INFRSTRUCTURE PROTECTIONWeb Search Formulas Offer a First Step for Protecting Critical Infrastructure
The technology behind web search engines is useful for more than tracking down your long-lost buddy or discovering a delicious new recipe – it might also help keep the lights on, the water running and the trains moving during an emergency.
The technology behind web search engines is useful for more than tracking down your long-lost buddy or discovering a delicious new recipe. Technology based on search engine algorithms might also help keep the lights on, the water running and the trains moving during an emergency.
Scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have shown that the algorithms that underlie web searches can help protect facilities like the grid, water treatment plants, food processing facilities and hospitals.
“This is a resource for people who are trying to protect an important network from a threat such as a cyberattack, and they need to prioritize which structures are most important to safeguard,” said mathematician Bill Kay, who led the work.
The new research, published recently in the journal Homeland Security Affairs, is built around Google’s PageRank algorithm, designed to recommend the most relevant websites for people searching for information on the internet. To rank search results, the formula considers factors like how many influential websites point to a given page and then how many influential sites the page itself points to.
Kay’s team applied the same principles to structures such as the electric grid to keep power flowing, treatment plants to keep our water clean and hospitals to treat the sick and injured. Researchers refer to this network of facilities as “critical infrastructure”—structures that if damaged or destroyed could threaten public safety or national security.
Stopping a Cascade of Failure
The task for researchers like Kay: Among the tangle of tens of thousands of important facilities in a nation like the United States, help planners prioritize which structures are most significant to protect. What might be the most likely targets of an adversary? Which facilities are most likely to cascade a failure to other structures, and how can defenders stop the cascade as quickly as possible?
“Not all infrastructure assets are the same,” said Kay. “If the failure is spreading, I want to know what will happen if a particular piece of equipment is taken out—how broad will the impact be?
“The key here is to identify systems where influence goes both ways,” said Kay, “identifying systems that are influenced by a lot of other systems but also influence many others. It’s like knowing who are the so-called popular kids in high school and especially those who are popular among the other popular kids.”
