The vulnerable internet: A study of the critical infrastructure of (the Dutch portion of) the Internet

It is impossible to achieve a critical infrastructure that is secured for the full one hundred percent. One of the main conclusions of the KWINT-study on the vulnerabilities of the Internet is that the Dutch Government should aim to prevent the occurrence of incidents. The identified vulnerabilities of the Internet, which is a critical infrastructure for the Netherlands, shall be lowered to an acceptable level for the Dutch society. Furthermore, government should also ensure that control is promptly restored after a high-impact disturbance affected the (Netherlands) information infrastructure. Historically speaking, the Netherlands has traditionally been a gateway to Europe, by sea, by land and by air, and with the Internet it is not different. As the Netherlands Internet infrastructure plays a vital part in the European information infrastructure, disruptions in the Netherlands Internet can have a major impact on many other European countries. To achieve a reliable Internet information infrastructure, one of the aims is a central co-ordinated quality improvement effort, involving, of necessity, all segments of the community that have a part to play in and on the Internet. This chapter describes the processes, models and analysis techniques that were used during the KWINT-study. The development of a set of related models was required to clarifY the roles, diversity, and inter-dependencies between the Dutch government, users, and market actors. Based upon a layered, actor­ based, model, a high-level vulnerability analysis was undertaken and reliability indicators were identified. Next, a weighted list of vulnerabilities was set up, and validated in a workshop with the market actors, users, and representatives from various Government Departments. Critical infrastructure protection initiatives in other countries were also investigated to understand the lessons learned and to avoid pitfalls. ClassifYing these international initiatives resulted