Optimization of Operational Large-Scale (Cyber) Attacks by a Combinational Approach

Recent attacks against critical infrastructures have shown that it is possible to take down an entire infrastructure by targeting only a few of its components. To prevent or minimize the effects of this kind of attacks, it is necessary to identify these critical components whose disruption, damage or destruction can lead to the paralysis of an infrastructure. This paper shows that the identification of critical components can be made thanks to a particular pattern of the graph theory: the vertex cover. To illustrate how the vertex cover can be useful for the identification of critical components, the electrical power transmission and distribution system of the United States is used as an example. It is shown how it is possible to build an attack scenario against an infrastructure with the results of a vertex cover algorithm.