Why Both Game Theory and Reliability Theory Are Important in Defending Infrastructure against Intelligent Attacks

Many countries have multiple critical infrastructures that are potentially vulnerable to deliberate attacks by terrorists or other intelligent adversaries. determining how best to protect these and other critical infrastructures against intelligent attacks has become a topic of great concern. Researchers and practitioners have attempted a variety of approaches for dealing with this issue. One motivation for this book is the belief that methods for guiding resource allocations to defend against intelligent antagonists should explicitly take into account the intelligent and adaptive nature of the threat. As discussed in this chapter, simple approaches to risk assessment that may work well in other contexts (such as protecting against accidents or acts of nature) can fail to correctly anticipate and quantify the risks from persistent, intelligent attackers (Golany et al., to appear). Therefore, a more effective approach is needed. It is natural to turn to game theory for ideas and