SAFEGUARDING THE NATION’S CRITICAL NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE text: PHILIP VICTOR Managing Director, Welchman Keen
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omprised of the moving parts that keep countries and their economies up and running, critical national infrastructure is a term to refer to any structure within the framework of society which is vital to our everyday lives, to our safety and to our country’s economy. This includes our water supply, our nation’s transportation framework, security services, energy industries, telecommunications, public health framework and the economic sector – such as banking – among other things. While these sectors are established as part of the Critical National Infrastructure among countries, each nation can make its own choices to categorise other industries as being part of this Critical Infrastructure, which could be unique to that country. No matter what a country’s Critical National Infrastructure is comprised of, across the globe the security and stability of each country’s CNI is crucial to its everyday function. In a 2014 report on the top risks faced globally, the World Economic Forum stated that the “failure to adequately invest in, upgrade and secure infrastructure networks” was a top threat to the global economy, since these infrastructures facilitate every fibre of our everyday lives. A successful attack on any one of these assets – belonging to the target country’s critical national infrastructure – would have a devastating effect on the victimised nation’s economy, and can even result in devastation and death, as has been the case in the past, especially in the case of terror-motivated attacks.
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CYBERWATCH
FINLAND
Any compromise or breach of a nation’s critical infrastructure can result in devastation, and have an extensive impact throughout the country. Therefore, the protection of the CNI – and all the data which is necessary to maintain its security and functionality – should be a top priority to any country, to ensure the stability of the economy, and the safety of its residents. Unfortunately, despite how crucial it is to ensure the security of the Critical National Infrastructure – and the data surrounding these frameworks – it is vulnerable to attack, especially in recent times. In June alone, seven significant cyber-attacks were detected by countries across the world, and it’s likely that even more CNI infiltrations have taken place, but gone undetected. Even more concerning, a survey was carried out by the Ponemon Institute which gathered information from security professionals in six countries – including the United Kingdom – and found that 90% of the assets within the Critical National Infrastructure had been hit by at least one successful attack. As time progresses, and the world evolves with it, we become more and more reliant on technology – and the bar for what’s considered ‘high tech’ is set higher and higher. The safety of the Critical National Infrastructure is under progressively more threat, as enemies of the nation harness smarter malicious techniques and our governments – and the private companies associated with the country’s Critical infrastructure – try to keep up, and improve the strength of their online security measures.
