From European Critical Infrastructure Protection to the Resilience of European Critical Entities


Book Description

Seminar paper from the year 2023 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, University of applied Sciences Regensburg (Angewandte Natur- und Kulturwissenschaften), course: European Politics and Institutions, language: English, abstract: Critical infrastructures are essential for the smooth functioning of highly developed societies, providing crucial services that society heavily relies upon. However, their interconnected and complex nature makes them susceptible to failures and disruptions. The paper analyzes the events and actors that led to the adoption of the European Resilience of Critical EntitiesDirective (RCED) in 2022, which signifies a shift from a "protection" to a "resilience" approach in European legislation. Using the policy cycle framework, the paper examines the initial agenda setting, evaluation of the European Critical Infrastructure Directive (ECID), and the problem definition and agenda setting for the RCED. The evaluation of the ECID reveals implementation weaknesses and emphasizes the need for a more coordinated and comprehensive approach to critical infrastructure protection. Stakeholder consultations and evaluations highlight the importance of updating the ECID to address the interdependencies of critical infrastructures. The European Commission proposes policy options, with a preference for enhancing the resilience of critical entities and ensuring the uninterrupted provision of essential services. However, the concept of resilience in EU legislation needs further clarification. Overall, this paper provides insights into the necessity of critical infrastructure protection and the shift towards a resilience-oriented approach in European legislation.




European Critical Infrastructure Protection


Book Description

The recent European Council Directive 114/08 requested the EU Member States to perform an assessment aimed at the identification and designation of the so-called European Critical Infrastructures (ECI). Every analysis of the results of the "first round" of identifications and designations has only taken into account the numbers of ECIs effectively designated, consequently leaving aside all of the other elements related to this important path towards a harmonized vision of the "European Security". This work, with its unprecedented approach, focuses on the elements that have maximized or frustrated the ambitious European objectives and on the issues that might have prevented the directive reaching its full potential. Furthermore, the study offers an in-depth perspective on the lessons learned - including those that can be learned from the US pre-post 9/11 CIP policies - as well as an assessment of the state of play of the Member States after the implementation of the directive, together with predictions for future challenges.




The External Dimension of the European Union’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Programme


Book Description

External Dimension of the European Union’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Programme: From Neighboring Frameworks to Transatlantic Cooperation provides the basis, methodological framework, and first comprehensive analysis of the current state of the external dimension European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection. The challenges at the EU level are multidimension insofar as identifying, designating and protecting critical infrastructures with the ultimate goal of harmonizing different national policies of the Member States and creating the identity of the European Union in this arena. Modern society has become so reliant on various sectors of critical infrastructure—energy, telecommunications, transport, finance, ICT, and public services—that any disruption may lead to serious failures that impact individuals, society, and the economy. The importance of critical infrastructures grows with the industrial development of global and national communities; their interdependence and resiliency is increasingly important given security threats including terrorism, natural disaster, climate change and pandemic outbreak In the area of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience, the European Union is constantly committed to setting the objectives for the Member States. At the same time, the European Commission promotes the importance of a common approach to Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), and ensure cooperation beyond the borders of the Union, while also cooperating with neighboring countries, including those soon willing to join the European Union. This book has been structured and written to contribute to current critical infrastructures, resilience policy development and discussions about regional and international cooperation. It serves as a reference for those countries willing to initiate cooperation and that therefore demand deeper knowledge on the security cultures and frameworks of their potential partners. Features: Provides an unprecedented analysis of the national frameworks of 14 neighboring countries of the EU, plus the United States and Canada Overcomes the language barriers to provide an overall picture of the state of play of the countries considered Outlines the shaping of national critical infrastructure protection frameworks to understanding the importance of service stability and continuity Presents guidelines to building a comprehensive and flexible normative framework Addresses the strategic and operational importance of international co-operation on critical infrastructure including efforts in CIP education and training Provides insight to institutions and decision-makers on existing policies and ways to improve the European security agenda The book explains and advocates for establishing stronger, more resilient systems to preserve functionalities at the local, national, and international levels. Security, industry, and policy experts—both practitioners and policy decision-makers—looking for answers will find the solutions they seek within this book.




Protecting Critical Infrastructure in the EU


Book Description

Critical infrastructures such as energy, communications, banking, transportation, public government services, information technology etc., are more vital to industrialized economies and now than ever before. At the same time, these infrastructures are becoming increasingly dependent on each other, such that failure of one of them can often propagate and result in domino effects. The emerging challenge of Critical (information) Infrastructure Protection (C(I)IP) has been recognized by nearly all member states of the European Union: politicians are increasingly aware of the threats posed by radical political movements and terrorist attacks, as well as the need to develop better response capacity in case of natural disasters. Responses to these facts have been in line with the available resources and possibilities of each country, so that certain countries are already quite advanced in translating the C(I)IP challenge into measures, whereas others are lagging behind. In the international arena of this policy domain, Europe is still in search of a role to play. Recently, CIIP policy has been integrated in the EU Digital Agenda, which testifies to the growing importance of securing resilient infrastructures for the future. This important and most topical Task Force Report is the result of in-depth discussions between experts from different backgrounds and offers a number of observations and recommendations for a more effective and joined-up European policy response to the protection of critical infrastructure. The Task Force was chaired by Bernhard Hämmerli, President of the Swiss Informatics Society. CEPS Senior Research Fellow Andrea Renda served as Rapporteur.--Publisher description.




Resilience and Situational Awareness in Critical Infrastructure Protection


Book Description

The paper proposes a concept enabling quantitative assessment of resilience in critical entities developed in the European projects SmartResilience and InfraStress. The concept aims at combining simple communication-related advantages of simplified assessments results (such as ,Äúresilience very high,Äù or ,Äúresilience very low,Äù) with the advantages of the in-depth assessments (e.g. analysis of multiple sensor data). The paper describes the main elements of the innovative, indicator-based concept, starting with the ,Äúresilience cube,Äù at the top, and continuing with the multi-level, hierarchical, indicator-based assessment methodology. The concept allows analyzing and assessing different aspects of practical resilience management. One can assess the resilience level of an entity at a given point in time, monitor their resilience level over time and benchmark it. One can also model and analyze the functionality of a system during a particular (threat) scenario, as well as stress-test it. The same methodology allows to optimize investment in improving resilience (e.g. in further training, in equipment, etc.), in a transparent and intuitive way. A resilience indicator database (over 4,000 indicators available) and a suite of tools (primarily developed within SmartResilience and InfraStress projects) and a repository of over 20 application cases and 300 scenarios, support application of the methodology. The concept has been discussed and agreed with over 50 different organizational stakeholders and is being embedded into the new ISO 31050 standard currently under development. Its ,Äúlife-after-the-project,Äù will be ensured by the dedicated ,Äúresilience rating initiative (ERRA),Äù. Although the concept and the tool in the form of the ,ÄúResilienceTool,Äù were developed primarily for the resilience assessment of critical infrastructure (the ,Äúsmart,Äù ones in particular), they can be used for resilience assessment of other systems and through the extension of the, already initiated, implementation of AI techniques (machine learning) to make the ResilienceTool even more versatile and easier to use in the future.




Cyber-Physical Threat Intelligence for Critical Infrastructures Security


Book Description

Modern critical infrastructures can be considered as large scale Cyber Physical Systems (CPS). Therefore, when designing, implementing, and operating systems for Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), the boundaries between physical security and cybersecurity are blurred. Emerging systems for Critical Infrastructures Security and Protection must therefore consider integrated approaches that emphasize the interplay between cybersecurity and physical security techniques. Hence, there is a need for a new type of integrated security intelligence i.e., Cyber-Physical Threat Intelligence (CPTI). This book presents novel solutions for integrated Cyber-Physical Threat Intelligence for infrastructures in various sectors, such as Industrial Sites and Plants, Air Transport, Gas, Healthcare, and Finance. The solutions rely on novel methods and technologies, such as integrated modelling for cyber-physical systems, novel reliance indicators, and data driven approaches including BigData analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Some of the presented approaches are sector agnostic i.e., applicable to different sectors with a fair customization effort. Nevertheless, the book presents also peculiar challenges of specific sectors and how they can be addressed. The presented solutions consider the European policy context for Security, Cyber security, and Critical Infrastructure protection, as laid out by the European Commission (EC) to support its Member States to protect and ensure the resilience of their critical infrastructures. Most of the co-authors and contributors are from European Research and Technology Organizations, as well as from European Critical Infrastructure Operators. Hence, the presented solutions respect the European approach to CIP, as reflected in the pillars of the European policy framework. The latter includes for example the Directive on security of network and information systems (NIS Directive), the Directive on protecting European Critical Infrastructures, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and the Cybersecurity Act Regulation. The sector specific solutions that are described in the book have been developed and validated in the scope of several European Commission (EC) co-funded projects on Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), which focus on the listed sectors. Overall, the book illustrates a rich set of systems, technologies, and applications that critical infrastructure operators could consult to shape their future strategies. It also provides a catalogue of CPTI case studies in different sectors, which could be useful for security consultants and practitioners as well.




Critical Infrastructures at Risk


Book Description

Europe witnessed in the last years a number of significant power contingencies. Some of them revealed the potentiality of vast impact on the welfare of society and triggered pressing questions on the reliability of electric power systems. Society has incorporated electricity as an inherent component, indispensable for achieving the expected level of quality of life. Therefore, any impingement on the continuity of the electricity service would be able to distress society as a whole, affecting individuals, social and economic activities, other infrastructures and essential government functions. It would be possible to hypothesize that in extreme situations this could even upset national security. This book explores the potential risks and vulnerabilities of the European electricity infrastructure, other infrastructures and our society as whole increasingly depend on. The work was initiated by the need to verify the potential effects of the ongoing market and technical transformation of the infrastructure, which is fundamentally changing its operation and performance. The final aim is to set the basis for an appropriate industrial and political European-wide response to the risk challenges.




Managing the Complexity of Critical Infrastructures


Book Description

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book summarizes work being pursued in the context of the CIPRNet (Critical Infrastructure Preparedness and Resilience Research Network) research project, co-funded by the European Union under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). The project is intended to provide concrete and on-going support to the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) research communities, enhancing their preparedness for CI-related emergencies, while also providing expertise and technologies for other stakeholders to promote their understanding and mitigation of the consequences of CI disruptions, leading to enhanced resilience. The book collects the tutorial material developed by the authors for several courses on the modelling, simulation and analysis of CIs, representing extensive and integrated CIP expertise. It will help CI stakeholders, CI operators and civil protection authorities understand the complex system of CIs, and help them adapt to these changes and threats in order to be as prepared as possible for mitigating emergencies and crises affecting or arising from CIs.




A State of the Art Report on the External Dimension of Dependencies and Interdependencies of EU Critical Infrastructures


Book Description

The European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (EPCIP) defines a series of measures for the protection and resilience of critical infrastructures. The dependencies of critical infrastructures and supply chains in Europe on critical infrastructures outside EU is high in the agenda. The element of external dimension is of paramount importance for EPCIP and the Commission has called in several cases MS to work in this direction. To this end, understanding external interdependencies is a key element for establishing a targeted approach for collaboration with countries outside EU. The present report aims to shed light on the external dimension of interdependencies of critical infrastructures in the EU, based on publicly available information. Furthermore, an important aspect of this report is that it addresses the issue of external interdepedencies also for Key Resources Supply Chains. Finally, leveraging the experience of JRC and Politecnico di Milano in the domain of critical infrastructure protection and their interdependencies, actions at research and risk management level for prevention and mitigation of this kind of risks on EU critical infrastructures and KRSC are proposed.




Critical Information Infrastructures Security


Book Description

This book constitutes revised selected papers from the 10th International Conference on Critical Information Infrastructures Security, CRITIS 2015, held in Berlin, Germany, in October 2015. The 18 full and 6 short papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 54 submissions. They are organized in topical sections named: critical information infrastructure protection; critical infrastructure resilience assessment; emergency management: critical infrastructure preparedness; modelling, simulation and analysis approaches; electric grid protection and resilience; and CIPRNet young CRITIS award candidate papers.