297 Katarína Svitková Contemporary security from the urban standpoint: Cities in the face of risks and threats goods, people and services37”. The very nature of cities, with their numerous resources and infrastructure, offers a wide variety of “opportunities” to those involved in organised crime in its various forms and many levels of action. 3.2.4. Vulnerability of critical infrastructure and essential services38 Both strategies include a series of risks related to our dependence on energy resources and their management systems. Energy vulnerability, as well as addressing specific global and regional causes, has other important implications at the local level. “Energy system infrastructure and transport networks may be damaged by natural disasters, terrorist attacks or cyber-attacks39”. The technological sophistication that our cities are so proud of also creates dependency on resources (particularly electricity) in order for their infrastructure to work. To understand the impact that a prolonged electricity cut would have on the life of a city, it is necessary to consider all the services and installations that rely on uninterrupted provision of electrical current: urban public transport, supply, communication networks and electronic data bases, ports, airports, hospitals, or indeed the equipment necessary for the functioning of civil protection units. Cyber threats also endanger a whole variety of systems and data bases that have become necessary to our daily lives. The complexity of the risks and threats from cyberspace to citizens is so great that it is not be possible to analyse the subject in this paper. When examining security of and in cities, the main issue to be addressed is, in fact, cyber-attacks with material consequences in urbanised areas; disruption of services and networks essential for the functioning of a city and for the security within the city. 3.2.5. Uncontrolled migration Migration is an age-old phenomenon that, when managed in a sustainable and 37 National Security Strategy, 2013, p. 28. 38 The National Security Strategy lists three further threats compared to the Spanish Security Strategy: one of them is the vulnerability of critical infrastructure and essential services. This vulnerability is due to different types of dangers that are presented in both strategies. For the purposes of this paper, this section includes energy vulnerability and cyber threats (which are presented separately in both strategies) in relation to cities. 39 Spanish Security Strategy, 2011, p. 60.
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