Business Continuity of Critical Infrastructures for Safety and Security Incidents

The chapter is an overview of important timely concepts with a focus on the safety and security of critical infrastructures (CIs). The content is a result of triangulation of sources from the fields of academia, best practices, legislation, and scientific research. The protection of CIs has been a popular topic of discussion through recent years but also a topic for initiative towards the undisrupted function, prosperity and well-being of nations in a world of interconnections and dependencies. In respect to that, the following content offers input which will assist in the understanding of the concepts surrounding the safety and security of CIs while combining theoretical approaches with practical guidelines for the composition of a business continuity plan. The chapter also discusses the factors contributing to the criticality of technical infrastructures as part of a nation or a cross-border network, the threats to which a CI can be exposed to whether these are natural or man-made.

Uncertainties in Safety and Security

In today's world, critical infrastructure encompasses facilities vital to the economy, politics, and population. Their maintenance and safe operation can ensure the supply for the population. These facilities are at risk due to climate change, natural disasters, terror attacks, or wars which are increasingly affecting countries around the world. In addition, the human factor can also cause uncertainty and damages. The function of the world depends on human activities. In this chapter the uncertainties in safety and security are introduced. Security is the most important part as it is the critical infrastructure protection and human safety . The important pillars of safety and security and these uncertainties are introduced in this chapter.

Materials for Safety and Security

This chapter deals with materials used in safety and security engineering. The most commonly used materials in this field include shielding materials, materials for protective suits, electrically insulating materials and materials for fire protection. The first part of the chapter describes the properties of materials used in the above applications. The second part of the chapter focuses on characteristics of materials that accurately describe their fire risk. The fire risk of a material is quantified by its resistance to ignition (determined generally by critical heat flux and ignition temperature) and by the impact of the fire on the environment. The impact of fire is usually determined by the heat release rate, toxicity of combustion products (primarily determined by carbon monoxide yield and for materials that contain nitrogen, also through the hydrogen cyanide yield) and the decrease of visibility in the area (depending on the geometry of the area and the smoke production rate).

Current Safety Issues in Road Tunnel Construction

The construction of road tunnels is an important part of road infrastructure. The operation of road tunnels has historically been accompanied by a number of extraordinary events. Fires are among the most dangerous ones. Individual countries create their own safety standards that mutually differ to a large extent. Some of the differences of the requirements for safety devices, including the requirements for their functionality, are compared and commented on in this chapter. Moreover, attention is paid to the use of asphalt surfaces on roads and sidewalks in tunnels. This chapter also describes the approach to fire ventilation in tunnels, one of the most significant safety devices. Special attention is paid to the choice of the strategy of longitudinal ventilation, which has been the subject of many discussions. This chapter outlines the possible directions for a solution in the future.

Simulation and Modelling in Fire Safety

Actual and future concerns in fire safety in buildings and infrastructure are challenging. Modern technologies provide rapid development in area of fire safety, especially in education, training, and fire-engineering. Modelling as a tool in fire-engineering provides possibility to design specific fire scenarios and investigate fire spread, smoke movement or evacuation of occupants from buildings. Development of emerging technologies and software provides higher possibility to apply these models with interactions of augmented and virtual reality. Augmented reality and virtual reality expand effectivity of training and preparedness of first (fire wardens) and second (firefighters) responders. Limitations such as financial demands, scale and scenarios of practical training of first and second responders are much lower than in virtual reality. These technologies provide great opportunities in preparedness to crisis in a safety way with significantly limited budget. Some of these systems are already developed and applied in safety and security area e.g. XVR (firefighting, medical service).

Transport Infrastructures Safety and Security

The chapter focuses on explaining the causal links between security and safety within the transport infrastructure. The chapter presents the current state of protection and resilience of the transport infrastructure in Europe. The introductory part will focus on comparative analysis of the latest information on transport infrastructure. In addition, an overview of current European transport infrastructure directives and legal acts will be included. This will be followed by an analysis of the results of scientific research projects at European level. As a case study, the state of security and safety in the transport infrastructure of the Slovak Republic will be presented. The following will be a generalized set of recommendations to improve security and safety in the transport infrastructure. The chapter will be supplemented by relevant sources of information on the issues addressed.

Industry Process Safety

This chapter deals with the issue of process safety in industrial companies and major accident prevention. In the present-day technologically advanced world, industrial accidents appear ever more frequently, and the field of major accident prevention has become a dynamically developing discipline. With accelerating technical progress, risks of industrial accidents are to be reduced. In the first part, possible approaches to quantitative risk assessment are presented; and continuing it focuses on the system of risk management in industrial establishments. This chapter aims at providing experiences, knowledge, as well as new approaches to the prevention of major accidents caused by the implementation of the Seveso III Directive.

Security of Water Critical Infrastructure

There is an identified and elevated threat level to water services by modern terrorists, in consideration of increasing levels of observed violence in recent terrorist attacks across Europe. This chapter raises significant aspects related to the security of the water critical infrastructure (water CI). Initially, dependencies and interdependencies of water CI, with other CIs, are highlighted as a potential incubating risk, which may well be hidden within the complexities of the modern water value chain of logistics and services. Threats to water CI including single points of failure are further described, followed by terrorist water attack planning methodologies and strategies. Finally, the water CI protection that may be considered to reduce any future threat levels from acts of terrorism is discussed.

Cyber-Physical Security in Healthcare

The healthcare sector has been considered a part of critical infrastructure (CI) of society and has faced numerous physical-cyber threats that affect citizens' lives and habits, increase their fears, and influence hospital services provisions. The two most recent ransomware campaigns, WannaCry and Petya, have both managed to infect victims' systems by exploiting existing unpatched vulnerabilities. It is critical to develop an integrated approach in order to fight against combination of physical and cyber threats. In this chapter, key results of the SAFECARE project (H2020-GA787005), which aims is to provide solutions that will improve physical and cyber security, to prevent and detect complex attacks, to promote incident responses and mitigate impacts, will be presented. More specifically, healthcare critical asset vulnerabilities; cyber-physical threats that can affect them; architecture solutions, as well as, some indicative scenarios that will be validated during the project will be presented.

Electricity Infrastructure Technical Security

In general, energy infrastructure is a basic but very complex system of elements, interconnections, functional inputs and outputs, which creates the need to break down subsystems, systems, and infrastructure areas. The aim of this chapter is therefore to discuss the possible implementation of approaches to risk assessment and risk management in relation to the application of technical security measures. This chapter of the book will therefore discuss risk analysis methods where the transition from general approaches to risk analysis, through risk identification methods and procedures and the assessment of major industrial and technological risks, to specific risk analysis methodologies for electricity infrastructures, will be presented. An important part of the chapter is also the introduction of practical approaches and methodologies that are accepted as “best practices” in connection with ensuring the technical security of electricity infrastructures.