Critical infrastructure and systemic vulnerability: Towards a planning framework

摘要

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.