Securing Grid-Based Critical Infrastructures

Abstract

The emerging Grid Computing Technologies are enabling the conception of heavily ICT-based critical infrastructures (CIs). The nature, volume and sensitivity of information that may be exchanged across the computing resources will be expanded substantially. As a result of increasing processing power, data storage capacity and interconnectivity, these Grid-based CIs will be exposed to a much larger number and a wider variety of threats and vulnerabilities. This raises new security issues for the CIs. In this paper, we have discussed the new paradigm of Grid-based CIs; the inevitability of their adoption in the near future; the risks associated with them; and a global framework to tackle the security related issues to gain the confidence of an already skeptical public.

This research is supported by the European Commission funded project SEINIT (Security Expert Initiative) under reference number IST-2002-001929-SEINIT. The overall objective of the SEINIT project is to ensure a trusted security framework for ubiquitous environments, working across multiple devices and heterogeneous networks, in a way that is organization independent (inter-operable) and centered around an end-user. Project webpage is located at www.seinit.org