Title: Social network analysis of the vulnerabilities of interdependent critical infrastructures

Authors: W.J. Zhang, X. Liu, Choon-Lee Chai, Ralph Deters, D. Liu, Dmytro Dyachuk, Y.L. Tu, Zaheer Baber

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A9, Canada. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, 57 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A9, Canada. ' Department of Sociology, University of Saskatchewan, #1019–9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5A5, Canada. ' Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, 176 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C9, Canada. ' Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, 176 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C9, Canada. ' Department of Computer Science, University of Saskatchewan, 176 Thorvaldson Building, 110 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5C9, Canada. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4, Canada. ' Department of Sociology, University of Toronto, 725 Spadina Avanue, Toronto, ON, M5S 2J4, Canada

Abstract: Interdependency among critical infrastructures contributes to vulnerabilities of those infrastructures. In this paper, the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructures are identified and analysed using social network analysis. In the analysis of network centrality, the importance of each critical infrastructure, in terms of its contribution to infrastructure interdependency, is ranked. The findings show that electricity and telecommunication are the two most important critical infrastructures that contribute to infrastructure interdependency, which further render the infrastructure network vulnerable to cascading damage. An example system is given to illustrate the ideas and results presented in this paper.

Keywords: social networks; interdependent infrastructures; critical infrastructures; vulnerabilities; social network analysis; electricity; telecommunications.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2008.017440

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2008 Vol.4 No.3, pp.256 - 273

Published online: 07 Mar 2008 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article