Threat Warning for America's Critical Infrastructures

Threat Warning for America's Critical Infrastructures
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 16
Release: 2000
Genre:
ISBN:

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The President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, Critical Foundations, was a report of a multi-agency effort to "study the critical infrastructures that constitute the life support systems of (the United States), determine their vulnerabilities, and propose a strategy for protecting them in the future".2 Spurred by this report, the President signed Presidential Decision Directive 63 which built upon the PCCIP's recommendations. In signing PDD-63, the President's intent was for the United States to "take all necessary measures to swiftly eliminate any significant vulnerability to both physical and cyber attacks on our critical infrastructures, including especially our cyber systems".3 One of the goals of PDD-63 was to create a national center to warn of significant infrastructure attacks, to include the detection and analysis of such attacks, with maximum participation from the private sector. This task fell to the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) to provide threat assessment, warning, vulnerability assessment, and law enforcement investigation and response.4 Now, nearly two years hence, these encompassing tasks are largely going undone while the NIPC focuses nearly all its resources on law enforcement investigation and response, with only minor Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) coordination. It is the purpose of this paper to show that national cyber threat warning measuresare important for protecting critical infrastructures. Further, this paper asserts that tactical and strategic cyber threat warning is inadequate and needs to be reassessed vis- -vis the role of the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, and the Justice Department.

Critical Foundations

Critical Foundations
Author: United States. President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection
Publisher: Commission
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1997
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN:

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"In summary, all of us need to recognize that the cyber revolution brings us into a new age as surely as the industrial revolution did two centuries ago. Now, as then, our continued security requires a reordering of national priorities and new understanding about our respective roles in support of the national goals. The relationships that have stood us in such good stead through the end of the second millennium must give way to new ones better suited to the third."--Page xi.

Protecting America's Critical Infrastructure

Protecting America's Critical Infrastructure
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
Publisher:
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2001
Genre: Computers
ISBN:

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Critical Infrastructure Protection

Critical Infrastructure Protection
Author: U S Government Accountability Office (G
Publisher: BiblioGov
Total Pages: 50
Release: 2013-06
Genre:
ISBN: 9781289016364

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On June 18, the President transmitted draft legislation to Congress for the creation of a Department of Homeland Security to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage and recovery from attacks that do occur. As proposed, functions of the Homeland Security Department's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Division would include (1) receiving and analyzing law enforcement information, intelligence, and other information to detect and identify potential threats; (2) assessing the vulnerabilities of the key resources and critical infrastructures; (3) developing a comprehensive national plan for securing these resources and infrastructures; and (4) taking necessary measures to protect these resources and infrastructures, in coordination with other executive agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector. To create this division, six federal organizations that currently play a pivotal role in the protection of national critical infrastructures would be transferred to the new department. Potential benefits for this division include more efficient, effective, and coordinated programs; better control of funding through a single appropriation for the new department and through establishing budget priorities for transferred functions based on their homeland security mission; and the consolidation of points of contact for federal agencies, state and local government, and the private sector in coordinating activities to protect the homeland. Finally, the new department will also face challenges, such as developing a national critical infrastructure protection strategy, improving analytical and warning capabilities, improving information sharing on threats and vulnerabilities, and addressing pervasive weaknesses in federal information security.

Critical Foundations

Critical Foundations
Author: Robert T. Marsh
Publisher:
Total Pages: 176
Release: 2005-05-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9780756747565

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The Commission spent 15 months evaluating America's critical infrastructures, assessing their vulnerabilities, & deliberating assurance alternatives. The nation is so dependent on our infrastructures that we must view them through a nat. security lens -- they are essential to the nation's security, econ. health, & social well being. There is a very real & growing cyber dimension assoc. with infrastructure assurance. Contents: (I) The Case for Action: Acting Now to Protect the Future; The New Geography; New Vulnerabilities, Shared Threats, Shared Responsibility; (II) A Strategy for Action; Onward: Initial recommend. toward preparing our critical infrastructure -- & our gov't.--to deal with our nation's cultural change. Appendices: Sector Summary Reports.

Critical Infrastructure Protection

Critical Infrastructure Protection
Author: U.s. Government Accountability Office
Publisher:
Total Pages: 38
Release: 2017-08-13
Genre:
ISBN: 9781974446940

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Pervasive and sustained computer-based attacks pose a potentially devastating impact to systems and operations and the critical infrastructures they support. Addressing these threats depends on effective partnerships between the government and private sector owners and operators of critical infrastructure. Federal policy, including the Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) National Infrastructure Protection Plan, calls for a partnership model that includes public and private councils to coordinate policy and information sharing and analysis centers to gather and disseminate information on threats to physical and cyber-related infrastructure. GAO was asked to determine (1) private sector stakeholders expectations for cyber-related, public-private partnerships and to what extent these expectations are being met and (2) public sector stakeholders expectations for cyber-related, public-private partnerships and to what extent these expectations are being met. To do this, GAO conducted surveys and interviews of public and private sector officials and analyzed relevant policies and other documents.Private sector stakeholders reported that they expect their federal partners to provide usable, timely, and actionable cyber threat information and alerts; access to sensitive or classified information; a secure mechanism for sharing information; security clearances; and a single centralized government cybersecurity organization to coordinate government efforts. However, according to private sector stakeholders, federal partners are not consistently meeting these expectations. For example, less than one-third of private sector respondents reported that they were receiving actionable cyber threat information and alerts to a great or moderate extent. (See table below.) Federal partners are taking steps that may address the key expectations of the private sector, including developing new information-sharing arrangements. However, while the ongoing efforts may address the public sectors ability to meet the private sectors expectations, much work remains to fully implement improved information sharing.Private Sector Expected Services and the Extent to Which They Are MetServicesGreatly or moderately expectedGreatly or moderately receivedTimely and actionable cyber threat information98%27%Timely and actionable cyber alerts96%27%Access to actionable classified or sensitive information (such as intelligence and law enforcement information)87%16%A secure information-sharing mechanism78%21%Source: GAO analysis based on survey data of 56 private sector respondents.Public sector stakeholders reported that they expect the private sector to provide a commitment to execute plans and recommendations, timely and actionable cyber threat information and alerts, and appropriate staff and resources. Four of the five public sector councils that GAO held structured interviews with reported that their respective private sector partners are committed to executing plans and recommendations and providing timely and actionable information. However, public sector council officials stated that improvements could be made to the partnership, including improving private sector sharing of sensitive information. Some private sector stakeholders do not want to share their proprietary information with the federal government for fear of public disclosure and potential loss of market share, among other reasons.Without improvements in meeting private and public sector expectations, the partnerships will remain less than optimal, and there is a risk that owners of critical infrastructure will not have the information necessary to thwart cyber attacks that could have catastrophic effects on our nations cyber-reliant critical infrastructure.

Homeland Security Advisory System

Homeland Security Advisory System
Author: United States. Congress. House. Committee on Government Reform. Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations
Publisher:
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2004
Genre: Civil defense warning systems
ISBN:

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Assessing Vulnerabilities, Risks, and Consequences of Damage to Critical Infrastructure

Assessing Vulnerabilities, Risks, and Consequences of Damage to Critical Infrastructure
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 7
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

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Since the publication of 'Critical Foundations: Protecting America's Infrastructure, ' there has been a keen understanding of the complexity, interdependencies, and shared responsibility required to protect the nation's most critical assets that are essential to our way of life. The original 5 sectors defined in 1997 have grown to 18 Critical Infrastructures and Key Resources (CIKR), which are discussed in the 2009 National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and its supporting sector-specific plans. The NIPP provides the structure for a national program dedicated to enhanced protection and resiliency of the nation's infrastructure. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) provides in-depth, multi-disciplinary assessments of threat, vulnerability, and consequence across all 18 sectors at scales ranging from specific facilities to infrastructures spanning multi-state regions, such as the Oil and Natural Gas (ONG) sector. Like many of the CIKR sectors, the ONG sector is comprised of production, processing, distribution, and storage of highly valuable and potentially dangerous commodities. Furthermore, there are significant interdependencies with other sectors, including transportation, communication, finance, and government. Understanding the potentially devastating consequences and collateral damage resulting from a terrorist attack or natural event is an important element of LLNL's infrastructure security programs. Our work began in the energy sector in the late 1990s and quickly expanded other critical infrastructure sectors. We have performed over 600 physical assessments with a particular emphasis on those sectors that utilize, store, or ship potentially hazardous materials and for whom cyber security is important. The success of our approach is based on building awareness of vulnerabilities and risks and working directly with industry partners to collectively advance infrastructure protection. This approach consists of three phases: The Pre-Assessment Phase brings together infrastructure owners and operators to identify critical assets and help the team create a structured information request. During this phase, we gain information about the critical assets from those who are most familiar with operations and interdependencies, making the time we spend on the ground conducting the assessment much more productive and enabling the team to make actionable recommendations. The Assessment Phase analyzes 10 areas: Threat environment, cyber architecture, cyber penetration, physical security, physical penetration, operations security, policies and procedures, interdependencies, consequence analysis, and risk characterization. Each of these individual tasks uses direct and indirect data collection, site inspections, and structured and facilitated workshops to gather data. Because of the importance of understanding the cyber threat, LLNL has built both fixed and mobile cyber penetration, wireless penetration and supporting tools that can be tailored to fit customer needs. The Post-Assessment Phase brings vulnerability and risk assessments to the customer in a format that facilitates implementation of mitigation options. Often the assessment findings and recommendations are briefed and discussed with several levels of management and, if appropriate, across jurisdictional boundaries. The end result is enhanced awareness and informed protective measures. Over the last 15 years, we have continued to refine our methodology and capture lessons learned and best practices. The resulting risk and decision framework thus takes into consideration real-world constraints, including regulatory, operational, and economic realities. In addition to 'on the ground' assessments focused on mitigating vulnerabilities, we have integrated our computational and atmospheric dispersion capability with easy-to-use geo-referenced visualization tools to support emergency planning and response operations. LLNL is home to the National Atmospheric Release Advisory Center (NARAC) and the Interagency Modeling and Atmospheric Assessment Center (IMAAC). NARAC/IMAAC has capabilities to respond to toxic industrial chemical spills, nuclear-power plant accidents, fires, chemical/biological agents, radiological/nuclear devices (RDDs, INDs), and other airborne hazards. Our web-based systems provide hazards assessments of critical infrastructure for defensive planning and can provide infrastructure operators and emergency responders with a baseline for planning and exercises. LLNL's infrastructure security web mapping services facilitate dissemination of technical information for all phases of disaster management. Examples of some of these products are shown in the Figure 1.