral adaptation.Based on the three model purpose types provided,a framework is suggested to explore the implications of data scarcity for certain data types,as well as their reasons and consequences for CIN model reliability.Finally,a discussion on overcoming the challenges of data scarcity is presented.
基金the RETURN Extended Partnership and received funding from the European Union Next-GenerationEU(National Recovery and Resilience Plan-NRRP,Mission 4,Component 2,Investment 1.3-D.D.12432/8/2022,PE0000005).
文摘The everyday functioning of infrastructures and the capacity of their owners to provide high-quality services are critical to the well-being of communities and societies.When disruptions endanger society's well-being,security,and economy,some of these infrastructures are relevant and,as a result,are designated as critical for an entire nation.Therefore,research has focused on a peculiar infrastructure ability,or capacity,that summarizes these concepts in one word:resilience;its quantification,however,is not straightforward.Many authors have attempted to assess resilience using different subjects,infrastructures,resilience phases,and models.Therefore,through a systematic literature review based on the PRISMA protocol,this work presents an overview of quantitative methods and techniques developed over the past decade to numerically assess the resilience of critical infrastructures(CIs).A total of 111 papers were included in the study,which focused on studies published between April 2014 and April 2024.This article focuses on a model-based classification,highlighting strengths and weaknesses in the proposed methodologies,and performs a SWOT analysis on the modeling approaches identified within the retrieved papers.Future works could be useful to extend this research to those papers that describe and quantify single domains,stages,and features of CIs resilience,exploring the possibility of searching protocols to identify and correctly address them.
文摘This article introduces a new approach for stress-testing the resilience of critical infrastructures exposed or potentially exposed to adverse events,polycrises,or disasters.This approach focuses on extreme threats(x-threats or XTs)and the functionality testing during such events.The methodology relies on resilience indicators,considering both the threat side and the asset side of adverse events.This enables simultaneous consideration of factors such as increased intensity,impact potential,complexity,systemic risks,and interconnectedness or cascading effects.The resilience of critical infrastructures is analyzed across phases of the resilience cycle:analysis of potential risk,preparation,absorption,recovery,and adaptation/transformation.The proposed stress-testing approach builds on the author’s previous work in EU projects and standards organizations(ISO-the International Organization for Standardization,DIN-German Institute for Standardization),incorporating recent developments like the EU regulations(the Critical Entities Resilience CER Directive)and the use of AI in resilience analysis.Specifically,it extends the stress-testing concept proposed in DIN SPEC 91461 and links it to applications for resilience assessment within EU projects and industry.
基金partial scholarship support under the EDITS-AIT projectThe EDITS-AIT project at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, received funding from the Energy Demand changes Induced by Technological and Social innovations (EDITS) project, which is part of the initiative coordinated by the Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) (and funded by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), Japan)
文摘Bangladesh aims to become a high-income country by 2041,requiring investment in critical infrastructure sectors.Disruptions in one sector can affect others,so prioritizing actions for key sectors is essential when resources are limited.Since no country has endless resources,the current strategy is to focus on developing infrastructure in order of importance.This means that the most critical infrastructure is given priority when allocating resources.The aim of this study was to identify the critical infrastructure sectors and their interdependencies in Bangladesh.While the science of critical infrastructure protection and resilience is well-developed in high-income and developed economies,this research sheds light on identifying critical infrastructure in developing nations like Bangladesh.To identify the critical infrastructure sectors,a comprehensive literature survey was conducted,which was verified and validated by country experts.Policymakers,practitioners,and researchers were consulted through key informant interviews(KII).Interpretive structural modeling(ISM)was applied to determine the interdependencies among identified sectors.Furthermore,cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification(MICMAC)analysis was applied to categorize the identified sectors based on driving power and dependence of sectors.The study found that 14 sectors-energy,information and communication technology(ICT),media and culture,law enforcement,transportation,among others-need extra protection measures.It also identified infrastructures with driving power and dependencies in the country’s context.Additionally,this article offers recommendations for improving policy and institutional actions to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure in the country.
基金the National Research Foundation(NRF),Prime Minister’s Office,Singapore,under its National Cybersecurity R&D Programme(Award No.NRF2015NCR-NCR003-001)and administered by the National Cybersecurity R&D Directorate.
文摘Modern critical infrastructure,such as a water treatment plant,water distribution system,and power grid,are representative of Cyber Physical Systems(CPSs)in which the physical processes are monitored and controlled in real time.One source of complexity in such systems is due to the intra-system interactions and inter-dependencies.Consequently,these systems are a potential target for attackers.When one or more of these infrastructure are attacked,the connected systems may also be affected due to potential cascading effects.In this paper,we report a study to investigate the cascading effects of cyber-attacks on two interdependent critical infrastructure namely,a Secure water treatment plant(SWaT)and a Water Distribution System(WADI).
基金the National Research Foundation,Singapore,under its National Satellite of Excellence Programme“Design Science and Technology for Secure Critical Infrastructure”(Award Number:NSoE DeST-SCI2019-0004).
文摘Cyber-physical systems(CPSs)in critical infrastructure face serious threats of attack,motivating research into a wide variety of defence mechanisms such as those that monitor for violations of invariants,i.e.logical properties over sensor and actuator states that should always be true.Many approaches for identifying invariants attempt to do so automatically,typically using data logs,but these can miss valid system properties if relevant behaviours are not well-represented in the data.Furthermore,as the CPS is already built,resolving any design flaws or weak points identified through this process is costly.In this paper,we propose a systematic method for deriving invariants from an analysis of a CPS design,based on principles of the axiomatic design methodology from design science.Our method iteratively decomposes a high-level CPS design to identify sets of dependent design parameters(i.e.sensors and actuators),allowing for invariants and invariant checkers to be derived in parallel to the implementation of the system.We apply our method to the designs of two CPS testbeds,SWaT and WADI,deriving a suite of invariant checkers that are able to detect a variety of single-and multi-stage attacks without any false positives.Finally,we reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of our approach,how it can be complemented by other defence mechanisms,and how it could help engineers to identify and resolve weak points in a design before the controllers of a CPS are implemented.
基金EU H2020 research and inno-vation program under grant agreement No.101021274(PRAETORIAN project,https://praetorian-h2020.eu/).
文摘This paper introduces to security management that is conducted at infrastructure installations and their corre-sponding technical assets.Malicious activities at those infrastructures lead to a loss of service provision or can even introduce cascading effects towards other connected infrastructures.If an infrastructure satisfies a signifi-cant societal need,it is considered a critical infrastructure.The cascading effects can cause secondary effects at the connected infrastructures,such as airports.Airport operations are central to long-distance societal mobility and even small disruptions have knock-on effects throughout the air transport network.The cascading effects that can affect the airport and that originate at linked infrastructures and real-time use of the corresponding infor-mation for airport management and collaborative decision-making purposes in an Airport Operations Center are not well known.In what operational way can an Airport Operations Center make use of early awareness of and information about attacks on linked critical infrastructures?In how far do attacks on separate,but interconnected critical infrastructures have an effect on the operations of an airport?By looking at the existing state of the art and ongoing projects in infrastructure security research,disaster and airport management,this paper conducts a gap identification.The identified weaknesses and limitations are already partially addressed by current research projects.What is still unknown is the necessary airport-centric security management view in order to answer the research question.As a consequence,this paper proposes ideas for future necessary airport-centric infrastructure security research.
文摘Over the past few years,major investments have been directed toward building new railway lines and upgrading existing ones.Many of these lines include critical infrastructure where operational and safety conditions must be carefully considered throughout their life cycle.Recent advancements in science and technology have enabled more effective structural monitoring of railway systems,largely driven by the adoption of intelligent strategies for inspection,maintenance,monitoring,and risk management.Research continues to expand and deepen the knowledge in this area;however,it remains a challenging field due to factors such as the complexity of railway systems,the high cost of implementation,and the need for reliable long-term data.
基金financial support from the National Science Foundation(NSF)EPSCoR R.I.I.Track-2 Program,awarded under the NSF grant number 2119691.
文摘The increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters,exacerbated by global warming,necessitate novel solutions to strengthen the resilience of Critical Infrastructure Systems(CISs).Recent research reveals the sig-nificant potential of natural language processing(NLP)to analyze unstructured human language during disasters,thereby facilitating the uncovering of disruptions and providing situational awareness supporting various aspects of resilience regarding CISs.Despite this potential,few studies have systematically mapped the global research on NLP applications with respect to supporting various aspects of resilience of CISs.This paper contributes to the body of knowledge by presenting a review of current knowledge using the scientometric review technique.Using 231 bibliographic records from the Scopus and Web of Science core collections,we identify five key research areas where researchers have used NLP to support the resilience of CISs during natural disasters,including sentiment analysis,crisis informatics,data and knowledge visualization,disaster impacts,and content analysis.Furthermore,we map the utility of NLP in the identified research focus with respect to four aspects of resilience(i.e.,preparedness,absorption,recovery,and adaptability)and present various common techniques used and potential future research directions.This review highlights that NLP has the potential to become a supplementary data source to support the resilience of CISs.The results of this study serve as an introductory-level guide designed to help scholars and practitioners unlock the potential of NLP for strengthening the resilience of CISs against natural disasters.
文摘This study discussed the water sector as a critical infrastructural element in Jordan where the sector is exposed to the extreme events. The exposure of the country to extreme events has initiated this study. Such events are Pollution accidents, flooding, draughts, overexploitation, failure in electricity supply, climate changes, earthquakes, landslides, failure of dams, failure of wastewater treatment plants, failure of desalination plants, sabotage, fire, water theft, migration and demographic changes (immigration and urban migration), relations to neighboring countries, epidemics, and others. These extreme events are discussed in this article and the results show that failures in the water infrastructure and water supply, in Jordan, with its water sector situation have rigorous percussions on the country’s health, food supply, economy, societal stability, the built environment, and on other water-related issues. The study concludes that developing national programs to protect the water infrastructure in the water-fragile country has become very crucial to reach a robust and resilient water sector which not only means providing the inhabitants with quantitatively sufficient and qualitatively healthy water but also aims to incorporate guaranteeing social, economic and political stability.
文摘The United States of America faces an increasing number of threats to its critical infrastructure due to cyber-attacks. With the constant advancement of technology and the interconnectedness of various systems, the vulnerabilities in the nation’s infrastructure have become more pronounced. Cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure, such as power grids, transportation networks, and financial systems, pose a significant risk to national security and public safety. These attacks can disrupt essential services, cause economic losses, and potentially have severe consequences for the well-being of individuals and communities. The rise of cyber-terrorism is also a concern. Cyber-terrorists can exploit vulnerabilities in cyberspace to compromise infrastructure systems, causing chaos and panic among the population. The potential for destructive attacks on critical infrastructure is a pressing issue requiring constant attention and proactive measures.
文摘Industrial Intelligence and Secure Interconnection,Industrial intelligence and secure interconnection serve as the foundational platform and critical information infrastructure for new industrialization,carrying significant strategic importance.They not only function as the core engine driving the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing sector and ensuring stable socioeconomic operation but are also vital to enhancing national technological competitiveness and safeguarding industrial security.Currently,the global industrial landscape is undergoing profound transformation.Major Western countries and relevant authoritative bodies,leveraging their first-mover advantages in industrial network standards and protocols,are actively constructing technical barriers and exclusive industrial ecosystems.According to the 2024 Industrial Network Market Share Report,foreign standards account for over 90%of the market share in mainstream industrial network protocols.Concurrently,China's industrial AI technology remains largely built upon the technical framework defined by Western academia and industry,characterized by deep learning and reinforcement learning.There is widespread reliance on AI computing equipment。
