Identification of sources of failures and their propagation in critical infrastructures from 12 years of public failure reports

Modern Communication and Information Technology Infrastructure (CITI) provides key links and services to many other critical infrastructures [1], such as telecommunication, electricity, water supply, oil and gas networks, transportation, financial services, etc. Over the years, integration of these infrastructures with CITI has become pervasive, extensive, and complex. As such, failure in CITI, either due to an accident or caused by a malicious attack, can propagate to other infrastructures and can degrade or disrupt their functionalities. Conversely, failures in other infrastructures can also propagate to CITI and hence disrupt the operation of many of these interconnected systems. Such disruptions may lead to huge disturbances in the public life of modern nation states. Volatile world situations increase these threats even further. As a result, there are enormous concerns for secure and reliable operation of different critical infrastructures [1, 2]. One of the prerequisites for smooth operation of these interconnected infrastructures is to gain understanding of their interdependencies. By studying the origin of the infrastructure related failures and their propagation patterns, we can develop a better understanding of their interdependencies. Such understanding can be useful for decision makers and infrastructure operators for policymaking and system design [3].