Business & Policy
Critical infrastructure
Critical-infrastructure systems combine long service lives, demanding availability, mixed-trust components and constrained maintenance.
Why it matters
The value is resilience: preventing some invalid accesses, making faults visible and limiting propagation can complement network segmentation, secure development and operational safeguards.
In brief
Critical-infrastructure systems combine long service lives, demanding availability, mixed-trust components and constrained maintenance. Hardware-enforced memory safety and compartmentalisation can be relevant where a fault or compromised component must not gain authority over a wider control system.
Key considerations
1. Consequence
Prioritise functions whose loss, corruption or unauthorised control could affect safety, essential services or recovery.
2. Lifecycle
Model hardware replacement cycles, certification, remote sites, supplier support and the ability to update software over decades.
3. Boundary
Identify where CHERI can enforce least authority within a device and how that boundary interacts with wider system and network controls.
Evidence and caveats
CHERI is not a replacement for safety engineering, secure protocols, identity, supply-chain controls, monitoring or incident response.
Show assumptions, ranges, dates and owners for economic or policy claims. Recheck legislation, guidance, product status and prices at the decision date.