Defining the ‘critical’ and the ‘protection’ components of critical infrastructure protection
Western Australia's Edith Cowan University (ECU) is actively supporting the initiative of the Attorney-General's Department to identify what is 'critical infrastructure' in australia and how this should be protected through its Security Science Department.
As part of its Security Sciences degrees, the department conducts the introductory unit SCY 3119: Critical Infrastructure Protection, which includes studies on counter terrorism and intelligence.
The most notable result from the latest concluded semester of the course has been just how little has been actually done to protect what is considered vital to Australia and the need to increase the amount of research to assist companies and Government in the assessment process to secure that which is considered critical to the national interest.
Below is a series of abstractions taken from projects undertaken by the students of the SCY 3119: Critical Infrastructure Protection unit. The students were asked to look at one of the areas defined under the Attorney General’s guidelines as critical and assess the vulnerability of that sector. This was done using open source material and results suggest not enough has been done to date to ensure the areas of national interest have been properly secured.
A number of these papers were presented at the Australian Security Convention (SECAU) in December 2008.
Spreading the CIP word
In 2009 ECU intends to launch a new journal on critical infrastructure protection (CIP) as part of the response to increase the awareness of the current limitations of the material available, other than what has been produced by the Attorney General’s department to date.
By developing a journal covering critical infrastructure it is hoped that all will contribute to the body of knowledge, thus enhancing the capabilities of the country to ensure it has considered what exactly needs protecting and what are the consequences of failing to do so.
The Commonwealth currently defines critical infrastructure as: “that infrastructure which, if destroyed, degraded or rendered unavailable for an extended period, will significantly impact on social or economic well-being or affect national security or defence”.
Based on this criteria, the journal intends to address each of these issues, identify others through research and offer potential solutions, safeguards or alternatives for consideration. By constantly reviewing the body of knowledge utilising ongoing strategic risk assessment processes, the aim will be to produce not only a robust debate but also an increased awareness of what exactly are the requirements.
Natural resources
While the security of the Australian offshore oil industry is legislated through the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Act 2003, there is currently little legislative mandate to provide security management within the downstream petroleum industry, that is, the security of the storage facilities, refineries and distribution networks that ensure there are always petroleum products available on the commercial and retail markets.
This is a critical piece of Australian infrastructure that is almost exclusively in the hands of the private energy sector. With incidents such as the recent Varanus Island gas outage and the Western Australian energy crisis that followed, it is now more important than ever to learn from these mistakes and effectively plan for disruptions within the downstream petroleum industry. - Rory Machell
Telecommunications
The telecommunications industry provides business organisations and the government with a robust and reliable means of communication. The identification of points within a network where critical failure can occur is a vital stage in developing the correct approaches to protecting critical infrastructure.
In Australia’s case, one of the main points of weakness that has been identified within the national telecommunication network is the optical fibre submarine cables that connect the Australian telecommunications network to the global telecommunications network.
These submarine cables carry 99 per cent of Australia’s voice and data traffic, and are worth more than $5 billion to the economy annually. If the cables are broken or damaged information flow is impeded, affecting the capacity for Australia to communicate internationally.- Gareth Ljubic
The water system
Defined as a national critical infrastructure, Australia’s water system is one of the most vulnerable to a denial of service attack, and the vulnerability lies in the water corporation networks critical hubs or nodes.
There are a lot of case studies of incidents where water has been contaminated both by man, animals and by acts of nature. A denial of service attack will cause a severe public health problem and cost the Australian economy and pride enormously.
A threat assessment that evaluates where the most critical nodes and hubs exist so these can be addressed and treated, combined with a disaster and recovery plan, is essential for Australia’s water system in order to make the system sustainable and reliable for the nation’s future. - Daniel Brodin