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Security of the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure
Many of the elements of the nation’s critical infrastructure are highly vulnerable to attacks due to remoteness (such as in the case of dams or water treatment facilities), size (such as in the case of water reservoirs) or other attributes of the facilities that can be exploited by terrorists. Because even minor disruptions in the nation’s critical infrastructure can have severe consequences for Americans, identifying these vulnerabilities and taking steps to prevent terrorist acts represents a timely and valuable enterprise. To this end, the purpose of this paper is to provide an explanation concerning how water facilities and other utilities can be targets of terrorist acts together with specific examples and supporting rationale and followed by a summary of the research and key findings concerning these issues in the conclusion.
The overwhelming majority of Americans take clean, fresh water, abundant cheap gasoline and unlimited supplies of electricity for granted. When these services are damaged by natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes or floods, people learn very quickly just how fragile the nation’s critical infrastructure is to short-term disruptions. More troubling still, though, is the potential for terrorist acts to cause...
For example, a former North Atlantic Treaty Organization supreme allied commander and retired U.S. Army Navy admiral, James Stavridis, cautions that an even a modest electromagnetic pulse (EMP) would have truly severe implications for the nation’s critical infrastructure, most especially its water treatment and electric grid. In this regard, according to Stavridis, the first of the three waves of EMPs are especially damaging to water treatment facilities while the final wave is most destructive to the nation’s electric grid and could even “deprive large parts of the country of electricity for weeks, months, or even a year or two” (as cited in Brimelow 4). The consequences of this type or comparable attack on the nation’s critical infrastructure are enormous and it could require as long as a year or even two before electricity was restored to the majority of Americans, as well as a nationwide famine that would result from the loss of agricultural crops and as much as 90% of the population could die as a result (Brimelow 5).
Although the fundamental responsibility for identifying threats to the nation’s critical infrastructure rests with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security pursuant to its mission to (a)…
Works Cited
Brimelow, Ben. “A retired US Navy admiral just laid out a major threat from North Korea — and experts warn it could wipe out 90% of the population.” Business Insider (2018, April 26). Online: http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-emp-attack-us-danger-2018-4.
Caudle, Sharon. “Homeland Security: Advancing the National Strategic Position.” Homeland Security Affairs, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 37-39.
“How you can get involved.” U.S. Department of Home Security (2018). Online: https://www. dhs.gov/cisr-month.
“Prevent Terrorism and Enhance Security.” U.S. Department of Homeland Security (2018). Retrieved from https://www.dhs.gov/prevent-terrorism-and-enhance-security.
Infrastructure is effectively what makes a nation run. It encompasses the people, places, and things necessary to deliver critical services and goods. The US Department of Homeland Security often abbreviates critical infrastructure as CIKR (Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources) and defines CIKR as consisting of, “the assets of the United States essential to the nation's security, public health and safety, economic vitality, and way of life,” including “power grids and
Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources NIPP (National Infrastructure Protection Plan) offers the necessary structure for coordination, synchronization and integration of activities originating from different pertinent statutes, presidential directives and national strategies for the creation of a combined countrywide approach for the implementation of the protection mission of CIKR (Moteff & Parfomak, 2004). The continuity and protection of CIKR is fundamental for national security, safety, vitality, lifestyle and public health. Critical infrastructure
Synopsis Because the majority of critical infrastructure components in the United States are privately owned, compliance with Department of Homeland Security risk assessment methods remains voluntary. Risk assessments of critical infrastructure focus on threat, vulnerability, and consequences, with all types of assessments integral to helping improve resilience and mitigate problems (GAO, 2017). A vulnerability analysis of the nation’s information technology critical infrastructure reveals several points of weakness and security gaps. The
NIPP (National Infrastructure Protection Plan) The NIPP was drafted in the year 2006 by the DHS (Department of Homeland Security). The Plan was part of Presidential Directive 7 for Homeland Security and it was developed to boost security, and resilience and to help secure critical infrastructures from security threats. The plan included a thorough risk management guideline and defined the roles and responsibilities of the DHS with regards to CIP (Critical
S. To cope with any disaster or unforeseeable eventual attack on the critical infrastructure, to avoid the 9/11 mayhem and lack of organization. Respond; where disaster responsiveness and action at the time of the attack and shortly after is looked into, there is a well laid out proposed plan of how to handle any uneventful eventuality on any of the critical 'node' of the U.S. infrastructure. Lastly recover; which lays out
They include the use of stealthy tactics, tools and techniques in order to avoid detection by antimalware software. The second goal is to create a backdoor that allows the attackers to gain greater access to the compromised software especially if other access points are discovered or patched. The third goal is to initiate the primary mission of the attackers which may be to steal sensitive information, monitor communications or