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  • About
  • The Global ETD Search service is a free service for researchers to find electronic theses and dissertations. This service is provided by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.
    Our metadata is collected from universities around the world. If you manage a university/consortium/country archive and want to be added, details can be found on the NDLTD website.
1

A US and EU Comparison on Securing Critical Infrastructure / A US and EU Comparison on Securing Critical Infrastructure

McGrath, Kevin January 2017 (has links)
Kevin McGrath Abstract This thesis looks to assess the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in building critical energy infrastructure, and its implications for energy and national security. The clear majority of academic literature in energy security focuses exclusively on energy supply, and demand, but there is little written on the security issues facing countries when financing critical energy infrastructure projects. Through assessing the (1) recent history of privatization, (2) the development of the domestic PPP model, and (3) current relationships with PPPs in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France this thesis will look to identify the underlying domestic cultural normative debate which is driving policy making decisions. By understanding the general historical trends of privatization, and economic ideologies in governments over the past 40+ years, we can see the current and future trends in building critical energy infrastructure. By understanding the constantly evolving factors, and interdependencies at play, this thesis highlights the role of public-private partnerships in critical energy infrastructure, and energy security in general.
2

Energetická bezpečnost ČR / Energy security of the Czech Republic

Kopecký, Jan January 2010 (has links)
Undisputed necessity of energy resources for functioning of our society is obvious at every turn. However, safe and continuous supplies of energy cannot be taken for granted. It is mainly caused by an uneven distribution of energy resources on our planet. It comes as no surprise that possession of energy resources plays an essential role for various reasons, for example it can serve as a tool for enforcing one's economic goals or for strengthening one's political power. Thus, energy security represents a multidimensional issue which needs to be perceived from several different angles. This diploma thesis primarily focuses on energy security of the Czech Republic from the perspective of readiness to deal with interruption of energy supplies and from the perspective of critical infrastructure protection. Due to high complexity of this problematics, and due to the impossibility of the Czech Republic to deal with energy security only on a national level, are the aforementioned issues examined in connection with energy security of the European Union.
3

Horizontality and Canada's Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness: a case study

Rountree, Marina 08 September 2005 (has links)
This thesis provides a case study of the Government of Canada's former Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) through the lens of horizontal management (part of New Public Management theory). This study demonstrates that the effective use of horizontal management (horizontality) may reduce fragmentation occurring when the goal of critical infrastructure protection requires organizations to work cross-jurisdictionally and in partnerships. This need to collaborate is due to the ownership problem: over 85 per cent of Canada's critical infrastructure is owned by organizations other than the federal government. Research methods include a background survey of literature on critical infrastructure protection, horizontal management and horizontality, and new public management; and interviews using a snowball sample of eight subjects who held various positions within OCIPEP to better understand what the organizational structure appeared to be from within the organization. The research concludes that OCIPEP was not given the resources necessary to successfully fulfil its mandate. Results include the need for administrative and managerial support for horizontal endeavours, to encourage a "cultural context" of horizontality, as there are many organizational barriers to successfully using horizontality and collaborative methods. There were areas of success for OCIPEP, but more areas of weakness. Recommendations include additional study of the organization, a shift into a better-supported organization (which was accomplished with OCIPEP's inclusion into Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada), and clear delineation of roles between the Government of Canada and the owners of the critical infrastructure. / October 2005
4

Interdependent infrastructures and multi-mode attacks and failures: improving the security of urban water systems and fire response

Bristow, Elizabeth Catherine 15 May 2009 (has links)
This dissertation examines the interdependence between urban water distribution systems and urban fire response. The focus on interdependent critical infrastructures is driven by concern for security of water systems and the effects on related infrastructures if water distribution systems are damaged by terrorist attack or natural disaster. A model of interdependent infrastructures (principally water distribution systems and fire response) is developed called the Model of Urban Fire Spread (MUFS). The model includes the capacity to simulate firefighting water demands in a community water system hydraulic model, building-to-building urban fire spread, and suppression activities. MUFS is an improvement over previous similar models because it allows simulation of urban fires at the level of individual buildings and it permits simulation of interdependent infrastructures working in concert. MUFS is used to simulate a series of multi-mode attacks and failures (MMAFs) – events which disable the water distribution system and simultaneously ignite an urban fire. The consequences of MMAF scenarios are analyzed to determine the most serious modes of infrastructure failure and urban fire ignition. Various methods to determine worst-case configurations of urban fire ignition points are also examined. These MMAF scenarios are used to inform the design of potential mitigation measures to decrease the consequences of the urban fire. The effectiveness of mitigation methods is determined using the MUFS simulation tool. Novel metrics are developed to quantify the effectiveness of the mitigation methods from the time-series development of their consequences. A cost-benefit analysis of the various mitigation measures is conducted to provide additional insight into the methods’ effectiveness and better inform the decision-making process of selecting mitigation methods. Planned future work includes further refinement of the representation of fire propagation and suppression in MUFS and investigation of historical MMAF events to validate simulation predictions. Future efforts will continue development of appropriate optimization methods for determining worst-case MMAF scenarios. This work should be of interest to water utility managers and emergency planners, who can adapt the methodology to analyze their communities’ vulnerability to MMAFs and design mitigation techniques to meet their unique needs, as well as to researchers interested in infrastructure modeling and disaster simulation.
5

Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association Members' Agricultral Vulnerability Perceptions and Preparedness

Allen, Patrick 2011 December 1900 (has links)
Protection of the agriculture and food infrastructure, defined as "the physical production and distribution systems critical to supporting national security and economic well-being, including all activities essential to food, feed, and fiber production, including all techniques for raising and processing livestock," is the responsibility of all stakeholders in the food supply chain (Spellman, 2008, p.8). Though many stakeholders emerge in the chain, producers are the primary line of defense to a disease epidemic. Many factors influence livestock producers‘ protective action decision process in relation to biological hazards. By identifying these factors in a specific producer population, more effective preparedness programs and messages can be developed by risk communicators. The purpose and objectives of this study determined Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) members‘ perceptions of vulnerability to the Texas cattle industry, perceived emergency preparedness level, barriers to adoption of protective actions, and sources of animal health information. This study targeted 7,661 members of the TSCRA. An online survey questionnaire developed from previous research with similar populations allowed TSCRA members to respond to questions related to the objective of this study. A representative sample of TSCRA members from Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico responded to the survey. Recognizing susceptibility to biological hazards, TSCRA members identified high levels of perceived trust and reliability in local veterinarians as a source of information, consistent with previous studies. Although the majority of members reported they did not have a biosecurity plan implemented on their operations, they did recognize the necessity of preventative practices. TSCRA members were neutral on all barriers to adoption of protective actions; however, the barrier "lack of information" was rated higher by means as a barrier to adoption of protective actions. When investigating differences among noncommercial and commercial operations managed by TSCRA members, no statistical differences were identified in this study. However, when investigating differences among TSCRA members and number of cattle managed, a weak positive correlation was identified for perception of hazard by threat in relation to more animals managed. Findings of this study confirmed sources stating that the agriculture and food infrastructure is vulnerable to biological hazards as perceived by livestock owners (Motes, 2007; Spellman, 2008). Ashlock (2006) and Riley (2007) found similar perspectives of vulnerability among Oklahoma and Kansas producers further strengthening the need to protect the agriculture and food critical infrastructure as outlined by Homeland Security Presidential Directive – 9 (HSPD-9, 2004). Since it was determined that veterinarians are perceived to be the most reliable and trustworthy source of information by TSCRA members, local opinion leaders, such as veterinarians, should engage in train-the-trainer programs to ensure a consistent risk communication message is being disseminated.
6

Horizontality and Canada's Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness: a case study

Rountree, Marina 08 September 2005 (has links)
This thesis provides a case study of the Government of Canada's former Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) through the lens of horizontal management (part of New Public Management theory). This study demonstrates that the effective use of horizontal management (horizontality) may reduce fragmentation occurring when the goal of critical infrastructure protection requires organizations to work cross-jurisdictionally and in partnerships. This need to collaborate is due to the ownership problem: over 85 per cent of Canada's critical infrastructure is owned by organizations other than the federal government. Research methods include a background survey of literature on critical infrastructure protection, horizontal management and horizontality, and new public management; and interviews using a snowball sample of eight subjects who held various positions within OCIPEP to better understand what the organizational structure appeared to be from within the organization. The research concludes that OCIPEP was not given the resources necessary to successfully fulfil its mandate. Results include the need for administrative and managerial support for horizontal endeavours, to encourage a "cultural context" of horizontality, as there are many organizational barriers to successfully using horizontality and collaborative methods. There were areas of success for OCIPEP, but more areas of weakness. Recommendations include additional study of the organization, a shift into a better-supported organization (which was accomplished with OCIPEP's inclusion into Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada), and clear delineation of roles between the Government of Canada and the owners of the critical infrastructure.
7

A Proactive Risk-Aware Robotic Sensor Network for Critical Infrastructure Protection

McCausland, Jamieson 17 December 2013 (has links)
In this thesis a Proactive Risk-Aware Robotic Sensor Network (RSN) is proposed for the application of Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). Each robotic member of the RSN is granted a perception of risk by means of a Risk Management Framework (RMF). A fuzzy-risk model is used to extract distress-based risk features and potential intrusion-based risk features for CIP. Detected high-risk events invoke a fuzzy-auction Multi-Robot Task Allocation (MRTA) algorithm to create a response group for each detected risk. Through Evolutionary Multi-Objective (EMO) optimization, a Pareto set of optimal robot configurations for a response group will be generated using the Non-Dominating Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II). The optimization objectives are to maximize sensor coverage of essential spatial regions and minimize the amount of energy exerted by the response group. A set of non-dominated solutions are produced from EMO optimization for a decision maker to select a single response. The RSN response group will re-organize based on the specifications of the selected response.
8

Horizontality and Canada's Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness: a case study

Rountree, Marina 08 September 2005 (has links)
This thesis provides a case study of the Government of Canada's former Office of Critical Infrastructure Protection and Emergency Preparedness (OCIPEP) through the lens of horizontal management (part of New Public Management theory). This study demonstrates that the effective use of horizontal management (horizontality) may reduce fragmentation occurring when the goal of critical infrastructure protection requires organizations to work cross-jurisdictionally and in partnerships. This need to collaborate is due to the ownership problem: over 85 per cent of Canada's critical infrastructure is owned by organizations other than the federal government. Research methods include a background survey of literature on critical infrastructure protection, horizontal management and horizontality, and new public management; and interviews using a snowball sample of eight subjects who held various positions within OCIPEP to better understand what the organizational structure appeared to be from within the organization. The research concludes that OCIPEP was not given the resources necessary to successfully fulfil its mandate. Results include the need for administrative and managerial support for horizontal endeavours, to encourage a "cultural context" of horizontality, as there are many organizational barriers to successfully using horizontality and collaborative methods. There were areas of success for OCIPEP, but more areas of weakness. Recommendations include additional study of the organization, a shift into a better-supported organization (which was accomplished with OCIPEP's inclusion into Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada), and clear delineation of roles between the Government of Canada and the owners of the critical infrastructure.
9

The Globalisation Of Regulation And Its Impact On The Domain Name System : Domain Names And A New Regulatory Economy

Williams, Elizabeth A. January 2003 (has links)
This is a multidisciplinary work that encompasses considerations of politics, regulation and technology. It considers the impact of technology on the way in which, politically, we are able to regulate technology and how we devise policy to guide that regulation. The added complication is that Internet technology knows no jurisdiction. The rulemaking established in recent years is globally applicable and is carried out without the direct involvement of national governments in the key decision making processes, particularly in the environment under examination here which focuses on the management of the technical resources of the Internet. In formulating the hypothesis that grounds this work, I have focused on two things. Firstly, that technical regulation has political, and therefore, policy implications. Secondly, that where there are policy implications with direct commercial impact, we can expect to see the vigorous involvement of corporations as they manage the environment in which they do business. These two critical conditions have driven the formulation of policies and procedures for making decisions about Internet governance. They have also driven the actual decisions which have been implemented, to a greater or lesser degree of success. This research contributes to the scholarship in four significant ways. The first is that the Internet Domain Name System (IDNS) and its governance present a new perspective on the discussion of the globalisation of business regulation. The data used to support the analysis has not been collated or examined previously and is presented here to illustrate the extension of the literature and to frame the hypothesis. The second is that I have found that national governments have, despite ongoing control within their national jurisdiction, little effective influence over the management and governance of the Domain Name System (DNS) at an international level. Thirdly, I have found that corporations have significant power to determine the way in which policies for the management of the technical resources of the Internet are discussed, developed to consensus policy positions, implemented and reviewed. Finally, the research has opened up new lines of inquiry into the rise of a new class of bureaucrats, the cosmocrats and their cosmocracy, on which further research continues.
10

Critical infrastructure protection by advanced modelling, simulation and optimization for cascading failure mitigation and resilience / Protection des Infrastructures Essentielles par Advanced Modélisation, simulation et optimisation pour l’atténuation et résilience de défaillance en cascade

Fang, Yiping 02 February 2015 (has links)
Sans cesse croissante complexité et l'interdépendance des infrastructures critiques modernes, avec des environs de risque plus en plus complexes, posent des défis uniques pour leur exploitation sûre, fiable et efficace. L'objectif de la présente thèse est sur la modélisation, la simulation et l'optimisation des infrastructures critiques (par exemple, les réseaux de transmission de puissance) à l'égard de leur vulnérabilité et la résilience aux défaillances en cascade. Cette étude aborde le problème en modélisant infrastructures critiques à un niveau fondamental, en se concentrant sur la topologie du réseau et des modèles de flux physiques dans les infrastructures critiques. Un cadre de modélisation hiérarchique est introduit pour la gestion de la complexité du système. Au sein de ces cadres de modélisation, les techniques d'optimisation avancées (par exemple, non-dominée de tri binaire évolution différentielle (NSBDE) algorithme) sont utilisés pour maximiser à la fois la robustesse et la résilience (capacité de récupération) des infrastructures critiques contre les défaillances en cascade. Plus précisément, le premier problème est pris à partir d'un point de vue de la conception du système holistique, c'est-à-dire certaines propriétés du système, tels que ses capacités de topologie et de liaison, sont redessiné de manière optimale afin d'améliorer la capacité de résister à des défaillances systémiques de système. Les deux modèles de défaillance en cascade topologiques et physiques sont appliquées et leurs résultats correspondants sont comparés. En ce qui concerne le deuxième problème, un nouveau cadre est proposé pour la sélection optimale des mesures appropriées de récupération afin de maximiser la capacité du réseau d’infrastructure critique de récupération à partir d'un événement perturbateur. Un algorithme d'optimisation de calcul pas cher heuristique est proposé pour la solution du problème, en intégrant des concepts fondamentaux de flux de réseau et le calendrier du projet. Exemples d'analyse sont effectués en se référant à plusieurs systèmes de CI réalistes. / Continuously increasing complexity and interconnectedness of modern critical infrastructures, together with increasingly complex risk environments, pose unique challenges for their secure, reliable, and efficient operation. The focus of the present dissertation is on the modelling, simulation and optimization of critical infrastructures (CIs) (e.g., power transmission networks) with respect to their vulnerability and resilience to cascading failures. This study approaches the problem by firstly modelling CIs at a fundamental level, by focusing on network topology and physical flow patterns within the CIs. A hierarchical network modelling technique is introduced for the management of system complexity. Within these modelling frameworks, advanced optimization techniques (e.g., non-dominated sorting binary differential evolution (NSBDE) algorithm) are utilized to maximize both the robustness and resilience (recovery capacity) of CIs against cascading failures. Specifically, the first problem is taken from a holistic system design perspective, i.e. some system properties, such as its topology and link capacities, are redesigned in an optimal way in order to enhance system’s capacity of resisting to systemic failures. Both topological and physical cascading failure models are applied and their corresponding results are compared. With respect to the second problem, a novel framework is proposed for optimally selecting proper recovery actions in order to maximize the capacity of the CI network of recovery from a disruptive event. A heuristic, computationally cheap optimization algorithm is proposed for the solution of the problem, by integrating foundemental concepts from network flows and project scheduling. Examples of analysis are carried out by referring to several realistic CI systems.

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