Kiril Stoichev, Valeri Panevski, Dimitar Dimitrov

Probably we all are convinced that the main threat to the critical infrastructure is the terrorist wave that drowns in its arrogance and ruthlessness entire continents, including Europe. Such a scale, such a wide comprehensiveness of activities and a multitude of terrorist organizations, whose activities terrorized hundreds of millions of people on Earth, the mankind has not known since the beginning of its existence. There are numerous examples in this direction and we should not ignore and lightly neglect the biggest “plagues” in this area, the activities of the deadliest terrorist organizations ever existed on our planet.

In the beginning of the 21-st Century in the company of our attention is positioned Al – Qaeda, which carried out a daring attack on civilians in the United States. Long around it had popped up and joined, a number of other independent terrorist organizations, united by their hatred of all those who do not profess their “ideology”.

But in this moment Al – Qaeda looks like “little child” to such terrorist “giants” like Boko Haram or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), which do not limit their activities only to countries and regions, in which their followers live, but also conduct numerous terrorist attacks worldwide.

And this is only the beginning of the horror that they apply everywhere and against everyone who does not agree with their way of thinking and acting. Nobody is able to predict, but there is great likelyhood after the defeat of these terrorist organizations by the combined forces of the democratic community, their representatives and followers to slide as infection around the world and cause irreparable damage to national economies and citizens of countries they will pour all their malice and hatred caused by the defeat, which will inevitably overtake them. In this situation, the forms and methods of carrying out terrorist acts on their part and objectives, to which they would focus their aggression will be extremely diverse and wide-ranging. And nobody should be fooled that they will be passed by the horrors of terror. We must be convinced that the efforts of the terrorists will be targeted at the most vulnerable sites in our countries, breach or termination of whose activities may result in significant, in some cases appalling losses of life and/or material values. Big part of these objects are and will be part of the critical infrastructure of the individual countries. How we can most appropriately protect them and can we answer the question how reliable are the measures we have taken to ensure their safety, are some of the most important issues of our daily lives, to which the correct answer yet no one submitted.

Part of the answer to this question may give consideration to the fact, that there are two main directions in Policy, related to strengthening and development of anti-terrorist activities: fighting the source of the threat – S strategy; and the protection of individuals and infrastructure – L strategy.

Fighting with the prime source is a function of intelligence bodies, as the basis of their work is the fight against “insecurity” – where, when and how will be carried out a terrorist attack.

The protection of the individual and public infrastructure is a product and as such is a function of the state authorities at all levels.

The degree of uncertainty and the need to protect, significantly affect the economic and psychological costs and lead to painful changes in the established norms of behavior and lifestyle.

To make it possible to achieve sustainable and effective results to address the threats of terrorist attacks, efforts need to be streamlined and focused on solving problems in key locations. Their identification can be done in many ways, but one of the most reliable is the analysis and assessment of the vulnerability of the relevant critical infrastructure.

Considering that granted, the authors have presented in a logical sequence characteristics of critical infrastructures, the main criteria for their assessment, one of which is the vulnerability, and are systematized basic requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency concerning the vulnerability of nuclear power plants. Adding to the fact that the collection includes practical examples of analysis and assessment of the vulnerability of nuclear facilities and Action Plan for elimination of the vulnerabilities with a sufficient degree of confidence we can consider that this collection can successfully be used by students who are educated in the field of security and protection, and specifically for those who wish to grow in the the area of nuclear security.