Wiley Handbook of Science and Technology for Homeland Security, 4 Volume Set

EUROPEAN UNION (EU)

MANUEL SUTER AND ELGIN BRUNNER

Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich, Switzerland

1 INTRODUCTION

The European Union is a key player at the international level concerning information assurance. CIIP, the Information Society, and information security are considered key issues. Therefore, the EU has launched initiatives and research programs to study various aspects of the information revolution and its impact on education, business, health, and communications.

The terrorist attacks in Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 have highlighted the risk of terrorist attacks against European infrastructures in a broader sense. The damage or loss of a piece of infrastructure in one state may have negative effects on several others, and on the European economy as a whole. The following chapter gives a short overview of important steps taken by the EU in the field of CIP and CIIP [1].

2 CRITICAL SECTORS

The Communication of the Commission of the European Communities (EU Commission) on Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Fight Against Terrorism, adopted on 20 October 2004, provides a definition of critical infrastructures (CI), enumerates the critical sectors identified, and discusses the criteria for determining potential CI. In the Communication, CI are defined as follows: “Critical infrastructures consist of those physical and information technology facilities, networks, services and assets which, if disrupted or destroyed, would have a serious impact on the ...