Högskolan i Skövde

Critical infrastructures become more and more entangled and rely extensively on information technology. Adeeper insight into the relationships between critical infrastructures enables the actors involved to more quicklyunderstand the severity of information technology disruptions and to identify robust cross-functional mitigatingactions. This study illustrates how and why disruptions in the payment system in Sweden could create cascadingeffects in other critical infrastructures with potentially severe consequences for many citizens, governmentinstitutions and companies. Data from document studies, interviews and workshops with field experts revealseven challenges for collective cross-functional critical infrastructure resilience that need to be dealt with: 1)Shortage of food, fuel, cash, medicine; 2) Limited capacity of alternative payment solutions; 3) Cities are morevulnerable than the countryside; 4) Economically vulnerable groups in society are more severely affected; 5)Trust maintenance needs; 6) Crisis communication needs; 7) Fragmentation of responsibility for criticalinfrastructures across many actors.