Infrastructure is a set of essential services that the state provides to its citizens and institutions, or services that an organization provides to its operating units to allow proper conduct of routine activities.
If a damage is caused to the essential infrastructure or its functioning, it may lead to an economic or corporate crisis that can undermine organization’s ability to provide its services.
Critical infrastructure affects the functioning of other infrastructures or organizations that provide an array of services in a particular field.
As an example, at the state level, essential infrastructure is composed of all the government agencies in the fields of banking and finance institutions | food and agriculture | water and wastewater institutions | emergency services | healthcare services | internal security |chemical industries (due to their engagement in hazardous materials). Due to cross-sectoral dependency, energy, communications and transport infrastructures are both essential and critical, since all other infrastructures depend on each of these three in order to function properly, while each of these three infrastructures also depends on the other two (see Domino Effect and Ripple Effect).
Determination of essential and critical infrastructure, as well as the analysis of cross-sectoral dependency, compose the first step that should be carried out ahead of risk analysis.
Critical infrastructure shall be at the top of priorities and essential infrastructure shall precede other facilities in risk analysis and prioritization of resources for security.
Axiom Security & Management formulated the risk analysis methodology for Israel’s Ministry of Public Security, including definitions of critical infrastructures and cross-sectoral dependencies.
Axiom conducts Risk Analysis, Security Surveys, and Security Planning for infrastructures and infrastructure facilities.