Knowledge Graphs and Critical Infrastructures: Friends or Foes?

Abstract

Knowledge Graphs (KGs) are a natural evolution of data models representing and connecting data in a network of nodes and relations. Their application has already shown multiple benefits due to them being a flexible technology. They have a higher predisposition for interconnectedness, adaptation for data growth, and improved reasoning among other benefits. Critical Infrastructures provide goods and services considered essential to support modern societies. Their r esilience, security, and continuous operation have become a stable concern of multiple international organisms. Given this, there is an overlap in the application of KGs to the domain of Critical Infrastructures. The former can be leveraged for gaining greater visibility, enhanced operational intelligence, and more proactive approaches to maintenance, security, and optimization, thus ensuring reliability of such important systems. Nonetheless, the current landscape on what role KGs play within the domain is unclear. With this in mind, we perform a systematic search for KGs that focus on Critical Infrastructures, as defined by the European Union. This way, we analyze how KGs are applied to different critical infrastructure domains. Additionally, an in-depth discussion of the results is provided to understand how KGs are intertwined with Critical Infrastructures data, processes, and architecture. We conclude the paper with potential recommendations to improve their resilience through further KG integration.