At a glance

Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (CIIP) has been recognised as an important European topic for the protection of society from cyber attacks and possible disruptions.

CIP will provide dedicated support to some of the Commission's activities related to Critical Information Infrastructure Protection and will develop research in relevant areas. In this sense, the Action will both assist in the implementation of the CIIP policy, and will anticipate technological subjects that might be incorporated in its future development.

The main research activities will refer to the threats and vulnerabilities of the CII, with an approach that will combine modelling and simulation, with experimental activities. This aims at developing capabilities for supporting the organisation of pan-European exercises, in collaboration with Member States and ENISA.

The study of the CII security will be completed with the assessment of the networking security in industrial settings, with emphasis on those ICT systems that are part of critical infrastructures.

The Action will focus on 3 research lines:

 

• Internet stability and resilience: these activities will develop research on security scenarios that can affect the CII. This work will be based on modelling, emulation of the networking and experimental work. The expected output is the implementation of an emulation platform able to reproduce Internet security scenarios with fidelity. It will be explored the federation of this platform with other, within and outside the JRC. This is key for being able to handle the simulation of interdependencies among different infrastructures. The platform will be proposed as the basis for future CIIP pan-European exercises, where stakeholders can investigate their contingency preparedness and prevention policies and practices in international scenarios. The main customer will be DG INFSO, together with national authorities and ENISA.
• Industrial networking security: this line of research will work on the modelling, simulation and test of the vulnerabilities, potential attacks and countermeasures. Most industrial systems are getting connected to open networks, most notably in critical infrastructures such as the energy one. The studies will focus on the needs of the CIIP and Critical Energy Infrastructure Protection policies, and will be conducted interacting with industrial actors. Main customers are DG ENER, JLS and INFSO, with results of direct interest for industry.
• Security information exchange: this activity will concentrate on methods and tools for the gathering, analysis and communication of sensitive information, in a context characterized by multiple actors of all Member States. Several policy initiatives (as for instance, the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection -EPCIP) have recognized the share sensitive information for both a better understanding of the security status of the systems, and for preparing different sorts of alert/warning systems. The research subjects span from the definition of security taxonomies, to the structure analysis of security incidents. The customers are DG INFSO, JLS and ENISA, as well and national authorities and the industrial operators.