What Is Critical Infrastructure

Critical. Without a doubt. We are talking security breaches, software vulnerabilities and Wan security issues.

A critical infrastructure is defined as any facility, system, or function which provides the foundation for national security, governance, economic vitality, reputation, and way of life. (http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/NIPP_InfoSharing.pdf)In short, critical infrastructure is by definition essential for the survival of the nation. The USA PATRIOT Act specifically defines critical infrastructure as "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, (Jena Baker McNeill and Richard Weitz, 2010) so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating

How do you truly choose between two things that are critical in being prepared for a terrorist attack? As you point out there might be a time because of funding where tough choices will need to be made. As the United States move further away from 9/11, the government and the tax-payer may feel that to much money is being spend on a terrorist attack responses when we have not seen a large scale attack like 9/11 in 15 years. The only other attack that should come to mind is the Boston Marathon bombing, where first responders were critical in responding to several hundred injuries. Funding is under a microscope as the federal debt increases and federal spending increases.

It is essential to understand America’s critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) and National Infrastructure Protection Program (NIPP) to ensure survivability of its critical assets, while maintaining security for America. “The plans are carried out in practice by an integrated network of Federal departments and agencies, State and local government agencies, private sector entities, and a growing number of regional consortia (DHS, 2009, p. I).” Several agencies work together to mitigate attacks on CIKR to protect public safety and security of the nation. A terrorist may stop at nothing to carry out an attack on CIKR. If an attack or natural disaster does transpire, each agency working together to restore the damage must be timely. Additionally, NIPP helps to identify hazards associated with the various sectors, and provides necessary security measures to harden resources (DHS,

Enrich partnership among Protective Security Advisors, all levels of government, and the private sector to protect critical infrastructure

United States’ national infrastructure are resources that are vital to keep commerce operating. Technology have allowed the governments and the private sector to share vital information with them. The nation well-being depend on each of the critical infrastructures, the big question is on how to maintain all of our infrastructure sectors operative without any problem. There a big wave of threats to our nation and if one of this threads go through, it can created a multidimensional problem to the infrastructure system of the country. The main concerns that exist in protecting the U.S. against any attacks to any U.S. infrastructure and in the same time on how to have a system that work well with other agencies. For example; is important to

Below we outline the core elements of such a successful national strategy for infrastructure resilience.

As we move into a new era were a more robust and urgent homeland security program is needed, it is important to talk about how officials are managing all of the risk. There are a multitude of threats; from terrorism, where tactics are all the more unconventional an unpredictable, to climate change, with extreme weather conditions causing severe droughts or other catastrophic storms. The risk accepted by federal officials must be weighed and prioritized in a manner that is conducive to the longevity of the nation but also eliminates political or other personal agenda. To ensure a standardized approach the Department of Homeland Security adopted a risk management. The following will look at defining what risk management is as well as an example of how it is being incorporated within the homeland security enterprise and how doing so is of benefit.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has stated that it will apply risk management principles to homeland security operations and has stated “Ultimately, homeland security is about effectively managing risks to the Nation’s security” (DHS 2010, pg. 2). This is much easier said than done. There are many difficulties that must be sorted out. As with anything and everything, money comes into play, conflicts between national and local priorities, and societies opinion.

Also, the homeland is safeguarded against acts of terrorism, manmade or natural disasters, and focused on actions to protect the citizens, residents, visitors, critical assets, systems, and networks against the Nation’s greatest risks, by enhancing Protection through cooperation and collaboration with all sectors of society to create conditions for a safer, more secure, and more resilient Nation. Furthermore, the Protection capabilities are achieved through specific, but are not limited to, critical infrastructure protection, cybersecurity, border security, immigration security, protection of key leadership and events, maritime security, transportation security, defense of agriculture and food, defense against weapons of mass destruction threats, and health security (National Preparedness…, 2011). Due to the fact that the private sector owns approximately 85 percent of the nation’s critical infrastructure (banking and financial institutions, telecommunications networks, energy production,and transmission facilities) there is greater emphasis now on public and private sectors forming effective partnerships for protection. A series of Information Sharing and Analysis Centers is one new feature of infrastructure protection, which are public-private partnerships designed to provide members of

Homeland security can be seen as a loosely based term as it is still a relatively new area of the United States strategy. Since its creation, post September 11, 2001, there has been a plethora of additions and revisions. The homeland mission lies not only within a specific agency, but demands collected participation from U.S. agencies and foreign entities to remain strong, efficient and innovative. One can examine homeland security as having the responsibility of maintaining and protecting the United States by keeping focus within the U.S. while homeland defense is responsible for maintaining the U.S. by keeping focus outside the U.S. Homeland security and homeland defense are different, but both can assist each other in certain aspects. The following paragraphs will compose of accurate definitions regarding homeland security, homeland defense and in end will discuss an in depth summary of the critical infrastructure program. These mentioned areas each have a requirement to be treated as specific in nature in order to not sacrifice their specific definition.

The private sector plays a vital role in carrying out the objectives within all 16 sector specific plans. The Emergency Services Sector includes but is not limited to first responding services such as; public work, fire, medical or police services. The goals and objectives of ESS specific plans are to provide first responder services as one of their main missions is the prevention to life. This sector is extremely important as they are the first responders to any type of incident that may even be impacted to other sectors. The National Infrastructure Protection Plan for this sector describes the tasks, duties and responsibilities that the private sector has in order to effectively and successfully operate this types of critical infrastructures. Just like any other sector, this sector requires the private sector to have a good relationship with state, local, tribal, territorial governments, Federal Government and outside organizations as well. Threats, risks, and vulnerabilities are acknowledged and analyzed in every respective infrastructure as they are all different. All factors are then prioritized in order to prevent the best security and mitigate the possible consequences. Public and private sectors must have the ability to continue their businesses and operations after an event has occurred. When an incident of event occur, operating plans must be created and established in order to prevent stoppages or deterrence to the operations. This helps reduce the

Nearly every community has some sort of community risk, threat, and assessment plan that takes into account one of the six potential risks that are of concern to homeland security. Though each of these plans will likely differ from one another, many communities will have the same types of information in their plans. This essay will look at the Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment Guide (THIRA), the Community Risk Reduction Planning Guide, as well as FEMA’s National Preparedness plan. Any combination of these guides are a good starting point for every community in America. At top of every communities list as well as the nation is the protection of the critical infrastructure. Loss of infrastructure regardless of how big or small the community is could have very crippling effects on that community.

The vulnerabilities when it comes to natural disasters, can be caused from severe weather like storms, droughts, and extreme hot weather. Can also be caused by severe fires. There are areas that have tree limbs overhanging power lines which can cause the powerlines to come down if there is a severe storm that would end up causing these trees to fall on the lines. With inadequate tree trimming this could cause a problem with any kind of weather, with not cutting back tress it makes powerlines more vulnerable with high winds and snow fall from these storms. With these power outages, due to a storm because the trees have not been cut back can cause a blackout and make it vulnerable for a terrorist attack. There is a debate over how serious it can be for terrorists to pose a threat on the U.S. when there is a power outage. Some of the technical failures can come from large accidental outages caused by cascading failures in one of the high voltage transmission systems. The main thing that is focused on with power problems is the transmission and distribution system, substations, and the other associated parts. Human error can also be a problem when it comes to power outages, not doing security checks or system analysis check and finding problems with these systems can also cause power outages. We need electricity so our power system is a potential target for terrorist, even though our electric systems are only one of the targets that terrorist may think of striking but is not

The distinction between homeland security and homeland defense is pivotal in gaining a better understanding of how these agencies work and how they correlate to our nations infrastructure. We must understand the designated missions set forth for both these agencies while learning how they meet the tasks appointed to them and resources utilized to accomplish the mission. Learning the fundamentals of our nations infrastructure information must be provided to showcase how these agencies utilize the appropriate resources to guarantee the security of these critical infrastructures. Offering an opinion in the definition of homeland security and how resources are being utilized to fix vulnerabilities is vital to showcase what is being distributed and learned on a researchers and readers level. Homeland security and homeland defense play a pivotal role in ensuring our borders are protected.