Critical infrastructureProtecting critical infrastructure
Energy, water, food, fuel, information, transportation – ensuring a supply of these essential services and commodities is vital for a properly functioning society and economy. So essential, in fact, that we only realize their importance when suddenly they are no longer there. The infrastructure and systems that supply us with these assets are increasingly connected and, for this reason, highly vulnerable to natural disasters, accidents and criminal or terrorist attacks. In response, Fraunhofer is devising solutions and strategies to safeguard our critical infrastructure.
Energy, water, food, fuel, information, transportation – ensuring a supply of these essential services and commodities is vital for a properly functioning society and economy. So essential, in fact, that we only realize their importance when suddenly they are no longer there. The infrastructure and systems that supply us with these assets are increasingly connected and, for this reason, highly vulnerable to natural disasters, accidents and criminal or terrorist attacks.
Fraunhofer says that in response, the Fraunhofer research institute is devising solutions and strategies to safeguard our critical infrastructure.
Critical Infrastructure Energy Supply
Electricity is the power that drives modern technological society. Earlier this year, inhabitants of the Köpenick neighborhood of Berlin were confronted with what it means when the supply suddenly fails. On 19 February shortly after 2:00 p.m., a major outage plunged the district into darkness. Streetcars ground to a halt. Stores, restaurants, schools and kindergartens were forced to lower the shutters. Stoplights went out, and the police had to direct traffic in order to tame the chaos on the roads. There was no district heating or hot water, because cogeneration plants were forced to shut down. One hospital, despite having an emergency power supply, had to transfer its ICU patients to another clinic. The phone lines went dead – as did all cell networks, since the radio masts require electricity to function. All in all, it took 30 hours to remedy the problem, caused by cable damage, during which time 30,000 households were without power. The synchronous grid of Continental Europe is one of the world’s most reliable electricity networks. Outages of this duration are a rarity, but there is no absolute safeguard, and power failures can happen any time and any place.
Energy infrastructure is part of what is known as critical infrastructure. If any such infrastructure is compromised or destroyed, this has serious implications for the functioning of society. The rapid pace of digitalization means that more and more systems – some completely heterogeneous – are connected to one another. This makes them more vulnerable to disruption. Within this complex nexus of interdependencies, the failure of a single element or system can quickly snowball and trigger an outage in a related supply network. Critical infrastructure therefore requires special protection and must be safeguarded against all kinds of danger: natural disasters, accidents, technical or human error, criminal activity.
