Title: On the vulnerability of critical infrastructures: ''seeing it coming''

Authors: Adrian V. Gheorghe, Dan V. Vamanu

Addresses: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zentrum, HG, Ramistrasse 101, CH-8092, Zurich, Switzerland. ' Institute of Atomic Physics, Bucharest, MG76900, Romania

Abstract: The paper addresses a number of concerns that are manifest in the safety management of critical infrastructures (CI) including, and especially, the effects of an increasing complexity on the safety managers| ability to comprehend and monitor the stability, predictability, and manoeuvrability of the systems at hand; the perverse effect of computer ubiquity on the CI safety quality; and, entailing these – the frustrating governance crises recurrently rippling the history of critical infrastructures. Based on a couple of illustrative working examples derived from the nonlinear dynamics, a call is launched for an innovative re-appraisal of the enlightening potential of the established resources in applied mathematics, applied systems theory, physics models, biology paradigms and other ||on-the-shelf|| tools, in view of meeting the current demand for a secured performance and overall safety in critical infrastructures and the society at large.

Keywords: critical infrastructures; information technology; business management; nonlinear dynamics; vulnerability; safety management; safety quality; governance; performance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2005.006120

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2005 Vol.1 No.2/3, pp.216 - 246

Published online: 06 Feb 2005 *

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