The Analysis of Malicious Threats to Infrastructures: a Conceptual Approach based on Multi-Agent Systems

The topic of critical infrastructures has shown the inadequacy of the standard security assessment approaches for dealing with large systems with multiple operators. On the one side, infrastructures present a greater topological, functional and management complexity than normal systems. On the other, a vast number of hazards, both accidental and intentional, threatens them, with potential disastrous effects, and so requiring appropriate solutions. This paper presents a multi-agents model to capture the strategic interactions among different operators of infrastructure systems. The model is applied to an interconnected power system considering a malicious attack scenario. The analysis of the results demonstrates the importance of coordination in defending against malicious attacks. The model is discussed in a case study that presents the effects of coordination among socially rational agents. The problem of the impact of information sharing and the need to study the sensitivity to information are also discussed.

BOMPARD Ettore;  MASERA Marcelo;  NAI FOVINO Igor;  NAPOLI Roberto;  RUSSO Angela;  XUE Fei;  STEFANINI Alberto; 

2011-02-09

International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)

JRC36716

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC36716,