Critical infrastructure protection

Essential infrastructures, also known as critical infrastructures, vital infrastructures and life-support networks, are key elements in the functioning of civil society. Indeed, essential infrastructures are part of the organizational structures whose mandate is to provide the resources and services that support the socio-economic activities of today's societies. For this reason, it is essential to keep them functional, both in day-to-day operations and in emergency situations.

These entities, which were historically physically separate, are now, thanks to technological advances, increasingly interconnected, forming infrastructure networks. They are made up of a set of components which in turn form main and secondary networks. Together, they form an integrated system whose reliability depends on the performance of all the components of the various essential infrastructures. It is in this form of systemic organization that the strength, but also the vulnerability, of critical infrastructures lies.

To strengthen these networks and reduce their vulnerability, work has been underway since 1996 to protect critical infrastructures. The forerunners in this field were the United States, with the establishment of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (Clinton, 1996). Since then, attention to the safety and security of critical infrastructures has intensified.

There are two main types of work currently being carried out on essential infrastructures:

1. 1) Sectoral work that studies risks in a particular sector.

2. 2) Cross-sector work that characterizes existing dependencies and interdependencies between different critical infrastructures.

The aim of this article is to present current work on critical infrastructure interdependencies. Particular attention will be paid to the inclusion of cyber risk in this work, given the topicality of the issue.