Electricity infrastructure fragility exposed by Ditwah

I have been thinking about critical infrastructures because this is a key element of the Cybersecurity legislation that has been in preparation since 2019 and which may finally see the light of day this year.

- By Prof. Rohan Samarajiva

If a critical infrastructure fails for whatever reason, massive harm is caused to the economy and society. That is the ultimate test of criticality.

The first thing we think of is malicious hacker attacks in the context of cybersecurity, but failure is failure whatever the cause: cyber-attack or flood/landslide.

The most critical infrastructure

The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency identified 18 critical infrastructures: Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Communications, Critical Manufacturing, Dams, Defence Industrial Base, Emergency Services, Energy, Financial Services, Food and Agriculture, Government Facilities, Healthcare and Public Health, Information Technology, Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste, Transportation Systems, and Water and Wastewater Systems.

Many of these are not relevant in our vastly different conditions. But what I took from a related discussion is the statement that all seventeen critical infrastructures would fail, or be significantly affected, if the energy infrastructure were to fail.

The recent Ditwah disaster gave us a sense of our vulnerabilities (subject to correction).

At least two major hospitals were seriously damaged as were schools and court houses.

Transportation was hit badly: roads, railroads and some vehicles. Airports, ports and expressways were not affected.