Critical Infrastructure Protection - Overview

Overview

The systems and networks that make up the infrastructure of society are often taken for granted, yet a disruption to just one of those systems can have dire consequences across other sectors.

Take, for example, a computer virus that disrupts the distribution of natural gas across a region. This could lead to a consequential reduction in electrical power generation, which in turn leads to the forced shutdown of computerized controls and communications. Road traffic, air traffic, and rail transportation might then become affected. Emergency services might also be hampered.

An entire region can become debilitated because some critical elements in the infrastructure become disabled through natural disaster. While potentially in contravention of the Geneva Conventions, military forces have also recognized that it can cripple an enemy's ability to resist by attacking key elements of its civilian and military infrastructure.

The federal government has developed a standardized description of critical infrastructure, in order to facilitate monitoring and preparation for disabling events. The government requires private industry in each critical economic sector to:

• Assess its vulnerabilities to both physical or cyber attacks,
• Plan to eliminate significant vulnerabilities;
• Develop systems to identify and prevent attempted attacks;
• Alert, contain and rebuff attacks and then, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to rebuild essential capabilities in the aftermath.