A contribution of axiomatic design principles to the analysis and impact of attacks on critical infrastructures

Abstract

Critical infrastructures (CIs) such as water, power, and transportation etc. are pivotal as they play a significant role in a nation's economic prosperity and governance. These critical infrastructures are complex in nature and therefore they may be vulnerable to attacks. In order to have effective critical infrastructure protection, it is necessary to develop models for CIs. Further, one can use these models for system security analysis and assess the impact on CIs when they are under attacks. In this work, axiomatic design theory principles from systems design are used to model CIs. This modeling provides an abstract representation of critical infrastructures to understand their behavior under potential attacks. Through a case study, we will show how one can assess the detection of attacks and vulnerabilities using axiomatic design principles. A realistic water distribution testbed is used for the purpose of studying the impact of attacks using axiomatic design principles. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.