The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced November 1 as the kickoff of Infrastructure Security Month 2022 and highlighted its extensive resources to help raise awareness about threats to critical infrastructure. This year’s theme is “Infrastructure Security Is National Security: Drive Down Risk, Build Resilience.”
Critical infrastructure spans everything from healthcare, water, and education to chemicals, transportation, and energy systems. It underpins all the critical functions that keep the country and economy running, and the threats to it run the gamut from weather-induced power outages to technology incidents. They include physical threats originating here at home, as well as cyber threats launched from across the globe by adversaries seeking to disrupt or destroy the essential services Americans rely on for health and economic and national security.
“CISA’s mission is to lead the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to the cyber and physical infrastructure Americans rely on every hour of every day—to get gas at the pump, food at the grocery store, money from the ATM, power, water, transportation, communications—effectively the backbone of networks and services that underpin our daily lives,” said CISA Director Jen Easterly.
“As the National Coordinator for critical infrastructure security and resilience, CISA is laser focused on the broad and complex landscape of threats to this infrastructure, and because much of it is owned or operated by the private sector, our collaborative partnerships with private industry are foundational to our ability to help defend the nation. It takes all of us, working together, to drive down risk and build resilience.”
There are a number of steps all organizations can take, such as:
- Strengthen your security plans by having a better understanding of the unique risks to your organization and systems.
- Exercise your preparedness plans on securing public gatherings and make sure they are up to date with the latest techniques and tactics.
- Focus on ways they can reduce risk and build resilience on both the physical and cyber fronts.
- Consider ways to embed resilience as a foundational design feature when upgrading or building new critical infrastructure.
Throughout November, CISA will be bringing the world of infrastructure security and resilience to life with interviews and blogs featuring CISA staff and external industry partners, as well as other activities. More info and resources for Infrastructure Security Month 2022 are available here.