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Critical Infrastructure Protection

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The Critical Infrastructure Protection or CIP is a Presidential directive (PDD-63) that calls for a national effort to assure the security of the increasingly vulnerable and interconnected infrastructures of the United States. In July 1996, President Bill Clinton issued Executive Order Critical Infrastructure Protection. This order stated that certain national infrastructures are critical to the national and economic security of the United States and the well being of its citizenry. The critical infrastructure of the United States is comprised of the systems and networks that are so essential that if one or more is incapacitated or destroyed, an entire region, if not the defense or economic security of the nation, could be debilitated.

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CIP Overview

Every day in this country, the products and services that support our way of life flow, almost seamlessly, to and from our homes, communities, and government. Making this possible are the systems and networks (the roads, airports, power plants, and communication facilities) that make up the infrastructure of our society. An infrastructure often taken for granted. If just one of these systems in the infrastructure is disrupted there could be dire circumstances. For example, natural gas supply could be disrupted by a computer virus. Electrical power is cut, causing computers and communications to shut down. Roads, air traffic, and rail transportation are inhibited. Emergency services are hampered. An entire region can be debilitated because an element critical to our infrastructure has been attacked. Some may think this unlikely or unthinkable, but the threat is very real. These scenarios should be considered if we are to be prepared for such an event. The unlikely and unthinkable often do happen and will continue to do so unless some action is taken.

During recent events in the Middle East, attacking the infrastructure assets that are critical to the enemy's fighting capability has become a timeless strategy. The U.S. is now in a new era, where threats to its security and way of life are taking new forms. A time when it must protect the critical infrastructure every day. In order to accomplish this a need for a common understanding of critical infrastructure protection is required. What is the critical infrastructure of the United States? What does protecting it really mean and why has it become so important now? Our nation's infrastructure is built on a framework of systems and networks from industry and government.

The infrastructure of the United States includes systems and networks from several major sectors such as:

Some elements of the infrastructure have become essential to the minimum operations of the economy and government. These systems are part of the critical infrastructure of the United States.

Given the nature of our critical infrastructure, protecting it takes more than our traditional view of defense. The need to think and plan outside the box exist in order t proect the assets. Critical Infrastructure Protection is a national program, created through a partnership between the government and private industry. The CIP program includes a national structure and the development of a comprehensive National Infrastructure Assurance Plan.

Purpose

The purpose of critical infrastructure protection is to establish a real-time ability for all sectors of the critical infrastructure community to share information on the current status of infrastructure elements. Ultimately, the goal is to protect our critical infrastructure by eliminating known vulnerabilities. To understand this paradigm the following defintions are given:

Infrastructure Sectors

The national infrastructure sectors that were identified as critical include:

The criticality of each sector applies not only to the daily operations of American society but also to military operations and defense. With 98 percent of the critical infrastructure privately owned, the military depends on the commercial infrastructure to support its operations.

The Importance of CIP

In September 1995: The Russian national who allegedly masterminded the break-in of Citicorp's electronic funds transfer system was ordered to stand trial in the United States. A gang of hackers under his leadership breached Citicorp's security 40 separate times during 1994. The hackers were able to transfer 12 million dollars from customer accounts and withdraw an estimated $400,000 dollars.

On March 9, 1999: Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre warned Congress of a cyber terrorist "electronic Pearl Harbor" saying, "It is not going to be against Navy ships sitting in a Navy shipyard. It is going to be against commercial infrastructure…."

The above mentioned event exemplifies how CIP applies in a “Real World” scenerio. In the past, the systems and networks of the infrastructure elements were physically and logically independent and separate. They had little interaction or connection with each other or other sectors of the infrastructure. With advances in technology, the systems within each sector became automated and linked. As the revolution in information technology accelerated, the systems and sectors became increasingly interdependent and connected through computers and communications facilities.

As a result, there is now a vast interconnected network of systems that are dependent on one other. As an example, the flow of electricity, oil, gas, and telecommunications throughout the country are inextricably linked. Access to these interlinking systems can be managed through an Internet from all over the world, blurring traditional borders. While this increased reliance on interlinked capabilities helps make the economy and nation more efficient and perhaps stronger, it also makes the country more vulnerable to disruption and attack. This interdependent and interrelated infrastructure is more vulnerable to physical and cyber disruptions because it has become a complex system with single points of failure. An incident in the past that would have been an isolated failure and done little damage, can now cause widespread disruption because of a cascading effect. As an example, capabilities within the information and communication sector have enabled the United States to reshape its government and business processes. Like other sectors, however, the information and communication sector has also become increasingly software driven. One failure in this sector can bring down multiple systems including air traffic control, emergency services, banking, trains, electrical power, and dam control.

The elements of the infrastructure themselves are now considered likely targets of terrorism. Traditionally, critical infrastructures have been lucrative targets for anyone wanting to attack another country. Now, because our infrastructure is our national life-line, terrorists can achieve high economic and political value by attacking elements of it. Disrupting or even disabling the infrastructure reduces the ability to act in our national security interest, erode the public confidence in critical services, and or reduce economic strength. Additionally, terrorist attacks are easier and less costly than traditional warfare because of the interdependence of infrastructure elements. The infrastructure elements are targets for attack because there is a low probability of detection.

The elements of the infrastructure are also increasingly vulnerable to a dangerous mix of traditional and nontraditional types of threats. Traditional and non-traditional threats include equipment failures, human error, weather and natural causes, physical attacks, and cyber attacks. For each of these threats, the cascading effect caused by single points of failure can pose dire and far-reaching consequences.

Most experts expect the frequency and severity of critical infrastructure incidents to increase in the future. Although efforts are under way, there is no unified national capability to protect the interrelated aspects of the country's infrastructure. One reason for this is that a good understanding of the inter-relationships does not exist. There is also not a consensus on how the elements of the infrastructure mesh together, or how each element functions and affects the others. Securing our national infrastructure depends on understanding the relationships among its elements.

Critical infrastructure protection requires the development of a national capability to identify and monitor the critical elements and to determine when and if the elements are under attack or are the victim of destructive natural occurrences. CIP is important because it is the link between risk management and infrastructure assurance. It provides the capability needed to eliminate potential vulnerabilities in the critical infrastructure. CIP is how we determine our vulnerabilities and analyze alternatives. It is the way we will become prepared. Protecting the national infrastructure is a key element in future national security. There appears to be an urgent need to improve our capability to detect and warn of impending attacks on, and system failures within, the critical elements of the national infrastructure.

CIP Organization and Structure

The prospect of protecting the critical infrastructure of the United States can be a daunting task. The threats to our critical infrastructure are can be directed to both commercial and government facilities. A viable protection program requires a partnership between the government and commercial sectors. The partnership must be genuine, mutual, and cooperative in order to obtain the agreed upon goals of CIP.

In order to establish just such a partnership, PDD-63, mandated the formation of a national structure for critical infrastructure protection. To accomplish this a process was develop called the National Infrastructure Assurance Plan, or NIAP. One of the primary tasks of the national CIP structure was the development of a comprehensive NIAP.

The different entities of the national CIP structure must work together to achieve national critical infrastructure protection. The national CIP structure is a partnership between the government and the public sectors of the critical infrastructure. There are, however, certain functions related to critical infrastructure protection that must be performed chiefly by the federal government. These are national defense, foreign affairs, intelligence, and law enforcement. Each lead agency for special functions appoints a senior official to serve as functional coordinator for the federal government. The United States Department of Defense is the lead agency and functional coordinator for national defense. DoD is responsible for working with other sectors in the national CIP structure to ensure the protection of the national defense infrastructure.

Each department and agency of the federal government is responsible for protecting its portion of the government's critical infrastructure. DoD is responsible for protecting its portion of the government's critical infrastructure. The defense critical infrastructure is made up of ten sectors that provide infrastructure services within DoD. As part of the CIP program, DoD has responsibilities that traverse both the national and department-wide critical infrastructure.

Developing the NIAP

For each of the identified major sectors of the critical infrastructure, the federal government appointed a Sector Liaison Official from a designated Lead Agency. A private sector counterpart, a Sector Coordinator, was also identified. Together, the two sector representatives, one federal government and one corporate, were responsible for developing a sector NIAP.

In addition, each department and agency of the federal government was responsible for developing its own CIP plan for protecting its portion of the federal government's critical infrastructure. The federal department and agency plans were assimilated with the sector NIAPs to create one comprehensive National Infrastructure Assurance Plan. Additionally the national structure must ensure there is a national CIP program. This program includes responsibilities such as education and awareness, threat assessment and investigation, and research.

DOD Responsibilities for CIP

Protecting the critical infrastructure is an investment in future and defense of the country. It requires contemplating the consequences of losing an element critical to our defense and security and planning methods for its protection. PDD 63 identified the responsibilities DoD had for critical infrastructure protection. First, DoD had to identify DoD-owned critical assets and infrastructures and provide assurance through analysis, assessment, and remediation. DoD was also responsible for identifying national and international infrastructure requirements to industry and other government agencies and for the monitoring of these requirements all of which needed to be included in the protection planning. DoD also addressed the assurance and protection of commercial assets and infrastructure services in DoD acquisitions. Other DoD responsibilities for CIP included assessing the potential impact on military operations that would result from the loss or compromise of infrastructure service. There were also requirements for monitoring DoD operations, detecting and responding to infrastructure incidents, and providing department indications and warnings as part of the national process. Ultimately, DoD was responsible for supporting national critical infrastructure protection.

In response to the requirements identified in PDD 63, DoD categorized its own critical assets by sector, in a manner similar to the national CIP organization. In the DoD CIP organization, however, the infrastructure sectors are those specifically requiring protection by DoD. DoD’s organizational structure for critical infrastructure protection reflects, complements, and effectively interacts with the national structure for CIP.

Sectors

There are ten defense critical infrastructure sectors that are protected by the DoD. These include:

DOD Special Functions

The DoD CIP special function components interface with the equivalent national functional coordinators and coordinate all activities related to their function within DoD.

DoD’s special function components currently include seven areas of focus. They include the following components: 

  • Education and Awareness - Although education and awareness may rightly be considered everyone's responsibility, a comprehensive education and awareness strategy was deemed essential for a successful DoD CIP program. The National Defense University, or NDU, provided advice and assistance in assessing DoD education and awareness requirements. The Education and Awareness Component also developed the CIAO Education Program. This component was tasked to assist in the development of any special education or training required for CIP crisis management personnel.  Education and Awareness also supports both DoD and national CIP policy and strategy formulation and executive leadership development through periodic "infrastructure games."
    • 

    


    DOD CIP Lifecycle
    
As mandated by PDD 63, the DoD must protect its portion of the federal government's critical infrastructure. For DoD, this is the Defense Infrastructure or DI. Protecting the Defense Infrastructure is a complex task involving ten defense sectors. 
    

It was deemed that it was nearly impossible to protect every critical asset at  every location, therefore the focus was directed on protecting the critical Defense Infrastructure. The critical Defense Infrastructure is comprised of the critical assets essential to providing mission assurance.
    


    


    


    

    The Six Phases
    
The six phases of the DoD CIP life cycle build on one another to create a framework for a comprehensive solution for infrastructure assurance.  The life cycle phases occur before, during, and after an event that may compromise or degrade the infrastructure.  A synopsis of the six phases are:
    


    





Effective management of the CIP life cycle ensures that protection activities can be coordinated and reconciled among all DoD sectors. In many ways, DoD CIP, is risk management at its most imperative.  Achieving success means obtaining mission assurance. Missing the mark can mean mission failure as well as human and material losses. For critical infrastructure protection, risk management requires leveraging resources to address the most critical infrastructure assets that are also the most vulnerable and that have the greatest threat exposure. 
    

The most important part of the CIP lifecye is Phase 1.  Because it is crucial to target the right assets for infrastructure protection, determining these assets is the first phase in the CIP life cycle. This phase, Analysis and Assessment, is the key and foundation of the six lifecycle activities.  Without a solid foundation, the remaining CIP life cycle phases may be flawed, resulting in a CIP plan that fails to protect the critical infrastructure and, therefore, mission assurance.
    


    


    Phase 1: Analysis and Assessment
    
Phase 1 determines what assets are important, and identifies their vulnerabilities, and dependencies so that decisionmakers have the information they need to make effective risk management choices.
    

The Defense Infrastructure, or DI, is organized into ten sectors. Each sector is composed of assets, such as systems, programs, people, equipment, or facilities. Assets may be simple, such as one facility within one geographic location, or complex, involving geographically dispersed links and nodes.
    

The Analysis and Assessment is made up of five steps that include activities that span and encompass the ten DI sectors and their assets.
    


    





    Phase 1 Example in the “Real World”:
    

On August 24th 2001, the Director of the Joint Staff requested USPACOM to serve as the lead support Combatant Command for creating a CIP first-ever theater CIP Plan – known as the “CIP Appendix 16 Plan.” The following is how USPACOM approached the task.
USPACOM focused the Analysis and Assessment phase by organizing its activities to answer three major questions:
    


    To answer the question, “What is critical?”, USPACOM outlined a three-step procedure:
    


    
To accomplish these steps, USPACOM adopted a methodology that focuses its CIP efforts on Tier 1 assets. Tier 1 assets are assets that could cause mission failure if they are compromised or damaged.  The methodology UAPACOM adopted and modified is Mission Area Analysis, or MAA.  The MAA links combatant command missions to infrastructure assets that are critical to a given Operations Plan, or OPLAN, Contingency Plan, or CONPLAN, or Crisis Action Plan. Typically, the MAA process determines the assessment site priorities.  USPACOM modified the process and selected the CIP assessment sites and installations prior to conducting the MAA.  The following is an  illustration of the USPACOM MAA process:
    


    

USPACOM uses the MAA data it gathers to scope and focus its efforts on truly mission-critical assets to answer the next question in its process, Is it vulnerable? 
    

The first step in answering this question is to complete an installation analysis. The next step is to complete a commercial infrastructure analysis. USPACOM relied upon two different DoD organizations for CIP assessments: Balanced Survivability Assessments, or BSAs, and Mission Assurance Assessments.  The BSA is a two-week mission-focused assessment at a military installation or designated site.  A Mission Assurance Assessment is unique because it uses an area assessment approach to focus on both commercial and military asset vulnerabilities and dependencies.  The final step to determine vulnerabilities is to integrate the two analyses and assessments.  With its critical assets and their vulnerabilities identified, USPACOM is ready to perform risk management activities to decide what can be done to protect the mission-critical assets.
    


    Phase 2: Remediation Phase
    
The first phase of the CIP life cycle, Analysis and Assessment, identified the critical assets of DoD sector infrastructures and the vulnerabilities or weaknesses of those critical assets.
    

The second phase is the Remediation phase. In the Remediation phase, the known weaknesses and vulnerabilities are addressed. Remediation actions are deliberate, precautionary measures designed to fix known virtual and physical vulnerabilities before an event occurs. The purpose of remediation is to improve the reliability, availability, and survivability of critical assets and infrastructures.  Remediation actions apply to any type of vulnerability, regardless of its cause. They apply to acts of nature, technology failures, or deliberate malicious actions.  
    

The cost of each remediation action depends on the nature of the vulnerability it addresses.   The Defense Infrastructure Sector Assurance Plan that each infrastructure sector must develop, establishes the priorities and resources for remediation. Remediation requirements are determined by multiple factors. These are analysis and assessment, input from military planners and other DoD sectors, the National Infrastructure Assurance Plan and other plans, reports, and information on national infrastructure vulnerabilities and remediation, as well as intelligence estimates and assessments of threats.  
    

Remediation requirements are also gathered through lessons learned from Defense Infrastructure sector monitoring and reporting and infrastructure protection operations and exercises.  The CIP program tracks the status of remediation activities for critical assets. Remediation activities to protect the critical Defense Infrastructure cross multiple Department components. 
    


    Phase 3:  Indications and Warnings Phase
    
The need to monitor activities and warn of potential threats to the United States is not new. From conventional assaults to potential nuclear attacks, the military has been at the forefront of monitoring and warning of potential dangers since the founding of the country.  Protecting the security and well being of the United States, including the critical Defense Infrastructure, has now entered a new era. It has been deemed essential to have a coordinated ability to identify and warn of potential or actual incidents among critical infrastructure domains. The ability to detect and warn of infrastructure events is the third phase of the critical infrastructure protection life cycle, the Indications and Warnings phase.  
    

Indications and warnings are actions or infrastructure conditions that signal an event is either”
    


    
Historically, DoD event indications have focused and relied on intelligence information about foreign developments.  These event indications have been expanded to include all potential infrastructure disruption or degradation, regardless of its cause.  DoD CIP indications are based on four levels of input:  
    


    
This fusion of traditional intelligence information with sector-specific information has been determined to be essential for meaningful CIP indications.
    

If an indication is detected, a warning notifying the appropriate asset owners of a possible or occurring event or hazard can be issued.  The sector’s assurance plan determines what conditions and actions are monitored and reported for each Defense Infrastructure Sector.
Each sector must develop a written Defense Sector Assurance Plan that includes a compendium of sector incidents for monitoring and reporting. The sector incident compendium is made up of three types of incidents: 
    


    
DoD critical asset owners, installations, and sector CIAOs determine the DoD and sector-defined incidents.  Each of the reportable incidents or classes of incidents must include the following components:
    


    
The National Infrastructure Protection Center, or NIPC, is the primary national warning center for significant infrastructure attacks.  Critical asset owners, DoD installations, and Sector CIAOs monitor the infrastructure daily. Indications of an infrastructure incident are reported to the National Military Command Center, or NMCC.  If indications are on a computer network, they are also reported to the Joint Task Force Computer Network Operations, or JTF-CNO.  The NMCC and JTF-CNO assess the indications and pass them to the NIPC and appropriate DoD organizations.  When the NIPC determines that an infrastructure event is likely to occur, is planned, or is under way, it issues a national warning. For DoD, the NIPC passes its warnings and alerts to the NMCC and JTF-CNO.  These warnings and alerts are then passed to the DoD components. The warning may include guidance regarding additional protection measures DoD should take.
    


    Phase 4:  Mitigation Phase
    
Phase 1 of the CIP life cycle provided a layer of protection by identifying and assessing critical assets and their vulnerabilities. Phase 2 provided another layer of protection by remediating or improving the identified deficiencies and weaknesses of an asset.  Even with these protections and precautions, an infrastructure incident was still possible. When it does the Indications and Warnings phase goes into effect.
    

The Mitigation phase (Phase 4), is made up of preplanned coordinated actions in response to infrastructure warnings or incidents. Mitigation actions are taken before or during an infrastructure event. These actions are designed to minimize the operational impact of the loss of a critical asset, facilitate incident response, and quickly restore the infrastructure service.
    

A primary purpose of the Mitigation phase is to minimize the operational impact on other critical Defense Infrastructures and assets when a critical asset is lost or damaged. As am example, if there is a U.S. installation, Site A, located in a host nation. Site A is a tier 1 asset, meaning that if it fails, the Combatant Commands mission fails.  Site A has mutual Global Information Grid Command Control, or GIG/C2, information interdependencies with Sites B and C.  In addition, other Defense Infrastructure sectors rely on Site A for mission capabilities.  In this scenario, what could be the impact if the supply line to the commercial power plant that provides the installation’s primary power is accidentally severed.  Because of all the interdependencies, losing this asset is more than the loss of just one site. It means the loss of other sector capabilities.
    

A possible mitigation action might be for Site A to go on backup power. 
An alternate action could be to pass complete control of Site A’s functionality to another site, where redundancy has been previously arranged.  These actions would limit the impact of this incident on the other sites and related sectors.  In addition to lessening the operational impact of a critical infrastructure event, the Mitigation phase of the CIP life cycle supports and complements two other life cycle phases. Mitigation actions aid in the emergency, investigation, and management activities of Phase 5, Incident Response. They also facilitate the reconstitution activities of Phase 6.
    

During the Mitigation phase, DoD critical asset owners, DoD installations, and Sector Chief Infrastructure Assurance Officers, or CIAOs, work with the National Military Command Center, or NMCC, and the Joint Task Force-Computer Network Operations, or JTF-CNO, to develop, train for, and exercise mitigation responses for various scenarios.  When there is a warning, emergency, or infrastructure incident, the critical asset owners, installations, and Sector CIAOs initiate mitigation actions to sustain service to the DoD. They also provide mitigation status information to the NMCC and JTF-CNO. The NMCC monitors for consequences from an event within one Defense Infrastructure sector that are significant enough to affect other sectors. For events that cross two or more sectors, the NMCC advises on the prioritization and coordination of mitigation actions. When event threats or consequences continue to escalate, the NMCC directs mitigation actions by sector to ensure a coordinated response across the DoD. The NMCC and the JTF-CNO keep the National Infrastructure Protection Center, or NIPC, apprised of any significant mitigation activities. 
    


    Phase 5:  Incident Response
    
When an event affects the Defense Infrastructure, the Incident Response phase begins. Incident Response is the fifth phase of the CIP life cycle.  The purpose of the Incident Response phase is to eliminate the cause or source of an infrastructure event. For example, during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, all non-military airplanes were grounded over the United States to prevent further incidents.  Response activities included emergency measures, not from the asset owners or operators, but from dedicated third parties such as law enforcement, medical rescue, fire rescue, hazardous material or explosives handling, and investigative agencies.  Response to Defense Infrastructure incidents can take one of two paths depending on whether or not the event affects a DoD computer network.
    

When incidents compromise a DoD computer network, the Joint Task Force-Computer Network Operations, or JTF-CNO, directs the response activities. These activities are designed to stop the computer network attack, contain and mitigate damage to a DoD information network and then restore minimum required functionality.  JTF-CNO also requests and coordinates any support or assistance from other Federal agencies and civilian organizations during incidents affecting a DoD network.  When incidents impact any other DoD owned assets, installation commanders and critical asset owners follow traditional channels and procedures to coordinate responses. This includes notifying affected Sector Chief Infrastructure Assurance Officers, or CIAOs, in the initial notice and status reporting.  Although third parties play a major role in the response to Defense Infrastructure events, DoD CIP personnel also have responsibilities to fulfill.
    


    Phase 6:  Reconstitution
    
After the source or cause of an infrastructure event is eliminated or contained, the infrastructure and its capabilities must be restored.  Reconstitution is the last phase of the critical infrastructure protection. Reconstitution is probably the most challenging and least developed process of the life cycle.   DoD critical asset owners have the major responsibility for reconstitution. 
    


    References
    


    See also
    

    


    



     
    

    

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