Infrastructure can be considered from various viewpoints: technical; continuity of economic activity; national security. The subject, which is far from new, has come to the fore recently for two reasons: the information revolution and the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. The task of ensuring protection (or, rather, of achieving ‘resilience’) is becoming ever more challenging. The concept of critical infrastructure is evolving rapidly, and the protection of information-related critical infrastructure is gaining in importance. The use of risk analysis is becoming more widespread. Genuine progress is being made, although there are still many shortcomings at the practical level. However, we currently lack a research capability or a forum for the comprehensive exchange of views on this subject.
Critical Infrastucture Protection: Importance, Complexity, Results
The need to protect critical infrastructure is hardly new. Natural disasters and human error, both capable of causing substantial destruction, have always been major sources of concern for public authorities, industry and populations. In times of conflict, infrastructure will also be a prime target for the aggressor, and the party under attack will therefore give its protection a high priority. Why then has this subject come to the fore in recent years when security is being addressed? For two reasons: firstly the information revolution, with the new risks that it implies, which has to be mastered; the United States has played a pioneer role in this field since 1997. The second reason relates to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States. Each of these in its own way highlights the increasing complexity and interdependence of our modern societies, and hence their vulnerability.
There are several types of underlying reason for this complexity, interdependence and vulnerability:
— Technical: the interlinking of the computer networks that now underpin most productive activity;
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