Characteristics of Critical Infrastuctures, their Designation and Protection

Abstract

In today’s globalised world, the protection of critical system components, also known as critical infrastructure, is receiving increasing attention. In this paper I will examine the regulation of critical infrastructure protection in the 21^st century from the perspective of the United States of America, the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and Hungary. In Hungary, the protection of critical system elements is basically the responsibility of the National Directorate General for Disaster Management of the Ministry of the Interior. However, there may be cases where the Hungarian Defence Forces, rather than the Ministry of the Interior, carry out these tasks. The task of guarding and protecting is not an easy
one, as open sources of information have emerged that did not exist a few decades ago, making it relatively easy for even amateurs to plan an attack on such guarded critical infrastructure. In this paper, I will present examples from the Russian war in Ukraine of how ordinary users can effectively support the armies’ war effort and verify or refute propaganda claims using only the Internet. I have formulated a proposal for information literacy training for active and reserve soldiers.