Design and implementation of a mediation system enabling secure communication among Critical Infrastructures

Nowadays, the increase of interdependencies among different Critical Infrastructures (CI) makes it more and more difficult to protect without using a systemic approach that considers a single infrastructure as part of a complex system of infrastructures. A strong collaboration among CI owners is required to avoid, or at least to limit the propagation of failures from one infrastructure to another and to put CI in safety mode. The key element enabling this required cooperation is the possibility for them to exchange relevant information related to the status of their infrastructures and to the services provided. In this paper, we present a middleware solution that allows CIs sharing real-time information, enabling the design and implementation of fault mitigation strategies and mechanisms to prevent the cascading phenomena generated by the failure propagation from one infrastructure to another.