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FLOODRISK MANAGEMENTAND CYBERSECURITY Cyber attacks can obviously lead to problems with the Internet or large-scale power outages. But what are the implications of these attacks for flood risk management? And how can weminimise the impact? This is an area that still requires extensive research. It is clear that cyber attacks are fundamentally different fromphysical threats such as storms. By drawing on years of experience with impact analyses for floods, big data and computer models, Deltares can explore the implications of a cyber attack for flood risk management. For example during an interactive CIrcle workshop. These workshops use touch tables to give all stakeholders - such as emergency services, network operators and government authorities - the opportunity to literallymap out the extent and nature of the impact of a cyber attack on critical infrastructure. A touch table also shows how different interventions can affect each other and identify the optimal combination of interventions. For more information, please contact Andreas Burzel (andreas.burzel@deltares.nl ) or Gert-Jan Schotmeijer (gertjan.schotmeijer@deltares.nl ). Deltares shows what's going on Instant devastation Water management authorities, with help frommeteo­ rologists, hydrologists and computer models, can now accurately predict the impact of a storm. And they also have enough time to respond. But a cyber attack causes instant devastation. Scale The scale of high-water events or water shortages is often relatively limited. The response will target a section of the coast or a particular river or reservoir. However, a cyber attack can turn off electricity supplies in a whole country. Everything shuts down, including pumps, pumping stations and storm barriers. Recovery time Storms or floods do not usually last a long time. But how long does a cyber attack last? How long does it take to restart an entire country after a power failure? A week, a month, a year? Nobody knows. Points of attack With physical threats like storms, the weaknesses are usually found in the primary flood defences. However, cyber attacks may target other locations. The current standards for flood defences are based on the failure of the primary flood defences. They do not include the susceptibility of dikes behind the primary flood defences to cyber attacks. At present, not enough is known about this area and research is needed. 27