Quantitative Vulnerability Assessment of Critical Infrastructures: watching for hidden faults

A method to diagnose the current vulnerability of a complex system featuring large numbers of components and indicators, as well as to dynamically monitor the time-evolvement of the vulnerability as the indicators change, is demonstrated. A consequent algorithm and its software implementation are introduced. Providing an index-based vulnerability metrics a matrix to assess vulnerability acceptability in terms of structural vs. governance deficiencies, the method is generic and is believed to have the capability of accommodating a considerable variety of applications.