Critical infrastructure and systemic vulnerability: Towards a planning framework

Journal article, 2007

This article presents an analytical planning framework for hypothesizing, formulating and mitigating vulnerability in critical infrastructures. The point of departure is that because technological change plays a significant role in the development of critical infrastructures, the dynamics of such change must be taken into account when assessing how such structures advance a state of vulnerability over time. A second key notion is that while underlying interdependencies are characteristic of developing technological systems in general, these relationships receive a new significance in the context of critical infrastructures. The article contributes a model of vulnerability, which integrates a number of system levels of technological change as they bear on critical infrastructures. The framework is exemplified by a case description and analysis of cyber attacks on vital public functions. Finally a number of key principles are proposed for addressing systemic vulnerability in critical infrastructures across sectors of society. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.