Critical Infrastructure Protection: The Research Challenge in Europe

Emiliano Casalicchio, Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science, Systems and Production
University of Roma "Tor Vergata"
Italy

Abstract

In the last five years the European Community has devoted significant attention to the problem of Critical Infrastructure Protection. This growing interest has culminated in a proposal for a Directive of the European Council on the identification and designation of European Critical Infrastructure and the assessment of the need to improve their protection and on a related communication from the commission on a European Program for Critical Infrastructure Protection. From the R&D agenda point of view, the 7th Framework Program just started and will fund projects on Security and Information Technology for the next four years with particular emphasis in Critical Infrastructure and Critical Information Infrastructure Protection (C(I)IP). This will allow universities, research centers, and industry to invest in research on thematic areas related to C(I)IP.

This talk describes the current state of research topics and issues related to European Critical Infrastructure Protection, of the ongoing research projects and new starting ones (already selected for funding). The talk also introduces available funding schemes that allow for cooperation with non-European countries. Lastly, I will provide a panoramic on the Italian scenario and about some related research topics and projects that we are facing.

Speaker Bio

Dr. Emiliano Casalicchio is an associate professor at the Computer Science Systems and Production Department of the University of Roma "Tor Vergata". His main research interests are on distributed systems design modeling and performance evaluation, with a particular interest on Web Systems and Technologies for wired and mobile environments. Since 2005 he has been working on Interdependency Analysis in Critical Information Infrastructures, working on Agent-based modeling and simulation of complex systems. He is an IT consultant for many Italian companies and for the Italian Custom Agency and he is actually an active member of the Italian Society of Critical Infrastructure Experts.