The state of the art in critical infrastructure protection: a framework for convergence

The protection of critical infrastructure systems has recently become a major concern for many countries. This is due to the effect of these systems on the daily lives of all citizens and the high possibility of disruption because of their complex structure and hidden interdependencies, which subsequently attract the attention of many researchers and scientists. The investigations of researchers have encompassed issues of national security, policymaking, infrastructure system organisation, and behaviour analysis and modelling. In this paper, we look into the latter subject and explore the attempts that have been made. Based on the available schemes and the requirements of this area, we propose a five-dimensional framework that introduces the major research necessities in this field. Among the various available schemes, we study ten of the most recently developed and/or influential systems. A comparison of these schemes based on the features of our proposed framework is made. The comparison allows us to conclude our examination with the identification of current research strengths and guidelines for future work.