Information And Information Systems From A Cyber Threat

You did an excellent job answering this week’s discussion board question. Working for a power utility as a systems specialist reasonable administration and security of the system that are their critical control systems, I can say that you accurately described what a defenses in depth set up can look like. It should have a layered security approach with security protection at each boundary along with segmentation throughout the networks. The security protections should consist of devices for both active security protections and detective security devices. This helps to ensure any cyber attacks are deterred, prevented, or detected and quickly resolved. Along with this, defense in depth strategies also required well defined and polished

Since the onset of the first packet switching event that many believe to be beginning of the internet, no other technology besides the printing press has ever transformed the ability to deliver information. Although the internet is used by a large percentage of the civilized world, few Americans realize how vital cyberspace is to our national infrastructure. Today, we are faced with even more threats although it has been a recognized problem since 2009, when President Barrack Obama said “The cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation. It’s also clear that we’re not as prepared as we should be, as a government or as a country (Obama, 2009).” Every industry that operates in the United States is dependent on the internet for some aspect of their business. Commerce, transportation, financial institutions, military, as well as industrial control systems are all interconnected. This interconnectedness has created vulnerabilities within their infrastructure that have increasingly become targets of terrorists, script kiddies, foreign governments and hackers of all types.

As a member of the power sector, DTL Power is absolutely vital to the operations of other critical infrastructure pieces. The other key pieces of critical infrastructure represented in our environment are the Federal Government, Avistel Telecom, Mistral Bank, and Hytema Defense. Electrical power is the core of the US critical infrastructure, and without the energy supplied by the power sector, none of these other infrastructure pieces will be able to continue operations after local backup energy stores are depleted. It is for this reason that DTL Power?s primary security objective is power system uptime.

The Initial phase in cyberattack is reconnaissance. In reconnaissance phase, attackers gather information about target’s vulnerabilities which can be exploited further.

Presidential Policy Directive 21 (PPD-21): Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience outlines the 16 most critical infrastructures within the United States of America. The 16 critical infrastructures are the Chemical Sector, Commercial Facilities Sector, Communications Sector, Critical Manufacturing Sector, Dams Sector, Defense Industrial Base Sector, Emergency Services Sector, Energy Sector, Financial Services Sector, Food and Agriculture Sector, Government Facilities Sector, Healthcare Sector, Information Technology Sector, Nuclear Sector, Transportation System Sector, and Water and Wastewater Sector. The research paper will briefly cover the 16 critical infrastructures within PPD-21 and then delve into the Energy Sector. The intent

Electricity is one of the most productive forces known but it can also be dangerous and detrimental to infrastructure and security of assets across the Nation if it is lost or compromised. Physical and cybersecurity could be described under the steps to ensure the homeland security role is met, however the AEP’s dependence on technology in order to succeed cannot be understated. Every year the cybersecurity realm grows and the support for securing and managing cyber seems to fall further behind. Several high profile attacks affecting financial, healthcare, retail and entertainment industries demonstrate the potential impact of the threats” (AEP 2015, 2). These events do prepare the AEP in assessing our own cybersecurity procedures and resources to determine where we may need to strengthen the defense of our company but also increases our awareness of how real the threat is (AEP 2015, 2).

PPD-21 establishes national policy on critical infrastructure security and resistance. The directive mentions 16 critical infrastructure sectors vital to the integrity of the U.S. system and their associated Federal Sector-Specific Agency (SSA). Nevertheless, PPD-21 demands a shared responsibility among the Federal, SLTT, and public and private owners and operators of critical infrastructure. Resiliency, in the context of CIP, consists of the ability to minimize the impact of a “disruptive event,” whether in “magnitude, impact, or duration” p.12. As 85% of CIKR resides under the control of the private sector, government leaders must ensure private operators and stakeholders participate in protection initiatives, which can be accomplished by

In the second half of this paper, I will be assessing the Critical Infrastructure protection programs of the United States. National Infrastructure Protection Plan as “Systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital that the incapacity or destruction of such may have a debilitating impact on the security, economy, public health or safety, environment, or any combination of these matters, across any Federal, State, regional, territorial, or local jurisdiction” (DHS 2009, 109).

A power system is always in a state of disturbance that may lead to instability in the system. The consequences of a major power supply interruption can prove to be so disastrous, that every effort must be made to reduce the impact of such a disturbance. The process of determining the steadiness of the power system following any upset is known as security assessment. In particular, MW security assessment is a process to evaluate the security of the power system following a disturbance. It is done considering the loading conditions in respect of MW power flow on the lines. Each line has a capacity to carry MW power up to transmission line design limits beyond which the lines may trip due to overloading. In this paper MW security assessment has

Currently, USSOUTHCOM has yet to specifically address energy security as a Line of Effort. In USSOUTHCOM’s posture statement, the Commander specifically addresses security from a traditional military perspective with its priorities as being Countering Transnational Organized Crime, Counterterrorism, Building Partner Capacity, Contingency Response, and Detainee Operations. With this paper, we’ll propose a change to USSOUTHCOM Theater Campaign Plan that addresses energy security within its

The main purpose of this report is to discuss the reasons involved in Critical Infrastructure for Australia and identify their vulnerabilities to prevent them from future attacks which can lead to conflict.

This is why the Department of Defense should create a plan that will keep the cyber system functioning on a backup system and not rely so much on the main power grid. That way, members of the Department of Defense can see what the most critical components to the security system are and devise a plan to protect these elements against an EMP attack. Overall, the key to success for preparing to counter the effects of an EMP attack is to place obstacles against our enemies which would result in diminishing catastrophic failures in the nation’s infrastructure. With this method, the United States would provide resilience “to ensure the U.S. electrical grid and telecommunications systems, including having a developed limited redundancy and identified means for the timely replacement of essential damaged parts or their rapid substitution” (Carafano). Another way to protect the United States against an EMP attack would be for the Navy an Air Force “to develop a test program for land and sea-based interceptors with the capability to intercept and destroy ballistic missiles carrying EMP weapons prior to

The Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) on Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience advances a national unity of effort to strengthen and maintain secure, functioning, and resilient critical infrastructure (The White House Office of the Press Secretary, February 2013). It is imperative for every nation to develop a critical infrastructure protection plan that will provide the essential services to its society. To archive this, a government must be proactive and coordinate its efforts that will reinforce and maintain secure, functioning, and

Understanding why infrastructures are deemed critical and why such determination is important to national security requires looking at the history of critical infrastructure protection. This background review will include the history of CIP and its development through the roots of the Cold War through the War on Terrorism; it will also briefly summarize the bills and directives pertaining to the federal government’s overall protection of the identified critical infrastructures until

The NRC has issued numerous Orders to operating power reactor licensees, requiring them to increase security measures and capabilities in order to protect their systems and infrastructures from insider terrorist attack, airborne and land-based assaults. In the last decades, there have been a rise in the number of security breaches as criminal organizations and state-sponsored hackers continue to use cyberspace to inflict destruction and disorder in nuclear facilities. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, the nuclear sector began addressing cybersecurity regulations. The emergence of sophisticated cyber threats was also a catalyst for the improvement of cybersecurity and the enactment of stringent security regulations. The NRC, Nuclear Regulation Commission, and the IAEA, International Atomic Energy Agency, have been taking the