Microsoft Word - Issue-4.docx

Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Knowledge Society:
Increasing the Safety Level by Use of Learning based on Wargaming Expertise

Dorel Badea

Department of Management, Faculty of Military Management
"Nicolae Balcescu" Land Forces Academy of Sibiu

Revolutiei Street no. 3-5, 550170, Sibiu, Romania
Phone: 0269432990

dorel.badea@yahoo.com

Marin-Marian Coman
Military Training Center

"Nicolae Balcescu" Land Forces Academy of Sibiu
Revolutiei Street no. 3-5, 550170, Sibiu, Romania

Phone: 0269432990
coman.marian@gmail.com

Dumitru Iancu

Department of Management, Faculty of Military Management
"Nicolae Balcescu" Land Forces Academy of Sibiu

Revolutiei Street no. 3-5, 550170, Sibiu, Romania
Phone: 0269432990

dorin_dan@yahoo.com

Olga Bucoveţchi
Department of Economic Engineering,

Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Business Engineering and Management
University “Politehnica” of Bucharest

Splaiul Independenței 313, 060042, Bucharest, Romania
Phone: 0214029100

olga.bucovetchi@upb.ro

Abstract
The linearity of processes is no longer valid only for strictly defined intervals, the decision-

makers being forced to explore and exploit other sources and options for imposing a predicted
management order in accordance with standards, procedures, policies, etc. Given the socio-technical
particularities of organizations that own or manage critical infrastructures with direct implications for
risk management activities, it is necessary to conduct theoretical and practical actions for testing their
sensitivity by taking in consideration the variation of external factors (geo-climacterics, politics, military,
economic factors, etc.) for verifying and validating the decisional variants structured at the operational
management level. No matter the level of organizational maturity, the possible solutions for achieving
this goal must be optimal from the point of view of the cost-effectiveness ratio and, in the same time,
they should converge to a paradigmatic potential for valorizing in a timely and judicious manner the
most important component of the organizational capability - the human resource. In this context, the
education for sustainability becomes the objective function that needs to be optimized. As a
methodological framework for learning and internalizing the procedures that should become an
operating standard, the conceptual modeling and simulation are very well suited and the serious games
can be chosen as an implementation tool. Therefore, the military organization has been selected as a
model of good practice where the training is conducted through simulation and wargaming. When we
should analyze the acquisition process of knowledge, the military organization is the proper choice
because it offers a series of advantages by the way of transforming the real situation into elements of
simulation and by an easy transfer of the gained experience into the real context.

Keywords: Critical Infrastructure, Security, Wargame, Knowledge.

D. Badea , M.-M. Coman, D. Iancu, O. Bucoveţchi - Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Knowledge Society:
Increasing the Safety Level by Use of Learning based on Wargaming Expertise

1. Introduction
The design of a research direction for this article, having as a framework the relationship

between society, infrastructure, security and sustainability, has among arguments the Cohen
approach (2010), who considers critical infrastructures to be something that people depend on, in a
direct or indirect manner, at any time, in terms of life and welfare. Unlike this approach, the
definitions of critical infrastructure given by different sources from the EU area, refer to the fact
that it means an element, a system or a system's component, located within the territory of the
Member States that is essential for the preservation of vital societal functions, health, safety,
security, social or economic well-being of individuals, and whose disruption or destruction would
have a significant impact in a Member State due to the inability to maintain those functions (***
Directive 114/2008). Therefore, ensuring the resilience of the society (understood as a meta-system)
is a subject of the utmost importance and actuality for military, civil, public or private organizations
(Walker, Cooper, 2011). More than ever, in a non-exhaustive enumeration, concepts such as the
Internet of Things, Cybernetics, Process Continuity, Block Chains, and Industry 4.0 are leading the
organizations to reconsider the ways to move to higher levels of maturity in terms of sustainability.
Based on the complexity, nonlinearity and dynamics of the component structures it is a fact that the
relations between the constituent elements are not fully and correctly identified. On the background
of the existence of a certain pretension, caused by the manifestation of the gap between the vision of
the future and the understanding of current reality, it is more and more obvious that in the
knowledge society, the improvement or redesign of critical infrastructure performance (related to
the private domain and especially to the public domain) is indissolubly linked to the improvement
of the specific information processes' functionality (Denyer, 2017). Taking into consideration the
proposed paper's title, the above-mentioned thesis involves fundamental aspects specific to the
reaction of organizations to environmental demands, such as: the use of unequivocally specialized
vocabulary, the identification of good practices and development methods, the design of appropriate
security governance metrics, and last but not least, accountability to ensure critical infrastructure
security. In this thematic register, as a basis for providing solid premises to generate added security,
the customization of specific elements (common values, competencies, behavior, personnel)
comprised in a specialized tool that has a wide applicability in the field of organizational redesign
(ex. the McKinsey 7-S model) leads to the necessity of condition fulfilling which is related to the
operationalization of an adequate knowledge within holding organizations of critical infrastructure.
It is essential to relate to the differences between knowing and knowledge, as already they
were assumed in the literature: “Knowledge is the result of a knowing process at one point. It can be
generated, structured and transformed from a form into another form, in a continuous process.
Knowledge is a complex combination of conscious and unconscious, rational and irrational, direct
experience of life and knowing the life, and the experience mediated in the process of learning.”
(Brătianu, 2015, p. 28). Useful supplements in this direction are included in the Dictionary of
Management as a reference work to demonstrate the level of theoretical and practical development
of this discipline at the national level (Nicolescu, 2011). After presenting knowledge as assemblies
of applicable information and abilities generated by the receiver following the use of information,
which has the capacity to generate added value by using them, the two components namely the
human and the economic dimension are emphasized. In accordance with the research objectives of
this paper, the explanation given to the human dimension of knowledge draws attention. In this
regard, it is emphasized the fact that a certain information to a particular person with a certain type
of training and skills is used appropriately and generates added value, and the same information is
only a simple information to a less competent person.
The issue of resources committed to generating paradigmatic value knowledge is in no way
devoid of importance. The problem has mild contradictory aspects in the public sector, where,
under specific budget constraints, a certain level of performance is required involving computer
network-based technical solutions, using a specialized software, training, generically combined
under an e-administration dome or even e-government. All this means a large amount of financial

BRAIN – Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience
Volume 9, Issue 4 (November, 2018), ISSN 2067-3957

resources for the creation of such administrative infrastructure. Assuming an optimal dimensioned
budget allocation, the starting point to be achieved as a fundamental criterion is the
professionalization of the human resource. In this regard, the use of expert systems or specialized IT
technologies raises the cost of knowledge, which should take into account the imperative of human
presence and the minimum skills needed to set up adequate inputs to the learning objectives, with
further influences on outputs and outcomes. In this context the mixed solutions seem to be the most
desirable for the use and implementation for knowledge generation and knowledge transfer
processes (Paiano, Caione, & Guido, 2015). In the sense of the conceptual approach mentioned
above, the mixed solutions leave a sufficient and flexible actionable freedom, both for the object of
the training and for the ways of using the tools in different situations from the point of view of the
complexity of the replicated aspects of reality (Figure 1). In such a context, the organizational
learning takes new valences (Treapat, Gheorghiu, 2017), in the sense that it is internalized through
employees, but it is not simply a sum of individual learning outcomes, becoming an essential
process for adaptability to the requirements of the macroeconomic environment.

Figure 1. Connections between types of knowledge and the use of gaming concept.
(source: A Compendium of Wargaming Terms (Updated 7 July 2015) Compiled by William L. Simpson Jr –

http://www.mors.org/Communities/CoP- Document-Search
http://www.mors.org/Communities/CoP- Document-Search The Art of Wargaming by Peter Perla)

The wargaming concept is recognized as a dual use tool (military and civilian purposes)
with broad applicability (Figure 2) especially in the military field (it also supports the
experimentations what if type). The concept itself created an entire industry (with both intensive
and extensive achievements, as well as complexity and addressability), Warren Wiggins arguing in
this respect: “There are multiple reasons for the use of war games; discovery, examination of
concepts, and even learning. The value of the war game is to create an enabling environment to
achieve the desired objective(s). The benefits of a war game are numerous; however, for the most
part they provide new ways of conceptualizing the problem, new courses of action, new elements of
information needed for decisions, previously unknown relationships between aspects of a problem,
understanding of the problem’s dynamics.”1
An interesting addition to the use of dynamic term is the one made by The Goldsworthy,
Stolk&Associates, which highlights the fact that a conflict is not solely kinetic. “Conflict is always
the outcome of many societal dynamics. Acknowledging those dynamics it is crucial to ensure a
realistic simulated operating environment. GS&A have applied wargaming within various contexts:
ministerial, NATO, universities and civil security.”2
Finally yet importantly, it is useful to mention David Schroeder's approach that highlights the
importance of wargames in both military and business environments. Given the current development
conditions of the various public or private areas of activity and based mainly on IT and related vectors,
the wargaming concept is applied with a strong tradition of use in the military field (there is already a
wargaming book edited in 2017 by the UK MoD that has the role to be a reference guide for all
practitioners - Wargaming Handbook, and a dedicated annual conference - Connections US Wargaming

1 https://www.csiac.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/CSIAC_Journal_V4N3_Nov2016.pdf
2 https://www.goldsworthy-stolk-associates.com/?lightbox=dataItem-j66ficzt

D. Badea , M.-M. Coman, D. Iancu, O. Bucoveţchi - Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Knowledge Society:
Increasing the Safety Level by Use of Learning based on Wargaming Expertise

Conference). Thus, it could be argued that the applied wargaming as a "discipline" is still in a full
maturity process, there being no consensus between different specialists (military, security, education,
and human resources experts, psychologists, sociologists, software development engineers, etc.) on the
main directions to be investigated and the proper ways of better implementation of the results at the
organizations level. Taking into consideration the general way of developing a working terminology,
regardless of the type used (education, training and analytics), the wargaming is a component of the
decision making process done under conditions of uncertainty, that generate the courses of actions
(decisional variants) which are analyzed in the context of an emerging situation. This situation is based
on a tailored scenario of which the participants are aware, that is applied sequentially and managed in a
logical succession, based on the rules known by all participants.

Figure 2. Ways to conceptualize wargaming in the military and IT business field.

(sources: https://www.goldsworthy-stolk-associates.com/?lightbox=dataItem-j66ficzt;
http://professionalwargaming.co.uk/ConnectionsKeynote.pdf)

The training exercise, which took place in 2017 in the USA called "Navy Private Sector Critical

Infrastructure War Game" is an eloquent example of good practice in field of critical infrastructure. The
exercise has been conducted by involving a number of 125 players from 14 critical infrastructure
sectors, that covered a wide spectrum of representativeness from public and private field: “In our war
game, the attacks that were most likely to escalate to a national security incident were those on the
civilian nuclear sector and sectors that had strong linkages across the national economy. Attacks on
these sectors with strong linkages within the rest of the critical infrastructure created cascading effects,
many of which had life or death implications beyond the initial scope of the cyberattack. Therefore,
results from the war game suggest that U.S. government resources and policies should focus on the
energy, transportation, communications, water/wastewater, and nuclear sectors.”3

2. Methodology
Before presenting the solution to be implemented, it is adequate to emphasize a way that

shows how the practitioners should use for training a special purpose scenario. The Red Teaming
Guide, edited by UK DoD highlights the idea of using the red team operational thinking way in
order to provide to the training audience the support for a productive training: "The idea of using
red teams has been around for a long time. Commercial enterprises, such as IBM, and government
agencies such as Defence Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency, have long used them to
reduce risks and to improve their problem solving."4

3 http://www.nwcfoundation.org/Files/Admin/Corp%20Logos/Navy-
Private%20Sector%20Critical%20Infrastructure%20War%20Game%20Report%20%281%29%20%282%29
.pdf
4 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/
142533/20130301_red_teaming_ed2.pdf

BRAIN – Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience
Volume 9, Issue 4 (November, 2018), ISSN 2067-3957

Usually, for a specific scenario map, the use of colors for mapping the symbols to
denominate the type of party is common in military wargaming and terminology. Blue generally
denotes own forces, red is for threat, green is often used to denote indigenous security forces and
brown for other actors such as non-governmental organizations and the civilian population etc.
The training events based on a proper tailored scenarios can provide knowledge and abilities
to practitioners related to physical protection, cyber security, cyber and physical convergence,
industrial control system, information about insider treat, standards and ways to command and
control, ways to counteract, etc. All of these have as training purposes the improvement of
awareness, capacities to respond, build trust communities or sharing knowledge. Typically, the
training audience will follow three phases for solving the problem/the crises: diagnosis phase (key
assumptions, identify and question assertions, logic mapping, information check, etc), creative
phase (role playing, brainstorming, what if analysis, indicators for changes, experimentation, etc.),
and challenge phase (analysis of competing hypotheses, devil's advocacy, etc.).

3. Proposed solution and problem solving steps
The training event offers a framework that allows to all participants a way of working and

collaborating with each other in order to apply the wargame rules for a worthwhile dialogue
concerning decision-making process after reviewing case scenarios. Moreover, such a training event
has to be combined or connected with other kind of training events to maximize the reach of
training objectives linked to value-based decision making.
Eubella Alert is a fictitious scenario that has an imaginary situation in an imaginary setting
with all other aspects being invented to achieve the exercise objectives and training objectives. The
scenario is based on a major event - a cyberattack on an energetic control system, which can affect
the majority of the critical infrastructure sectors. In addition, the scenario is enriched with a
physical break of security (bomb threat) at an important nuclear plant belonging to a country that is
part of a union, which has promulgated a common security policy regarding the energy sector.

The GOLDEN UNION (GU) located in the central EUBELLA continent has been founded
in 1992 (Figure no. 3). GU comprises six neighboring countries (ROZY, TANNY, GREENH,
YELLOWE, PURPLET, and TANA), which are parliamentary democracies and a federal
governance system applies to all the political and economical voted policies related to the
development of the union. On one hand, the GU has its own federal government, thus on the other
hand, each constituent country has a national government that has to apply the internal policies in
supporting their citizens welfare. The official language recognized by the GU federal govern is
Goldish language spoken almost in majority large cities of the union. Even so, in some cities and
areas from the GU countries, the population has the tendency to preserve their local habits and
traditional language. The process of suburbanization and urban decentralization lead the GU
citizens to have a good life. Over time, there have been popular movements for independence in
some areas, the majority of them based on ethnicity issues, culture, religion, and preservation of
traditional language.
Three years ago, GU promoted a new energy policy, called GREENY2015-2025, which led to a
GDP's growth of the union with 20% more in the last year than in the previous one. The majority of
countries from GU have natural resources and their economies are emerging.
GU is located on the central area of EUBELLA continent. Around the union are located other
emergent countries, each of them trying to apply the balanced economic policies for developing the
trading and market exchange with their neighborhood countries and with union countries.
The energy systems from countries inside the EUBELLA continent is based on traditional
ways of obtaining the energy, however some of them are based on nuclear energy. The traditional
economic development of the region, in terms of energy system, is based mainly on the oil and
natural gas import and export trading. The alternative energy solutions (solar photovoltaic energy,
solar thermal energy, wind energy, biomass energy, etc.) are emerging and some of the countries
have implemented standards for developing them.

D. Badea , M.-M. Coman, D. Iancu, O. Bucoveţchi - Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Knowledge Society:
Increasing the Safety Level by Use of Learning based on Wargaming Expertise

REDIA, a large country located in the northeast area of the continent, is one of the richest
countries having a large amount of crude oil and natural gas reserve. REDIA commercializes its
abundant natural resources to other countries from EUBELLA continent that do not have enough
natural resources to produce the desired amount of energy necessary for the industry field or
residential energy for population. The transportation system for oil and natural gas is in a
developing and modernization phase. The main transportation pipeline, STREAM ALPHA 1, starts
from REDIASHT city, one of the largest cities from REDIA, located at 100 km away from
international border with GU. Then, STREAM ALPHA 1 goes through ROZY country territory and
splits to the other countries that have trade agreements with REDIA for natural gas and oil import.
(see Figure 3)
The last GU Resolution102, voted by the federal govern and endorsed in 2015, established a
well-balanced policy regarding the trade of resources inside the union neighboring countries.
Resolution102 supports the energy policy GREENY2015-2025. Moreover, after signing that
important document, each country designated a maneuver brigade in order to form the Golden
Union Division Army (GUDA) as a very versatile and deployable maneuvering unit along of the GU
territories and international borders.

Figure 3. EUBELLA ALERT wargaming scenario map

After implementation of the energy policy GREENY2015-2025 and the Resolution102, all

countries from GU started to cut down the amount of crude oil and natural gas import from REDIA.
This fact, led to a real decrease of REDIA GDP and political frictions appeared between REDIA
and GU countries. In addition, in the last 2 years, there were some sabotage events against main
transportation pipeline STREAM ALPHA 1. The LIBERTY PANTHER GROUP (LPG) from GU
that Figurehts for freedom of energy systems has claimed the sabotage events. Consequently,
REDIA started to strengthen its defense system and military combat power by developing new
weapon systems and a professional army. Many funds were invested to develop cyber security
domain and a series of hybrid threat designed training exercises were conducted near international
border of GU. On the other side, in the last year, ROZY country from GU had for three times
emergency situations that were linked to bomb threat events against its nuclear plant located in the
vicinity of DORETA city. The nuclear plant was built in 2012 near ROSIAN SEA, close to REDIA,
and it assures 30% of the amount of necessary energy specific to energy system of the country.

BRAIN – Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience
Volume 9, Issue 4 (November, 2018), ISSN 2067-3957

Based on the tailored wargaming scenario, the training audience will make use of symbol
list in order to portray on the exercise map the following elements: infrastructures, natural events,
incidents, operations, and damage/operational symbology (Table 1).

Table 1. Extract (examples) from a symbol list to be used within Emergency Management process and First
Responder communities at all levels of need

(sources: Symbology Reference, version 2.20, Released: September 14, 2005, https://www.fgdc.gov/HSWG/index.html;
https://www.fgdc.gov/HSWG/ref_pages/PrintableChanges.htm)

SYMBOL TYPES/
SYMBOL CLASSES

SYMBOL
IMAGE

SYMBOL TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Infrastructures Symbology - examples
(83 symbols)

Agriculture and Food
Infrastructure (Theme)

Production and retail services of foodstuffs.

Generation Stations
(Energy Facilities Feature)

A facility equipped with special equipment used for the production
of heat or electricity.

Natural Events Symbology - examples
(27 symbols)

Landslide
(Geologic Feature)

A general term for a wide variety of processes and landforms
involving the down slope movement under the force of gravity of
masses of soil and rock material.

Flood
(Hydro-Meteorologic
Feature)

A relatively high stream flow that overtops the stream banks in any
part of its course, covering land that is not normally under water;
condition that occurs when water overflows the natural or artificial
confines of a stream or other body of water, or accumulates by
drainage over low-lying areas.

Incidents Symbology - examples
(50 symbols)

Civil Displaced
Population
(Civil Disturbance
Feature)

Persons or groups of person who have been forced or obliged to flee
or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular
as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict,
violations of human rights, or natural or human-made disasters.

Criminal Activity Incident
(Theme)

An unlawful pursuit or action in which an individual participates.

Operations Symbology - examples
(46 symbols)

Medical Evacuation
Helicopter Station
(Emergency Medical
Feature)

The locus of an emergency helicopter landing pad, utilized to
transport severely injured persons.

Health Department
Facility (Emergency
Medical Feature)

The locus of a facility operated by a public institution which is
dedicated to the promotion of health and the prevention of disease
at the community, country, state, or national level.

Damage/Operational Symbology - examples
(10 symbols)

Incident
(Damage/Operational) No
Levels

Not Applicable

Operation
(Damage/Operational)
Level 2

Operational, but filled to capacity or otherwise closed.

After the mapping process with all the scenario symbol elements portrayed on the exercise map,
the training audience can apply the ways of thinking as for Red Teaming methods for identifying and
assessing the assumptions, alternative options, vulnerabilities, limitations and risks for the organization.
These solving methods are suitable for reacting to a crisis, in order to take in account all unpredicted
situations, deepen the critical analysis, make predictions, and develop feasible courses of action (COA)
(Figure 4).

D. Badea , M.-M. Coman, D. Iancu, O. Bucoveţchi - Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Knowledge Society:
Increasing the Safety Level by Use of Learning based on Wargaming Expertise

Figure 4. A logical way of thinking (framework) specific to a red teaming during the wargaming event

(source:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/142533/2013
0301_red_teaming_ed2.pdf)

In order to run in an efficient manner the entire training with great outcomes, the training
audience must put in practice the best COA to solve any unpredicted situation which could appear
during the wargaming process. The teams should have to assess very well all the information received
through the scenario, but usually they will try to evolve in their way of thinking and information
assessing to enhance the level of awareness. Besides critical thinking for analysis of current situation
and future implications, additional useful information could be provided by the role players who act in
accordance with established training objectives. Doing that, the common operating picture (COP) will
be clear enough for all participants and the effect will result in good countermeasures conducted in
accordance with the development of the operational situation during the crisis.
A better way of assessing information is by making use of the degrees of confidence specific
to reliability of source and credibility of information, but they must be considered independently of
each other. (table 2) As a result, a combination of letter and number will be appropriate for
information assessing process. Thus, information received from a "fairly reliable" source, which is
adjusted as "possibly true" will be rated as "C3". This way of analysis and thinking is very useful
for training audience (Threat Assessment Team) when dealing with scenarios that emphasize an
immediate crisis, like an imminent terrorist attacks in urban areas (a bomb threat in the vicinity of a
crowd, a bomb placed in a critical infrastructure building) that could result in a mass casualty event.
Consequently, an emergency planning response must be implemented very quickly.

Table 2. Definitions of reliability of source and credibility of information
(source: http://eturwg.c4i.gmu.edu/?q=node/128)

Reliability of Source
(designated by a letter between A and F signifying various degrees of confidence)

C Fairly reliable
Refers to a source which has occasionally been used in the past
and upon which some degree of confidence can be based

Credibility of Information
(designated by a numeral between 1 and 6 signifying varying degrees of confidence)

3 Possibly true
If, despite there being insufficient confirmation to establish any higher
degree of likelihood, a freshly reported item of information does not
conflict with the previously reported behavior pattern of the target

BRAIN – Broad Research in Artificial Intelligence and Neuroscience
Volume 9, Issue 4 (November, 2018), ISSN 2067-3957

During the wargaming conduct, a main events list-main incidents list (MEL-MIL) will be
employed. The purpose of MEL-MIL is to create challenging situations for training audience in
order to meet training objectives of the exercise. The incidents will be injected as the situation
develops and they will follow a logical evolution of the crisis in order to enhance the training
audience's COP. In this manner, all the participants have to contribute with their expertise to solve
all the incidents through a collaborative work by taking all necessary countermeasures that result in
an emergency response planning.
The after action review (AAR) is mandatory to be conducted at the end of each wargame
event. As a tool to get maximum benefit from every training session, AAR is a facilitated discussion
conducted for discovering and learning what happened and why, focusing on performance
standards, that actively involves the training audience in order to allow to all participants to become
conscious about their gaps in training for future improvement on weaknesses or for sustaining their
strengths.

4. Conclusions
At the national level, there is a shortage of updated professional approach in relation to the

international practice of the critical infrastructure security issue (ex. USA, Canada, Australia,
Germany etc.). Although, as a declarative argument, the main idea from the official document
regulating the long-term activity related to critical infrastructure, stipulates that: "The economic and
social development stimulated by the accelerated technological progress and the phenomenon of
globalization have strengthened the strong interdependence and interaction of the systems that
ensure the security and welfare of the human society. The need to interconnect systems against the
backdrop of the trend of removing administrative barriers and access to new emerging markets,
along with the integration of infrastructure networks, leads to global security and stability
developments." (*** National Strategy on Critical Infrastructure Protection, 2011, p.10)
The starting point in writing of this article relies on the fact that the organizational proactive
processes, as valuable resources, are based on a flexible learning process. These resources ensure
the sustainability of public and private capacities, civil and military alike, and are coupled to the
challenges of a highly dynamic macro-environment, which are characterized by uncertainty,
ambiguity and volatility. In this context, asymmetric threats and especially hybrid threats,
containing a complex information vector with different intensities, influence the social functionality
in different basic areas such as medical services, food, defense, energy, administration and
governance, communications, etc. The recent events fully demonstrate the thesis which states that
the security has not only a black and white spectrum, but also gray hues, with interdisciplinary and
cross-border nuances becoming the points of interest, both through the induced vulnerability
potential and the means of provocation that surpass the strictly specialized military area.
Conducting the experimentation process type "what happens if" is a very costly and risky
one from the perspective of actual way of carrying out, aspect which has at least the same intensity
also for the critical infrastructure field. The expertise of this type of training in the military domain
is accepted and the learning and education process for the security of the assets must be an effective
and flexible one, built on the formulation, activation and/or updating of some mental models. The
research team draws attention to the exploiting of predefined symbols, which are also employed in
the military operational planning, as a less-used idea in the critical infrastructure literature, and the
completion, where appropriate, with new ones. These symbols could be used for the graphical
materialization of risk situations regarding the safe operation of a critical infrastructure system,
according to a proper tailored scenario, in a training exercise of public authorities or private
operators with responsibilities related to the management of crises based on disasters.
A special role in the process of improving knowledge dedicated to increasing the level of
security of critical infrastructure must be played by the educational, military and civil institutions,
through special programs dedicated to the public sector that is involved in the management of
critical infrastructure issues (postgraduate courses for further training or specialization, master

D. Badea , M.-M. Coman, D. Iancu, O. Bucoveţchi - Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Knowledge Society:
Increasing the Safety Level by Use of Learning based on Wargaming Expertise

programs, etc.). In the knowledge of economy, universities face new challenges and they have to
adapt to the new contexts. First, knowledge life cycle is decreasing and the focus of teaching and
learning processes should shift from knowledge transfer to the students toward developing thinking
skills (Bratianu & Vătămănescu, 2016). Through this paper it is proposed, that the tool presented as
a solution for learning in the field of critical infrastructure be implemented for testing and validation
within a postgraduate program conducted in the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu and within a master
program conducted in the Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Business Engineering and Management/
University Politehnica of Bucharest. It is a good thing, in the sense of the above-mentioned, the fact
that people are more and more aware of the role of knowledge, as an engine of generating
performance in the field of security of critical infrastructures. An example supporting this statement
is also one of the conclusions that emerged from the Zagreb Forum in 2017 - Resilient Critical
Infrastructure (2nd Zagreb Security Forum), which encourages the application of the "knowledge for
development" paradigm as the foundation for designing critical documents on the protection of
National Critical Infrastructures. (https://www.zagrebsecurityforum.com)

The critical infrastructure security is a topic whose approach is achieved by taking into
consideration both officially validated regulations and the level of maturity of the population's
ability to objectively raise the awareness related to the main mechanisms of causes and effects
specific to malfunctions that could emerge at any critical infrastructure. Based on the above
assertion, the main purpose of this applied research operationalized by predominantly qualitative
means is the demonstration of viability of methodological framework provided by the wargaming
procedures that can be exploited in a specific way also for critical infrastructures issues. In order to
preserve the integrity of the real system framework, the focus was on a few variables - actors, rules,
resources - that have been considered by authors the most important factors of the research. Finally,
it is brought to the attention of public authorities and all institutions involved in the management of
critical infrastructure security, a feasible possibility of using a flexible and effective training method
based on wargaming methodology that can be developed in an integrating way at the national level,
which is in fact the added value of this paper.

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Assoc. Prof. Dorel Badea graduated the Military Technical Academy of
Bucharest in 2002 and received the Ph.D. degree in Industrial Engineering
(2011) from Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, currently being head of
Management Department in “Nicolae Bǎlcescu” Land Forces Academy of
Sibiu. He is holding courses in defense resource management, modeling and
simulation of military actions and critical infrastructure protection. He wrote
over forty essays issued in different scientific specialized reviews and
proceedings on general management, military engineering and security.

Assoc. Prof. Dumitru Iancu is vice dean for scientific researcher at the
Military Management Faculty, “Nicolae Bǎlcescu” Land Forces Academy of
Sibiu. He holds a PhD in Management from the Lucian Blaga University of
Sibiu (2011). His research interests include human resources management and
applications of general management theory in security technology systems. He
is author and active participant at different international conferences and
participated at many activities at national level related to research and
innovations strategies necessary to be implemented.

Senior Trng. Instr. Marin-Marian Coman is PhD Student in Industrial
Engineering at University Politehnica of Bucharest and graduated “Nicolae
Bǎlcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu (2000). He holds a M.Sc. in
Management and Technology at the same military university (2015) and a
M.Sc. in Science and Computer Engineering (2013) at "Lucian Blaga"
University of Sibiu. He collaborates with members of NATO Modeling and
Simulation Group and his main areas of interest include operational planning
and exercises and conceptual modeling of spatial critical infrastructures.

Assoc. Prof. Olga Bucoveţchi received her BSc in Economic Engineering (2006)
and PhD in Industrial Engineering (2014) from University Politehnica of
Bucharest. Now she is assoc. prof. at University Politehnica of Bucharest. She is
member of Association of Economist Managers and Engineers in Romania and
Romanian Association for the Promotion of Critical infrastructure and Services
Protection. While working at UPB she had several collaborations within national
and international research projects related to risk management, critical
infrastructure protection and business continuity.