Critical Infrastructures Protection

[I don’t actively work on this topic at the moment]

Topic overview

Since the American commission on critical infrastructures protection in 1997, large infrastructures such as telecommunication, transportation, electrical or water supply networks have received much attention from the political and research communities. The recent over-protective ambiance in western countries increased the efforts put into this theme.

These networks may generally be considered as large and complex systems, as they span over the entire planet, composed of several smaller networks, interconnected and interdependent.

Several research initiatives have been granted by different governmental agencies in order to study the safety and the security of these multi-operated global networks and to develop solutions to prevent severe scenarios from happening.

At first sight, this research field may appear tainted with a lot of paranoid thinking. However, the characterization of the capacity of these infrastructures to resist to failures and attacks is still imprecise. The domain requires a great modeling effect to identify the true problems that may impact these infrastructures and that may be solved by computer science and communication techniques.

Research directions

Through different collaborations, we are currently interested into two main problems:

  • The interdependencies between infrastructures is an important factor to consider, as a failure in one network may impact its more or less direct neighbors, potentially spanning over different infrastructure types. The classical common sense example of such cross-domain interdependencies is the relationship between telecommunication and electrical networks. We believe that, as soon as different and potentially concurrent operators are involved in a common task, there may exist dependencies that may not be intrinsic but that may be due to the lack of vision one may have over the black box represented by a single network.
  • The interaction between different objectives also appears as a potential cause of problems. We are currently interested in modeling the interactions between safety and security objectives. If these two objectives should not, in theory, be antagonistic, they generally fall under the responsibility of different services and their implementation may include some contradictory or redundant procedures.

Ph.D Students

  • Alpha Diallo, on the topic of critical infrastructures interdependencies.
  • Ludovic Piètre-Cambacédès, on the subject of interactions between safety and security.

Related contractual research projects

  • The SINARI ANR Project deals with interdependencies between electrical and telecommunication networks.
  • The IRRIIS European Integrated Project (ICT-FP6) (2006 – 2009) addressed interdependencies problems between telecommunication and electrical networks.

Publications

2013

  • [DOI] J. McDonald, H. Decroix, R. Caire, J. Sanchez, S. Chollet, N. Oualha, A. Puccetti, A. Hecker, C. Chaudet, H. Piat, D. Georges, and F. Planchon, “The SINARI project: Security analysis and risk assessment applied to the electrical distribution network,” in 22nd International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution (CIRED 2013), Stockholm, Sweden, jun 2013.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{McDonald:2013os,
      Address = {Stockholm, Sweden},
      Author = {McDonald, John and Decroix, H\'el\`ene and Caire, Rapha\"el and Sanchez, Jose and Chollet, St\'ephanie and Oualha, Nouha and Puccetti, Armand and Hecker, Artur and Chaudet, Claude and Piat, Henri and Georges, Daniel and Planchon, Fr\'ed\'eric},
      Booktitle = {22nd International Conference and Exhibition on Electricity Distribution (CIRED 2013)},
      Date-Added = {2014-11-08 19:52:15 +0000},
      Date-Modified = {2015-03-17 09:21:27 +0000},
      Doi = {10.1049/cp.2013.1025},
      Month = jun,
      Title = {{The SINARI project: Security analysis and risk assessment applied to the electrical distribution network}},
      Year = {2013}}
  • [DOI] A. Hecker, Y. Bencha”ib, and C. Chaudet, “ARMATURE: a Structurally Adaptive Connectivity Manager for Critical Communication Services Preservation,” in IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management, and Control (IFAC MIM ‘2013), St Petersbug, Russia, jun 2013.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{Hecker:2013uq,
      Address = {St Petersbug, Russia},
      Author = {Hecker, Artur and Bencha{\"\i}b, Yacine and Chaudet, Claude},
      Booktitle = {IFAC Conference on Manufacturing Modelling, Management, and Control (IFAC MIM '2013)},
      Date-Added = {2013-05-14 09:36:56 +0000},
      Date-Modified = {2015-03-17 09:22:13 +0000},
      Doi = {10.3182/20130619-3-RU-3018.00521},
      Month = jun,
      Title = {ARMATURE: a Structurally Adaptive Connectivity Manager for Critical Communication Services Preservation},
      Year = {2013}}

2012

  • L. Piètre-Cambacédès, M. Buissou, and C. Chaudet, “Des relations entre sûreté et sécurité,” in Congrès Lambda Mu 18, Tours, France, oct 2012.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{Pietre-Cambacedes:2012uq,
      Address = {Tours, France},
      Author = {Pi{\`e}tre-Cambac{\'e}d{\`e}s, Ludovic and Buissou, Marc and Chaudet, Claude},
      Booktitle = {Congr{\`e}s Lambda Mu 18},
      Date-Added = {2013-01-19 15:35:13 +0000},
      Date-Modified = {2013-01-19 15:35:42 +0000},
      Month = oct,
      Title = {Des relations entre s{\^u}ret{\'e} et s{\'e}curit{\'e}},
      Year = {2012}}

2010

  • L. Piètre-Cambacédès and C. Chaudet, “The SEMA referential framework: Avoiding equivocations on security and safety issues,” in Fourth Annual IFIP Working Group 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection, Washington, DC, USA, mar 2010.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{Pietre-Cambacedes2010ud,
      Address = {Washington, DC, USA},
      Author = {Pi{\`e}tre-Cambac{\'e}d{\`e}s, Ludovic and Chaudet, Claude},
      Booktitle = {Fourth Annual IFIP Working Group 11.10 International Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection},
      Date-Added = {2011-08-31 22:48:17 +0200},
      Date-Modified = {2011-08-31 22:48:46 +0200},
      Month = mar,
      Title = {{The SEMA referential framework: Avoiding equivocations on security and safety issues}},
      Year = {2010}}
  • [DOI] L. Piètre-Cambacédès and C. Chaudet, “The SEMA referential framework: Avoiding ambiguities in the terms “security” and “safety”,” International Journal of Critical Infrastructures Protection, vol. 3, no. 2, jun, 2010.
    [Bibtex]
    @article{Pietre-Cambacedes2010mw,
      Author = {Pi{\`e}tre-Cambac{\'e}d{\`e}s, Ludovic and Chaudet, Claude},
      Date-Added = {2011-08-31 22:45:02 +0200},
      Date-Modified = {2011-09-18 21:07:51 +0200},
      Doi = {10.1016/j.ijcip.2010.06.003},
      Journal = {International Journal of Critical Infrastructures Protection},
      Month = jun,
      Number = {2},
      Title = {{The SEMA referential framework: Avoiding ambiguities in the terms "security" and "safety"}},
      Volume = {3},
      Year = {2010},
      Bdsk-Url-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcip.2010.06.003}}

2009

  • L. Piètre-Cambacédès and C. Chaudet, “Disentangling the relations between safety and security,” in The 9th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Informatics and Communications (AIC’09), Moscow, Russia, jul 2009.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{Pietre-Cambacedes2009hs,
      Address = {Moscow, Russia},
      Author = {Pi{\`e}tre-Cambac{\'e}d{\`e}s, Ludovic and Chaudet, Claude},
      Booktitle = {The 9th WSEAS International Conference on Applied Informatics and Communications (AIC'09)},
      Date-Added = {2011-08-31 23:35:13 +0200},
      Date-Modified = {2011-08-31 23:35:51 +0200},
      Month = jul,
      Title = {Disentangling the relations between safety and security},
      Year = {2009}}
  • [DOI] A. A. Diallo and C. Chaudet, “An Alternate Topology Generator for Joint Study of Power Grids and Communication Networks,” in 4th International Workshop on Critical Information Infrastructures Security (CRITIS 2009), Bonn, Germany, oct 2009.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{Diallo2009if,
      Address = {Bonn, Germany},
      Author = {Diallo, Alpha Amadou and Chaudet, Claude},
      Booktitle = {4th International Workshop on Critical Information Infrastructures Security (CRITIS 2009)},
      Date-Added = {2011-08-31 22:49:11 +0200},
      Date-Modified = {2011-09-18 21:09:40 +0200},
      Doi = {10.1007/978-3-642-14379-3_5},
      Month = oct,
      Title = {An Alternate Topology Generator for Joint Study of Power Grids and Communication Networks},
      Year = {2009},
      Bdsk-Url-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14379-3_5}}
  • [DOI] S. Delamare, A. A. DIallo, and C. Chaudet, “High-level modeling of critical infrastructures interdependencies,” International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, vol. 5, no. 1/2,, pp. 100-119,, 2009.
    [Bibtex]
    @article{Delamare2009ys,
      Author = {Delamare, Simon and DIallo, Alpha Amadou and Chaudet, Claude},
      Date-Modified = {2011-09-18 21:03:28 +0200},
      Doi = {10.1504/IJCIS.2009.022852},
      Journal = {{International Journal of Critical Infrastructures}},
      Number = {1/2},
      Pages = {100-119},
      Title = {{High-level modeling of critical infrastructures interdependencies}},
      Volume = 5,
      Year = 2009,
      Bdsk-Url-1 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/IJCIS.2009.022852}}

2007

  • S. Delamare, A. A. DIallo, and C. Chaudet, “High-level modeling of critical infrastructures interdependencies,” in Critical Infrastructures as Complex Systems conference, co-located with European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS 2007), Dresden, Germany, oct 2007.
    [Bibtex]
    @inproceedings{Delamare2007vn,
      Address = {Dresden, Germany},
      Author = {Delamare, Simon and DIallo, Alpha Amadou and Chaudet, Claude},
      Booktitle = {{Critical Infrastructures as Complex Systems conference, co-located with European Conference on Complex Systems (ECCS 2007)}},
      Month = oct,
      Title = {{High-level modeling of critical infrastructures interdependencies}},
      Year = 2007}