Cybersecurity of critical infrastructures: Challenges and future perspectives

Critical infrastructures (CIs) ranging from energy, finance, telecom, healthcare, water, and transport infrastructures form the basis of societal stability and economic consistency for various countries. These CIs themselves are progressing at an unprecedented pace into these new paradigm shifts of cloud computing and virtualization technologies, and Internet of Things (IoT) integration and 5G networks; simultaneously experiencing an ever-expanding set of more complex threats to their cybersecurity. The paper would examine these new trends and outlooks related to critical infrastructure security with knowledge gained from research studies offered by Maglaras et al. (2022) related to this topic and with novel perspectives introduced hereinafter. These trends and outlooks would cover IT/OT integration, vulnerabilities found within traditional infrastructural systems with age factors, unshared visibility with distributed systems infrastructure, and threats posed to these infrastructures with ever-growing supply chains, among others. 

Cloud computing, Edge intelligence, artificial intelligence, blockchain, or 5G/6G technologies represent new areas of promising security and exciting areas of potential risks. By providing an overview of case studies reported in recent years related to the energy sector, financial industry, telecommunication industry, and healthcare sector, this paper draws attention to real-life consequences of CI compromise and risks associated with interdependent infrastructure systems. Recommendations provided at the end of this study could focus on developing technical specifications at national or International Governments to adapt and overcome these risks related to critical infrastructure security. It’s an interdisciplinary and international challenge to ensure essential infrastructure security.