CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

DR JOHN ROOKSBY

IN THIS LECTURE

What is infrastructure?

• National infrastructures

• Organisational infrastructures

• Digital infrastructures

What is critical infrastructure?

• How is infrastructure vulnerable?

Understanding infrastructure

• Problems of understanding existing infrastructure

• Interdependencies in infrastructure

“Public” infrastructure

Digital infrastructure

Organisational infrastructure

WHAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE?The installed base upon which operations and systems can run

Public infrastructure

• National and international systems upon which societies operate: transport, energy, communications, etc. (Includes digital infrastructure).

• Used to be publicly owned, but in the UK and many other counties it has been privatised

Organisational infrastructure

• A much newer use of the term

• Physical and digital infrastructure used by an organisation

• Not necessarily owned by the organisation

WHAT IS INFRASTRUCTURE?Sometimes a distinction is made between hard and soft infrastructure.

Hard infrastructure

• Large, physical networks

• Energy networks, Transport, etc.

Soft infrastructure

• Institutions

• Emergency services, financial services, health care, schools, etc.

This is an artificial distinction

Both hard and soft infrastructures are socio-technical

CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRASTRUCTURE

• Large Scale• Spread over large geographic areas• Regional/National/International

• Complex• Many components • Many interdependencies (internal and external)

• Reliance on standards• Heterogeneous parts rely on standards for interoperation• Standards are not always uniformly applied across an

infrastructure• Long term

• Modern and legacy components • Emerges and changes over the long term• We have to live with decisions made a long time ago

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Rarely one single owner and authority

• Sub-systems and components are increasingly privatised

• The theory is that privately operated infrastructure will be more efficient

• However it is difficult to optimise an infrastructure when sections of it are run by self interested parties

• Crosses national and international boundaries

Often challenging to fund

• We are often reluctant to pay for infrastructure

• Where monopolies exist they are able to over-charge. However, competition where operational costs are low can lead to under-charging (and no re-investment).

SOCIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INFRASTRUCTURELearned as part of membership

• The use, and styles of use, of particular infrastructures signifies and is often an essential marker of membership of a community.

Links with conventions of practice

• Infrastructure both shapes and is shaped by the conventions of a community of practice, e.g. the ways that cycles of day-night work are affected by and affect electrical power rates

Taken for granted

• Does not need to be re-invented every time we do something new

• We often don’t pay much attention to it. The normally invisible quality of working infrastructure becomes visible when it breaks

Infrastructure is “a relation”

• Whether something is infrastructure depends on perspective (particularly for digital infrastructure). A focus for one person can be infrastructure for another.

THE EMERGENCE OF INFRASTRUCTUREInfrastructures are engineered, but not at the system level. They emerge through social and institutional processes

• Begins with a “vision” (or visions). Later reality does not necessarily match this.

• Competing designs emerge.

• One or more local technologies become adopted as standard

• We have to live with decisions made a long time ago

The history of power girds, sewer systems, railways and so on do not portray a rational process in which an ideal system is designed and built, but a chaotic one.

Cloud and grid computing are often likened to power grids

• There is nothing inevitable about these becoming infrastructure, and the meaning of these terms continues to evolve.

WHAT IS CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE?

As individuals we often take infrastructure for granted, but organisations and governments cannot.

• Infrastructure needs to be maintained and adapted/modernised

• Strategic decisions must be made about what kind of infrastructure to invest in (and how)

• However, much infrastructure is not under control of a single organisation or authority

• Infrastructure is vulnerable

Many countries now have critical infrastructure programmes

CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROGRAMMES IN THE UK, EU, USA

UK Government

• Cabinet Office and the CPNI (Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure)

European Union

• European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection

USA

• Department of Homeland Security and the National Programme of Critical Infrastructure Protection

Governments do not have direct control of infrastructure, and so these are governance and advisory programmes.

What counts as critical varies from place to place

VULNERABILITIES

• Insufficient capability • Insufficient capacity • Faults • Decay • Accidents • Physical Attack• Electronic Attack• Natural Disaster • Civil Unrest

PERSPECTIVES

UK EU USA

Communications x x

Food x x x

Emergency Services

x x

Energy x x x

Finance x x x

Government x

Health x x x

Transport x x x

Water x x x

UK EU USA

Nuclear industry x

ICTs x x

Chemical industry

x x

Research facilities

x

Space x

Defence industrial base

x

Postal/shipping x

Monuments and icons

x

UK SUB-CATEGORIESLandline PhonesMobile TelecommunicationsPostal ServicesBroadcast Communications

AmbulanceFire and RescueMarinePolice

Health and Social Care

Communications

Food

Emergency Services

Energy

Finance

Government

Health

Transport

Water

ElectricityGasOilFuel

ProductionProcessingImportDistributionRetail

Payment, Clearing and Settlement SystemsPublic FinancesMarkets and Exchanges

Central GovernmentParliamentDevolved AdministrationsRegional and Local Authorities

Maritime AviationLand (Road and rail)

Potable water supplyDamsWaste Water Services

1983 1988 1996 1998 2001 2002 2003 2003Transportation X X X X X X X

XWater X X X X X X X

XEducation XPublic Health X X X X

XPrisons XIndustrial capacity XWaste Services XTelecommunications X X X X X

XEnergy X X X X X

XBanking and Finance X X X X

XEmergency Services X X X X

XGov. continuity X X X X

Information Systems X X X XX

Nuclear facilities XSpecial events XAgriculture/food X X X

XDefence industrial base X X

XChemical industry X X

XPostal/shipping services X X

XMonuments and icons X

XKey industry/tech sites XLarge gathering sites X

USA – CHANGES OVER TIME

COMPONENTSWe have been looking so far at a high level

• Ultimately, assurance has to be at the component level

Judgements need to be made about whether a technology or component is a critical element of an infrastructure

• Not every bridge or cable is essential to the overall system

• Are VOIP services telecoms services?

Designation carries implications.

• “Critical” bridges get additional funding (so they all want one!)

• Telecoms services need to carry emergency calls

It is very difficult, if not impossible to map every individual component

• Yet many problems occur at the component level

INTERDEPENDENCIES

Functional: Reliance between components.

Informational: Data flow from one node aides decision making elsewhere.

Shared Control: Control is from the same system/location

Geospatial: Physical proximity

Purpose: A shared function or purpose

Policy/procedural: A change in policy or procedure at one place may have effects elsewhere.

Societal Interdependency: Changes to one component may have societal effects which lead to changes to others

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brizo_the_scot/3736542522/

BALTIMORE, HOWARD STREET TUNNEL FIRE

http://www.its.dot.gov/JPODOCS/REPTS_TE/13754.html

ENERGY CRISIS IN CALIFORNIAFirst Order Effects Third Order EffectsSecond Order

Effects

Oil pipelines

Gas supply

Water

Deregulation Policies

New Energy Marketplace Dynamics

Tight, High-Cost Gas Supplies

Utility Financial Crisis

Substantial load growth

Lack of New Generating and Transmission Capacity

Aging fleet of Power Plants

Low Hydro Conditions

Transmission/Environmental Constraints

Cogeneration

Refineries

Storage terminals

Agriculture

Oil Production

Road transportation

Air transportation

Banking and Finance

Electric Power

Reduced Steam Injection for Heavy

Oil Production

Reduced Heavy Oil Production

Curtailed Natural Gas Production

Inventory build-up: Curtailed

Operations

Inventory Drawdown:

Shortages of Gasoline and Jet

Fuel

Crop losses

Shortages of Specially

Formulated Gasoline

Disruption of flight schedules

Financial losses

Disruption of product pipelines

Disruption of irrigation pumps

Supply demand imbalance

PROTECTING AND ASSURING INFRASTRUCTURE

A difficult problem• Infrastructure is rarely under individual control• Infrastructure is large scale

Assurance takes place through governance processes and risk management• Identify key components• Identify vulnerabilities• Identify threats• Construct risk models• Assess possible outcomes from loss• Make/request/lobby for necessary improvements• Make contingency plans

None of these steps are trivial!

KEY POINTS

Infrastructure is critical to business, security, health, society.

• We are increasingly reliant on digital infrastructure.

Infrastructure is large scale, complex, has modern and legacy components, and many interdependencies.

Securing infrastructure is a hard problem

• Hard to know what you have

• Hard to assess vulnerabilities

• Difficult to make improvements because infrastructure is rarely under direct control of those it is critical to

SOURCESP. Pederson, D. Dudenhoeffer, S. Hartley, M. Permann (2006) Critical Infrastructure Interdependency Modeling: A Survey of U.S. and International Research. Idaho National Laboratory

John Moteff and Paul Parfomak (2004) Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets: Definition and Identification. Report for Congress.

Susan Leigh Star, Karen Ruhleder, (1994) Steps Towards an Ecology of Infrastructure: Complex Problems in Design and Access for Large-Scale Collaborative Systems. CSCW 1994. ACM Press.

USA National Infrastructure Protection Plan

• http://www.dhs.gov/files/programs/editorial_0827.shtm

UK Centre For Protection of National Infrastructure

• http://www.cpni.gov.uk/