Securing critical infrastructures Critical infrastructures such as energy generation plants and police facilities contribute significantly to our society, and must remain safe and secure at all times. Climate Change and Environment © Shutterstock These installations often boast an advanced level of technology, classified data and off-limits areas accessed solely by skilled staff, and involve complex interactions between sections, facilities and even different countries. To ensure their safety and security, these installations require protection systems that can control all the complexities and interactions involved. The EU-funded 'Net information integration services for security systems' (NI2S3) project is developing security systems based on a technology called network-enabled capability (NEC). This technology integrates sensors, decision-makers and support capabilities to ensure that the right information is available at the right place, in the right time and in the right amount. The technology will also be based on service-oriented architecture (SOA), a flexible set of design principles that guide systems development and integration in computing. With NEC and SOA technologies, the security systems will be capable of collecting and processing information from diverse sources to ensure and improve situation awareness of critical infrastructures. NI2S3 is thus developing the technology for evaluating performance, robustness and reliability of such a protection system using performance indicators and tools for system validation. It is working on a viable application demo or prototype that will protect these infrastructures. Once the prototype is ready, the project will oversee distribution and exploitation of the technology. The project has so far analysed the current state of the art in the field and defined security scenarios to help elaborate a security system. It has outlined system specifications to develop a secure system for critical infrastructures. The resulting protection system is set to involve all necessary components and tools to acquire, exchange, process and monitor information. It will rely on the continuous feeding of information to ensure rapid access for designated end users so they can take appropriate, timely decisions concerning security. For example, critical transportation systems have an international scope, so that the most suitable instrument to achieve advances in protecting such infrastructures is a system based on international cooperation. Lastly, the NI2S3 project will ensure that the prospective protection system is error-proof and does not react in ways that may lead to erroneous, inadequate or disproportional system actions. In summary, such a system will help keep our critical infrastructures safe from errors, sabotage, terrorist acts, and natural or manmade hazards.
