Document Overview
This is a research article published by MDPI on 21 July 2024, with Souzanna Sofou listed as author and affiliated with INOV—INESC Inovação and SATWAYS Ltd. It examines how integrating data governance with business process management can support response actions to hybrid threats targeting critical infrastructure (CI), using an airport as its example.
Context and Creators
The article states that hybrid threats are coordinated actions that exploit a country's vulnerabilities and seek to undermine democratic values. It builds on earlier work by EU-HYBNET and on conceptual models of hybrid threats, and it presents itself as focusing on the side of CI owners and managers. The research was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement no. 883054. The paper's author contributions name G.P. and S.S., and the conflicts of interest statement notes that Gabriel Pestana was employed by INOV—INESC Inovação and Souzanna Sofou by SATWAYS Ltd.
Hybrid Threats to Airports
The paper treats an airport as a system of systems, where interdependent subsystems such as baggage handling, control towers and emergency services can propagate vulnerabilities. It describes three scenarios: a combined cyber–physical attack, an insider collaborating with external actors, and a compromised supply chain. It also frames hybrid threats as multidimensional and time-dependent, citing a disinformation campaign, an attack on critical infrastructure and foreign investment in critical entities as examples.
Methodology
The study uses the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), an ISO/IEC 19510 standard, to model informational workflows and decision points. An airport example is used to demonstrate the proposed framework, with business process diagrams for reactive and proactive incident response. Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and Indicators of Attack (IoAs) are shown on an Infosec Dashboard, and a case study describes an illustrative airport incident.
Data Governance and the Information Security Lifecycle
The article defines data governance as policies, processes and standards covering quality, security, privacy and compliance. It structures information security across four phases: prevention, detection, response and knowledge management. Techniques named include encryption, access controls, lineage tracking and integrity checks based on hash functions. The paper also describes the Emergency Message Content Router and the Converged Security Information Management System used in the SATIE project.
Key Findings
According to the paper, data governance can establish accountability, verifiability and ownership for information disseminated during emergencies. Integrating it with business process management is said to enhance response awareness, preemptive security escalation and logging for non-repudiation. The authors also report that the approach supports stakeholder collaboration among airport authorities, airlines and security agencies, and that it reduces the risk of cascading effects in CI attacks.
Purpose and Audience: Critical Infrastructure Owners and Managers
The paper states that its purpose is to discuss tools that enhance early detection and real-time response while ensuring accountability and trusted information exchange. It addresses CI owners and managers, and it mentions EU regulations such as GDPR and the NIS Directive as relevant to airport data governance.