Critical infrastructure - what is it, and what are the implications?

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the concept of critical infrastructure and the various interpretations and aspects of the term in order to better understand the potential implications of such interpretations. There is no common understanding of what critical infrastructure is and what infrastructures we are talking about when using the term critical infrastructure. Some would say that we are missing a clear definition of what critical infrastructure is. However, the question is whether we will ever have such a definition that everyone agrees to, as the concept is used with different purposes. What we can determine is how the concept is used and what the purposes and potential implications are.