Critical (information) infrastructure protection in The Netherlands

Abstract

Some sectors and parts of the Dutch national infrastructure are that essential to the Netherlands that serious disruption or even loss of service could lead to a severe impact to the Dutch society, government and industry as well as to those of neighbouring countries. Early 2002, the Dutch government started the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) project `Bescherming Vitale Infrastructuur' with the objective: `The development of an integrated set of measures to protect the infrastructure of government and industry (including Information and Communication Technology)'. This paper describes the first phases of this project: a quick-scan determination of what critical products and services the nations' critical infrastructure is comprised of, the (inter)dependencies of these products and services, and the underlying essential processes. The paper outlines the project context and describes used methodologies, the results, and lessons learned.