Internet as a CII - A framework to measure awareness in the cyber sphere

With the increasingly vital role that the Internet plays in the personal lives of people across the world, Internet services have proliferated to such a degree that the Internet now equals countries' critical infrastructures in importance. In fact, some countries include Internet services in their legal framework for critical-infrastructure protection (CIP). In this paper, we take the view that the level of awareness and susceptibility to cyber attack can be measured by the level of maturity and development of the internet infrastructure of a country. Using publicly available metrics, this study quantifies critical levels of Internet infrastructure across countries and proposes the cyber-attack susceptibility (CAS) index based on Internet usage, online services rendered, telecommunication infrastructure, and the human information-technology capital of each measured country. The information is used to further examine potential correlations between a country's critical Internet-infrastructure level and the country's ability to deal with cyber threats and the steps already taken by several high scoring countries in order to defend against attacks on Critical Infrastructure.