Critical Infrastructure Protection

DHS has a specific purpose, and mission. The vision of homeland security is to ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards. Three key concepts form the foundation of our national homeland security strategy designed to achieve this vision: Security, Resilience, and Customs and Exchange.

Since its inception the DHS has gone through a shift in terms of overall concepts and missions. Something had to be done to ensure the safety of American people and protecting the U.S. homeland against future terrorist attacks. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was enacted shortly after the September 11th 2001 attacks and the creation of DHS was one of the most significant changes made by the U.S. government with a clear mission of protecting our homeland.

The Department of Homeland Security, also known as the DHS, is an orginization that is set in place to protect and secure the United States from the many threats, inside and outside of the country, that compromise the safety of our nation. With over two hundred and forty thousand employees, the Department of Homeland Security works in many different areas of the nation to keep the people safe and secure. They are largely focused on prepping for terrorist attacks and everything that would come with an attack on our nation. This focus on terrorism has caused considerable controversy and criticism, including many accusations of violating civil rights with this orginization.

It is the responsibility of the Government to provide security to its people. The Department of Homeland Security “DHS” was formed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Before the attacks, independent agencies handled homeland security. The DHS was formed to have most of these agencies work together under one management to secure America.

After the terror attacks against New York City took place, the Bush administration created the Homeland Security Act of 2002 and with it the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2006). According to the DHS the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century defines homeland security as, “the protection of the territory, critical infrastructures, and citizens of the United States by Federal, State, and local government entities from the threat or use of chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, cyber, or conventional weapons by military or other means.” (2006, pg. 24). The five current primary missions of the DHS are preventing terrorism, securing borders, enforcing and administering immigration laws, securing cyberspace, and

DHS’s mission roles and issues are continuously confronted with the leadership of the enterprise, implementation and integration of management functions as well as the strategic risk management of homeland security efforts. These attributes have added to

An executive order issued by President George W. Bush on October 16, 2001 established the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. The Board was created with the goals of coordinating “cooperation with and protection of private sector critical infrastructure, state and local governments critical infrastructure, and supporting programs in corporate and academic organization; protection of federal departments and agencies critical infrastructure; and related national security programs” (The White House).

Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) Number 63 was signed by President Clinton in 1998 establishing the Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP). 1997’s exercise performed by the National Security Agency (NSA) revealed significant vulnerabilities among 36 of the government’s 40,000 networks. The weakness and potential harm to the national security was obvious. In 1997, CIP initiative issued its initial report “calling for a national effort to assure the security of the United States’ increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures” (Merkow, 2006). In the year of 2001 the world nations realized the strengthening power and opposing threat from the leading terrorist organizations. In the United States the events of September 11 had changed the society forever. The citizens were left felt vulnerable to the attacks and demanded a response from the federal government. The response came in the number of organizational and legislative measures to increase safety of the nation and its citizens. Among all the safety of the nation’s information infrastructure was identified by President George W. Bush among the top priorities to protect the citizens.

The term Critical Infrastructure did not come into use until the mid-1990’s. Since the 1970’s there have been 2,723 terrorist attacks that have taken place in the United States, causing a total of 3,570 deaths. About seventy-five (75) percent of those attacks targeted critical infrastructures. Critical Infrastructures (CI) and systems constitute high-value targets (Forest & Howard, 2013). Executive order EO 13010 Critical Infrastructure Protection was issued by president Bill Clinton on July 15th, 1996. This executive order addressed the concerns

The primary documents explaining the underlying purpose, that explicated the concept of DHS, identified essential DHS missions, and established the priorities for coordinating the protection of critical domestic and foreign organizational frameworks. The new department was tasked with five main points of responsibility. These areas of responsibility reflect the underlying missions of the former emergency response and security agencies that were subsumed under the authority of DHS the five areas of responsibility were as follows: guarding against terroristic threats, securing our borders in the United States, enforcing our immigration in America, improving the readiness for a disaster, response to a disaster, recovery from disaster.

The department of homeland security has one vital mission to the Americans which is to secure the nation from the many threats we face. This department has more than 240,000 employees that serve. The different jobs this department has to offer ranges from cyber security analyst to chemical facility inspector, from aviation and border security to emergency response. They have many other missions that fit into the most vital one like managing the borders, ensuring disaster resilience, administering immigration, securing cyberspace and enhancing security and preventing terrorism. The department formed after 9/11 opening its doors March 1, 2003. It formally came in as a stand alone, cabinet level department to bring together and spread out national

CII stands for Critical Infrastructure Information. It is: " ...type of designation of data or information that is representative of a critical infrastructure, or its sector, and is considered sensitive in nature but remains unclassified ..." (Radvanovsky & McDougall, 2013, p. 207). In other words, information provided is highly important in the protection of the critical infrastructure.

Let’s cover quickly what the DHS mission is: To prevent terrorism and enhance security; managing of U.S. borders; administering immigration laws; cyberspace security and enforcement; and, ensuring disaster resilience.

Disasters, whether natural or manmade, can happen anytime and anywhere, without warning. An earthquake, hurricane, tornado, fire, or hazardous material spill or even an act of terrorism can happen

The first Advanced Persistent Threat Group (APT) I will discuss is APT28. APT28 is also known by the names: “Fancy Bear, Pawn Storm, Sofacy Group and Sednit”. APT28 has been active since 2007 and targets political figures, government institutions, telecommunications and e-crime services with a concentration on European and Asian aerospace companies.