The Bridge - Issue 2, 2023 - 14

Feature
Bridging the Gap between Cybersecurity and
Reliability for Critical National Infrastructures
Leandros Maglaras, Senior Member IEEE, Mohamed Amine Ferrag, Senior Member IEEE, Helge Janicke, William J Buchanan,
Leandros Tassiulas, Fellow IEEE
Abstract
In this article, we attempt to bridge the gap between
cybersecurity and the reliability of Critical National
Infrastructures (CNIs). We discuss new methodologies to
map system requirements by incorporating security (and
privacy) with reliability (and safety), thus introducing a new
research area under the broad term of securability.
Keywords: Critical Infrastructures, Cybersecurity, Reliability
I. INTRODUCTION
Cybersecurity for CNIs involves securing critical networks
and systems that are essential to the operation of a nation.
These critical infrastructures include the fields of health care,
finance, energy, transportation, and telecommunications,
among others, as presented in Figure 1. Providing reliability
and cybersecurity for these types of systems is essential
since they perform critical services that are fundamental to
the safety and security of a nation's citizens.
Cybercrime inflicted harm that amounted to $6 trillion USD
worldwide in 2021; this number is expected to rise to $10
trillion annually by 2025 [11]. Cybersecurity threats against
CNIs can be generated from multiple potential sources,
including government-sponsored hackers, cybercriminals,
THE BRIDGE
and insiders with unauthorized access to the networks
[1]. The threats can involve phishing, Advanced Persistent
Threats (APTs), Denial of Service (DoS), ransomware,
malware, etc. that can cause serious damage or disruption
to critical systems. APTs are a highly targeted and
sophisticated type of cyber threats, which are carried out by
nation states or other well-financed and highly organized
criminal entities. APTs typically employ long-term stealthy
penetrations of individual target networks to gather critical
data or obtain a base for future cyberattacks. A DoS attack
aims to overwhelm a system or network with massive
amounts of traffic in order to disrupt the system. These
attacks can interrupt the accessibility of CNI networks,
resulting in severe disruptions and sometimes serious
physical damage. Phishing attacks are a popular strategy for
hackers to trick susceptible users into sharing their sensitive
data or installing malware. Specifically, phishing attacks
are frequently conducted by spamming individuals with
fraudulent emails or fake websites that look legitimate in
order to trick them into signing in or launching malicious
software. Malware is any program or software application
that is intended to corrupt or destroy a system. The
malware application can be distributed via a combination of
different techniques, such as malware downloads, infected

The Bridge - Issue 2, 2023

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