A perfect storm: privatization, public–private partnership and the security of critical infrastructure

This chapter is an exploratory examination of three ‘historical’ events that, in conjuncture but unintentionally, have increased the potential weaknesses of critical information infrastructures (CII), those computer-managed assets like financial services, energy, telecommunications, transportation and more, on which modern societies depend. The first event was the ‘business internetization’ of data-gathering and remote management of industrial control systems, which allowed businesses worldwide to reduce personnel costs and time management. The second was the ‘privatization wave’ of the 1980s, when utilities were privatized in the US, Europe and elsewhere, under the conviction that the private sector could be more efficient in delivering the same services. Finally, the emergence of transnational public–private partnerships (PPP) in the ownership and governance of utilities further aggravated the inherent CII vulnerabilities brought about by the ‘privatization wave’. This preliminary investigation of such historical events should identify potential explanatory hypotheses of why today CII could be quite vulnerable.