Governments are increasingly aware of the role, critical infrastructures play in supporting the overall economy and security of their nations. It is essential that countries at all stages of development, plan for and develop policies that will enable them to provide reasonable assurance of resiliency and security to support key national missions and economic stability.

Critical infrastructures are generally thought of as the key systems, services and functions whose disruption or destruction would have a debilitating impact on public health and safety, commerce, and national security or any combination of those matters. These include communications, energy, banking, transportation, public health and safety and essential government services. It is essential that countries at all stages of development plan for and develop policies that will enable them to provide reasonable assurance of resiliency and security to support key national missions and economic stability.

In May 2008, Government set up the Mauritius Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-MU) which is operated by the National Computer Board for the handling and co-ordination of information security incidents at national level. Under the National ICT Strategic Plan, CERT-MU has been entrusted with the responsibility of the elaboration of the Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Framework.

The objective of this workshop, which is targeted towards the operators of critical information infrastructure in Mauritius (see list of operators of Critical Information Infrastructure), is to discuss and agree on what would be the important ingredients of a framework for critical information infrastructure at national level and to finalise recommendations and any amendments required to the legal framework with regards to Cyber Security. The main outcome of the workshop would be a roadmap for the implementation of critical information infrastructure protection in Mauritius with key goals and actions and key owners with responsibilities identified. CERT-MU has already prepared a document on a proposed framework for critical information infrastructure protection at national level which will be used as the basis for the discussion.