Question

Explain Critical infrastructure vulnerability analysis its relationship to critical infrastructure protection:

Answer 1

Ans:Critical infrastructures (CIs) like the energy transmission and distribution networks, the telecommunication networks, the transportation systems, the water and gas distribution systems are

complex systems made by many interacting components assembled by design to provide, as a whole,

optimal, consistent and reliable operation, and functional safety.

Critical infrastructures are large scale, man-made systems that function interdependently to produce and distribute essential goods (such as energy, water and data) and services (such as transportation,banking and health care). An infrastructure is termed critical if its incapacity or destruction has asignificant impact on health, safety, security, economics and social well-being .A failure in such an infrastructure, or the loss of its service, can be damaging to a single society and its economy, while it could also cascade across boundaries causing failures in multiple infrastructures with potential catastrophic consequences .

Vulnerability and risk analysis

CIs vulnerability and risk must be analyzed and assessed in order to prepare to address them by design, operation and management. Risk analysis as a formalized subject has existed for about three decades, and has reached a wide range of applications with the purpose of revealing and identifying potential failure modes and hazards in our systems .

Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) is a concept that relates to the preparedness and response to serious incidents that involve the critical infrastructure of a region or nation.

The systems and networks that make up the infrastructure of society are often taken for granted, yet a disruption to just one of those systems can have dire consequences across other sectors.Take, for example, a computer virus that disrupts the distribution of natural gas across a region. This could lead to a consequential reduction in electrical power generation, which in turn leads to the forced shutdown of computerized controls and communications. Road traffic, air traffic, and rail transportation might then become affected. Emergency services might also be hampered.

An entire region can become debilitated because some critical elements in the infrastructure become disabled through natural disaster.