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Chapter 8
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-2964-6.ch008
Panayiotis Kotzanikolaou
University of Piraeus, Greece
Marianthi Theoharidou
Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece
Dimitris Gritzalis
Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece
Risk Assessment of Multi-
Order Dependencies between
Critical Information and
Communication Infrastructures
ABSTRACT
Assessing risk in information and communication infrastructures is a challenging topic due to the com-
plexity of critical infrastructures (CIs) and of the various dependencies between such infrastructures.
This chapter discusses the basic concepts of risk assessment for CIs. Moreover, it describes a recently
proposed methodology for criticality assessment. The main goal of this methodology is to assess the
risk of an infrastructure (or a sector of critical infrastructures), taking into account the dependencies
between CIs and/or sectors. The methodology is compatible with current information systems practices.
The basic characteristic of the presented methodology is that it attempts to capture both organization-
oriented and society-oriented consequences of possible security events, a feature which is not always
embedded in mainstream information security risk assessment methodologies.