Ranking the attractiveness of industrial plants to external acts of interference

The concern about the possibility of malicious acts of interference involving process plants greatly increased in the last years, since the industrial sites may represent a very attractive target. The methods proposed for the evaluation of the vulnerability of a plant to external attacks generally lack of quantitative criteria, dealing mainly with security-related issues, and not affording in depth the technical aspects of the problem. The aim of the present work was the development of a method for the quantitative evaluation of the attractiveness of a plant with respect to the possible consequences of external attacks, based on the characteristics both of the industrial site and of the surroundings area. A set of indices was defined to quantify these hazard factors. The final aim of the procedure was to provide criteria and priorities for emergency planning and for protection actions.