"A risk assessment of the Piql Services" by FFI

It is the middle of a period of heavy rain. The river has been close to breaking point the past day and finally rises higher than its banks at the same time as tunnels, sewers and drains flood. The incident occurs early morning before business hours. The Piql personnel have been evacuated, but there was no time to start evacuating material goods. The scenario takes place while the piqlFilm is in storage in the piqlVault. The vault is placed in the basement of the Supreme Court building, a historical institutional building. Normally the vault is regulated through ventilation to uphold the ISO standards governing levels of humidity and temperature, but the heavy rainfall of the past days has presented a challenge with regards to humidity levels. All safety measures required by Piql AS are in place, see section 5.5.1 for details. As a building housing important legal and historical documents, the Supreme Court building was constructed with the highest regard for safety measures. Yet, the floods of the future proved too powerful for the aging building, and the structure is too weak to protect from the raging waters. The physical infrastructure of the building and the storage room are severely affected by the force of the flowing water, but the supporting structures of the construction still stands. The piqlVault is highly affected by the flood. Water seeps into every crack, and eventually the doors into the storage room are forced open by the force of the water streaming in. The entire piqlVault system grid is completely submerged in water, causing all electronics to fail. The raging waters strained the integrity of the grid when it first surged in, but the strength of the aluminium and the tightly stacked bins enables it to remain upright. As the piqlVault system grid remains upright, the piqlBoxes are not subjected to jolts or drops. Neither are the piqlBoxes severely damaged by the water, yet the exposure to filthy water forces the Piql personnel to replace them, as their structural integrity has been compromised and their longevity can no longer be guaranteed. More important, however, is the fact that the piqlBox is not air-tight or water-proof, which means that the filthy water will seep in and come in contact with the piqlFilm. All security measures required by Piql AS are in place.

Vault description

Local safety measures

Local security measures

Consequences

Outer building

Vault

Box

119

FFI-RAPPORT 16/00707