Critical Infrastructure Protection and Role of Infrastructure Owners/Operators (Report‪)‬

1.INTRODUCTION In every society/country, several infrastructures (at least the state's infrastructure itself) can be defined. These infrastructures have a different meaning to the functioning of a state - known as criticality of infrastructure. In an ideal world, the country would guarantee trouble-free function of its infrastructures. Nevertheless, it is impossible to reach such state in real world. The main reason of this is the change of human society in the last few centuries. In the past, the society was significant with its reserve behaviour (city walls, gates, etc.) and its resistance (self-sufficient infrastructure--source of water, own services, stores of food etc.). Today's metropolises are different--open, not limited by walls and/or borders and interconnected with centralized systems of infrastructure and trade links of the globalized world. This applies not only for European cities but for the whole European community--the European Union. The interconnection of particular technologies, infrastructures and countries brings not only advantages but also disadvantages, such as dependence and vulnerability. Recently we have seen the possible threats endangering present countries e.g. terrorism, natural disasters, negligence, accidents, hacking or felony. These threats are not limited by international borders which was demonstrated during terrorist attacks in the USA (September 2001, New York), Indonesia (October 2002, Bali), Spain (March 2004, Madrid) and in the United Kingdom (June 2005, London).