ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

Critical InfrastructureDEA (Drug Enforcement Administration)FBI (United States Federal Bureau of Investigation)Critical InfrastructureCritical infrastructure is a general term for physical andcomputer-based systems essential to the functions of thegovernment and economy. Among these are telecommunications,energy, banking and finance, transportation,water systems, and emergency services. The expressioncritical infrastructure entered the language of policymakersin the mid-1990s, as it became increasingly apparent thatthe United States depended on a network of systems thatcollectively constituted its physical engine, and that thesesystems were potentially as vulnerable as they werevaluable.Components of critical infrastructure. Included under theheading of critical infrastructure are highways, airportsand aircraft, trains and railways, bus lines, shipping andboat lines, transport, trucking systems, and supply networksfor basic goods, electric power plants and lines,along with oil and gas lines and utilities of all kinds,including water and sewer systems, land and cell phonesystems, computer networks, television, and radio (notonly that which is publicly accessible, but that controlledby private or government entities in special networks oron special frequencies), banks and other financial institutions,and security, fire, hospital, and emergency services.Each element of critical infrastructure is so vital that ifit were removed from the equation, even temporarily, theentire nation would experience monumental repercussions.Even when the infrastructure of a particular area isthreatened, the results can be disastrous. To this day,people alive at the time remember the northeastern electricalblackout of 1965, or the New York City blackout of1977. Today, the critical systems that run the engine ofAmerica are far more interlinked than they were even inthe 1970s, and this interdependence carries with it newvulnerabilities.Responding to the challenge. Recognition of thesevulnerabilities led to the creation of the President’s Commissionon Critical Infrastructure Protection and the CriticalInfrastructure Assurance Office, as well as the integrationof critical infrastructure elements of disparate departmentsand agencies at the federal level. It has also led tothe creation of critical infrastructure protection offices bystate and local governments, and by the U.S. privatesector. In other parts of the industrialized world, such asCanada, concerns over critical infrastructure have led tothe establishment of new departments and offices.Protection of critical infrastructure in the United Statesbecame even more of an issue after the September 11,2001, terrorist attacks. Though some of the measurestaken have invoked the ire of civil libertarians who decrythe loss of information access, and limitations on movement,faced by ordinary citizens, it is likely that the futurewill see even more stringent protections over the systemscritical to the functioning of modern America.❚ FURTHER READING:BOOKS:Cordesman, Anthony H., and Justin G. Cordesman. Cyber-Threats, Information Warfare, and Critical InfrastructureProtection: Defending the U.S. Homeland. Westport,CT: Praeger, 2002.Critical Foundations: Protecting America’s Infrastructures:The Report of the President’s Commission on CriticalInfrastructure Protection. Washington, D.C.: The Commission,1997.Zukin, Sharon. Landscapes of Power: From Detroit toDisney World. Berkeley: University of California Press,1991.PERIODICALS:Ingram, Gregory. “Roundtable Discussion: Critical Issuesin Infrastructure in Developing Countries.” Work BankResearch Observer (1993): 473.Lukasik, S. J., J. T. Goldberg, and S. E. Goodman. “Protectingan Invaluable and Ever-Widening Infrastructure.”Association for Computing Machinery 41, no. 6 (June1998): 11–16.Robinson, C. Paul, Joan B. Woodward, and Samuel G.Varnado. “Critical Infrastructure: Interlinked and Vulnerable.”Issues in Science and Technology 15, no. 1(fall 1998): 61–67.ELECTRONIC:Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security. (February 27, 2003).SEE ALSOCritical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), UnitedStatesCritical InfrastructureAssurance Office (CIAO),United StatesCreated by Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD 63) in1998, the Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO) ofthe United States Department of Commerce (DOC) has theresponsibility of coordinating security for energy, financialservices, transportation, telecommunications, and other282 Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security