A Cyber-Physical All-Hazard Risk Management Approach: The Case of the Wastewater Treatment Plant of Copenhagen

Abstract

The ongoing digitalization of critical infrastructures enables more efficient processes, but also comes with new challenges related to potential cyber-physical attacks or incidents. To manage their associated risk, a precise and systematic framework should be adopted. This paper describes a general methodology that is consistent with the Risk Management ISO (31000-2018) and builds on specific tools developed within the H2020 digital-water.city (DWC) project. The approach has been demonstrated for a digital solution of the DWC project that allows to visualize inflow predictions for the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in the city of Copenhagen. Specifically, the risk assessment and risk treatment steps are demonstrated in the case of the spoofing of the web interface where misleading forecast data may turn into fallacious maintenance schedules for the operators. The adopted methodology applied to the selected use case led to the identification of convenient measures for risk mitigation.