Critical Infrastructure risk management supports Public Security
Disruptions in Critical Infrastructure, although mostly private, or Quasi-Government, immediately impact direct customers, and often expand with tiered effects. A recent natural gas pipeline attack against PEMEX (Petroleos Mexicanos) facilities prevented natural gas from reaching several customers including Honda Motor Co., Kellogg Co.’s, The Hershey Co., Nissan Motor Co., and Grupo Modelo SA, and amounting to approximately $6.4Million in losses per day, according to the association representing Mexican Industry. On 13 August in Russia, an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was stated as the cause of the explosion against a passenger train in Russia, causing a goverment terror probe. Even though attacks against these “soft targets” may not have been preventable, the effect of incidents such as these can likely be mitigated through training on known terror tactics, and even sharing or alerting officials to better catalog and make sense of risks. Typically, the public turns to government to resolve issues like these which affect the public’s quality of life and security. And with better information sharing between critical infrastructure and goverment, the community as a whole is better able to “harden” infrastructure, and even prevent future attacks.
photo courtesy of XicanoPwr
By effectively communicating with the society about the importance of the assets and the consequences of the disturbances to the se assets,the States can certainly invoke the involvement of the public in preventing and controlling these disasters.
To start with, the vulnerabilities [ of these assets] should be assesed;based on which the prevention and "go to public" strategies can be formulated.
I meant to say that communication is a critical chain link in the "protection of Assets".It is the channel thro'which we disseminate the info.to the target audience.
Regarding your question "So would you suggest that communications is a critical factor, but the content within the communications medium helps decision makers to prioritize?"
My answer is -It is the other way round.The content within the communication shuld align with the priorities and address the preset priorities.
As far as the public Assets " are concerned [ like Roads,Electric lines etc]usually the commn.is a blend of Audio and visual.Regular workshops are held to create continous awareness.
Recently Indonasea[ Sumitra Islands] experienced a Tsunami_like happening.As there was a good awareness-thanks to a contrieved communication about Tsunami etc-people themselves alerted the state and the fellow folks and moved to a safe place.The emphasis thus is the "effectiveness of the message" [ communication]and the awareness that we trigger thro'the message[s].
In our orgn.we have several mock disaster recovery drills and dry runs,to ensure that the people are instinctly sensitive to the risks.Thus it is the "risk culture"that we foster amongst our employees,citizen that fetches us the results.The content [ within the communications medium ] should help promote this.