Transcript IACT441 IT Research Methodology

Social Implication of National
Security RNSA Workshop
The risk of public data
availability on critical
infrastructure protection
Roba Abbas
BICT (Hons) Candidate
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Literature clusters
Critical Infrastructure
Literature
-Physical vs. cyber
Critical Infrastructure
infrastructures
Protection Literature
-Infrastructure
-Recent events
interdependencies
-CIP process
GAP
Public Data
Availability Literature
-Role of ICTs
-National security, open
information access & privacy
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What is critical infrastructure?
Vital services contributing to the security & stability of a country
 In Australian context:
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banking & finance
transport &
distribution
energy & utilities
health
the food supply
communications
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1. Cyber infrastructures
2. Infrastructure
interdependencies
must also be noted,
that is, the relationship
between the
infrastructure
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What is critical infrastructure
protection (CIP)?
 Safeguarding the identified services from potential harm,
including physical and/or electronic attacks
 The process of protecting critical infrastructure has become
increasingly important due to a number of recent events
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e.g. Y2K, 9/11, Bali
 Although the specific details of the activities vary, the stages
of the CIP process are standardised:
Vulnerability
Assessment
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Risk
Assessment
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Risk
Management
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What is public data availability?
 Refers to ‘sensitive but unclassified’ data
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public records that may be accessed
 Includes both free and commercial information
 Since 9/11:
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a direct link has been drawn between public data
collection (facilitated by ICTs) and the act of terrorism
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Public data elements and their use
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Articles/ Documents
Maps/ Photographs
Statistical Information
Transactions/ Records
Personal information
Community facilities
Multimedia
Phone/ Email/ IP Address
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Social service needs
Competitive intelligence
Geospatial intelligence
Data mining
Sabotage
Cyberfraud
Terrorism
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Previous studies
 Breeding (2003)
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Sensitive but Unclassified
Information: A Threat to
Physical Security
 Weinmann (2006)
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Terror on the Internet: The
New Arena, The New
Challenges
 Both describe the need for
How do we balance open
controlling access to public
information access
data, in order to maintain
and national security concerns?
national security
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Document
Analysis
Observation
Survey
Content Analysis
Tools: Leximancer
data mining
software
Scenarios
Tools: Meridian
GPS, MapInfo GIS
software
Statistics
Tools: SPSS
software
List of data
suppliers
Information about
public data
collection process
Set of threat
scenarios for
survey
Community
awareness levels
of threats of
public data
availability on CIP
Qualitative
Qualitative
Quantitative
Data Search
Scenarios
Awareness
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Significance of study
 Terror was his doctrine,
court told:
 “The alleged preparations
included acquiring two
maps of the grid under a
false company name and
downloading 38 aerial
photographs of the defence
sites”
 However…
 ICTs can aid national
security efforts
 Public data may be
used for positive
purposes
Sydney Morning Herald article, Tuesday 25th May 2005
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Questions?
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Next steps
1. To identify the agencies supplying data across
Australia
2. To create a geographic information system (GIS)
for Wollongong Australia on critical infrastructure
3. To determine the potential misuse or threats of
Objective 1 & 2 data being publicly available
4. To assess the level of community awareness
related to public data availability
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2 important aspects of CIP
process have been ignored…
 Community awareness
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 Regional context
Community awareness
is required in the initial
stages of the CIP
process
Some authors claim that
lack of community
awareness has
contributed to the
severity of the recent
events
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Successful CIP requires
the input of both federal
and local governments
Metropolitan cities have
been the focus of CIP
efforts
Regional areas play an
important role in the
supply chain
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