Modelling interdependencies between the electricity and information infrastructures

Jean-Claude Laprie (1) , Karama Kanoun (1) , Mohamed Kaâniche (1)

1 LAAS-TSF - Équipe Tolérance aux fautes et Sûreté de Fonctionnement informatique

The aim of this paper is to provide qualitative models characterizing interdependencies related failures of two critical infrastructures: the electricity infrastructure and the associated information infrastructure. The interdependen-cies of these two infrastructures are increasing due to a growing connection of the power grid networks to the global information infrastructure, as a conse-quence of market deregulation and opening. These interdependencies increase the risk of failures. We focus on cascading, escalating and common-cause fail-ures, which correspond to the main causes of failures due to interdependencies. We address failures in the electricity infrastructure, in combination with acci-dental failures in the information infrastructure, then we show briefly how ma-licious attacks in the information infrastructure can be addressed.

Mots clés: dependability; interdependence; critical infrastructures

Domaines: Calcul parallèle, distribué et partagé [cs.DC]; Informatique et langage [cs.CL]

Jean-Claude Laprie, Karama Kanoun, Mohamed Kaâniche. Modelling interdependencies between the electricity and information infrastructures. 26th International Conference on Computer Safety, Reliability and Security, SAFECOMP-2007, Sep 2007, Nurenberg, Germany. pp.54-67. ⟨hal-00323999⟩