the GFCE-Meridian Good Practice Guide on Critical Information Infrastructure Protection for governmental policy-makers

Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) is a complex but important topic for nations. Nations at large critically depend on Critical Infrastructure (CI) services such as energy supply, telecommunications, financial systems, drinking water, and governmental services. Critical Infrastructures (CI) are defined as: “Those infrastructures which are essential for the maintenance of vital societal functions, health, safety, security, economic or social well-being of people, and the disruption or destruction of which would have serious consequences” [EC2008]. Today, the physical disruption (or even destruction) of critical elements of CI is not the only factor threatening the correct operation of CI. Information and communication technologies (ICT)-based services are becoming increasingly important for the functioning of CI. Disruption of information infrastructure is capable of causing major impact to a nation. This leads to the concept of Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) which comprises both critical information and (tele)communication infrastructure (e.g. mobile telephony and internet access services) and ICT and process control systems that are a critical part of the CI service provisioning (see Figure 1)