Vertical Markets

Critical Infrastructure Protection

by Mark Rowe

Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Europe will run at the Guoman Charing Cross Hotel in London on February 12 and 13 and has a line up of international speakers for discussion on securing Europe’s critical infrastructure.

The organisers say that the conference provides a platform for the issues and solutions to the security of Europe’s CNI to be discussed and addressed through international collaboration, in line with the European Directive and Lisbon treaty, which enshrines in law that the Union shall encourage co-operation between Member States in order to improve the effectiveness of systems for preventing and protecting against natural or man-made disasters.

The opening session will commence on February 12 at the Guoman Charing Cross, which will see Sir Gerald Howarth MP, Former Minister for International Security Strategy at the UK Ministry of Defence, and Dr Nigel Brown, Lead for Resilient ICT Strategy, Cabinet Office, UK will deliver high level presentations looking at the current climate and future prospects for the security of critical national infrastructure.

Discussing challenges

Energy, transport and telecomms infrastructure are three key elements in any modern industrial nation, regularly out of the news, and are indeed often used as a measure of a nations stage of development. Whether it’s the oil, gas or electricity used to power the transport, heat our homes and power our businesses, national and international telecommunications or passenger travel through airports to rail, or freight through our ports and harbours to road and rail, power, transport and telecommunications are the crucial economic lifeblood of any modern industrial economy.
Therefore should they be damaged; by terrorist attack, by natural or by man-made disasters, they have the potential to cause damage to the economy far in excess of any physical damage they may incur. The problem for the authorities, operators and agencies is to ensure the right balance of security, safety and resilience in facilities that are widely dispersed and in the case of transport, public places.
Clive Bairsto, Global Head of Business Resilience, National Grid, UK and Stephen Gregory,Chief Executive Officer, Harnser Risk Group, UK will lead the discussions in this session.

And what are these emerging and future threats?

Some threats are well known and remain a persistent danger, but what are the evolving, emerging and potential threats. A significant proportion of emerging threats remain man-made, so how do we identify, manage and deal with them?
Thomas Wuchte, Head on Anti-Terrorism Issues, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Austria; Phil Chesworth, Head of Infrastructure Portfolio, National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO), UK and Paul Gelton,Director Resilience, Threat and Risk Analysis Department, National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security, Ministry of Security & Justice, Netherlands will present their findings and the challenges that face Europe’s CNI.
One of the hot media stories recently has been around the challenges with cyber security. The potential for a cyber attack to compromise our power, financial, communications systems has been widely publicised and indeed prolific in recent months. From the individual hacker to state sponsored attacks, what are the threats and how do we counter them?

Dr. Evangelos Ouzounis, Head of Unit – Secure Infrastructure and Services, ENISA – European Network and Information Security Agency, Greece; Paul Gillen, Head of Operations, European Cybercrime Centre (EC3), Europol, Netherlands and Annemarie Zielstra, Director International Relations Cyber Resilience TNO (and former Director of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure in the Netherlands CPNI.NL) will lead the discussion in this key topic area.
You will also gain an insight into what the future holds for Europe’s, the collaboration and support between member nations required to ensure CNI is protected from future threats and how to better plan, coordinate and manage a disaster.
Many conferences look in isolation at one element of infrastructure, eg power or transport, or at a single threat, which is great for specific commercial interests. However, CNI organisations need to work together. Generally, if one area of CNI is affected, this will have a knock on impact onto other areas.

Therefore, by enabling cross platform and cross industry discussion, the different agencies, organisations, operators and supporting companies and businesses can identify with each others challenges, making for greater working relationships, partnerships and understanding in the event of a disaster.
This enhanced understanding and cooperation in turn increases procedural efficiencies and national and international assistance to be better co-ordinated.

“We hope delegates will take away not just enhanced knowledge and understanding of their own and their counterparts problems and challenges, but also the opportunity to develop new contacts for better working relationships for securing Europe’s critical national infrastructure,” said Neil Walker, Event Director.

Supporting organisations of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience Europe include the Institute of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, National Security & Resilience Consortium, Association of Risk & Crisis Communication, Security Institute, International Security Industry Organisation, European Corporate Security Association and BORDERPOL, the World Border Organization.

You can see the full conference programme, and find further information on the web site www.cipre-expo.com.

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