Sixteen Critical Infrastructures: An Overview

The Critical Infrastructure in our country is vast and interconnected; keeping our modern world and commodities in place requires constant monitorization, evolution, and vigorous security measures. 

Throughout this series, you will get to know each infrastructure on a personal level, learning what makes them tick, the methods used to secure them, and the challenges and triumphs they face daily. 

This preliminary overview is to give you an idea about how many critical infrastructure there really are, the components of each sector, and the sheer magnitude of how without each cog, the machine that is our world cannot function properly.

Now let's get into the sectors, what they do, and what they encompass…

Chemical Sector

• Manufactures, stores, uses, and transports potentially dangerous chemicals which a wide range of sectors use for various uses.

• Greatest focus: securing these chemicals from possible foreign and domestic threats 

Commercial Facilities Sector

• These facilities are based fully on freely moving public access

• There are eight subsectors of the commercial facilities sector: 

  1. Entertainment and Media (motion picture and broadcasting studios)

  2. Gaming (casinos)

  3. Lodging (hotels, motels, campgrounds, RV parks)

  4. outdoor events (theme and amusement parks, fairs, parades, exhibitions, parks, marathons)

  5. Public Assembly (arenas, stadiums, aquariums, zoos, museums)

  6. Real Estate (office and apartment buildings, condos, storage facilities)

  7. Retail (retail centers and districts, shopping malls) 

  8. Sports Leagues (professional sports leagues and federations)

Communications Sector

• Critical for multiple sector communications across all critical infrastructures

• Allows interconnections by providing voice services via terrestrial, satellite, and wireless transmission systems

Critical Manufacturing Sector

• Four industries comprise the core of this sector: primary metals manufacturing; machinery manufacturing; electrical equipment, appliance, and component manufacturing; transportation equipment manufacturing

  1. Primary Metals Manufacturing→ iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing/alumina and aluminum production and processing/ nonferrous metal production and processing

  2. Machinery Manufacturing→ engine and turbine manufacturing/ power transmission equipment manufacturing/ earth moving, mining, agricultural, and construction equipment manufacturing

  3. Electrical Equipment, Appliance, and Component Manufacturing→ electric motor manufacturing/ transformer manufacturing/ generator manufacturing

  4. Transportation Equipment Manufacturing→ vehicles and commercial ships manufacturing/ aerospace products and parts manufacturing/ locomotives, railroad and transit cars, and railtrack equipment manufacturing

Dams Sector

• This sector is responsible for the critical water retention and control within the US; this includes: hydroelectric power generation, municipal and industrial water supplies, agricultural irrigation, sediment and flood control, river navigation for inland bulk shipping, industrial waste management, and recreation. 

• Dam sector assets irrigate more than 10%  of the U.S. cropland, help protect more than 43% of the U.S. population from flooding, and generate about 60% of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest

Defense Industrial Base Sector

• A worldwide industrial complex that enables research and development 

• Allows for design, production, delivery, and maintenance of military weapons systems, subsystems, and components or parts for the U.S military

• Includes domestic and foreign entities that provide products and services essential for mobilization, deployment, and sustainability of military operations 

Emergency Services Sector

• Includes a multitude of paid and volunteer highly-skilled personnel, physical, and cyber resources

• Provides wide-scale prevention, preparedness, response and recovery services for daily operations and crisis/incident response

• Organizations in this sector are found at the federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial levels

• Includes private and public sector police and security departments, fire departments, emergency medical services, and public works departments

Energy Sector

• Uniquely critical as it provides a necessary resource to enable all performance across the critical infrastructures

• This sector is split into 3 main groups: electricity, oil, and natural gas

  1. Electricity: contains more that 6,413 power plants with approximately 1,075 gigawatts of installed generation (for reference 1 gigawatt can power up to 750,000 homes). 48% of all electricity comes from coal combustion, 20% from nuclear power plants, and 22% from natural gas combustion

  2. Oil makes up only 1% of all energy generation

  3. Renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro make up the remaining 9% of energy generation

Financial Services Sector

• Includes thousands of depository institutions, investment product providers, insurance companies, and other credit and financing organizations

• These institutions range from global organizations to small local banks and credit unions 

• The overarching purpose of this sector is to allow all customers to deposit funds and make payments to outside parties; provide credit and liquidity, invest funds for long and/or short terms; and transfer financial risks

Food and Agriculture Sector

• This sector is one of the largest and most privatized of the critical infrastructures

• It is composed of nearly 2.1 million farm; 935,000 restaurants; and over 200,000 food manufacturing, processing, and storage facilities

• This sector makes up about 1/5th of of the United States entire economic activity

• Has strong ties to the:

  1. Waste and wastewater sector: for irrigation and treated water

  2. Transportation sector: for transport of goods and livestock

  3. Energy sector: for powering resources required to produce and process food

  4. Chemical sector: for fertilizers and pesticides 

Government Facilities Sector

• This sector consists of  public and private global and domestic buildings owned or leased by federal,state, local, and tribal government entities

• Public government facilities are used for business activities, commercial transactions, and recreational activities

• Private access buildings can house highly sensitive information, materials, processes and equipment

• These buildings are general-use office buildings, special-use military facilities, embassies, courthouses, national laboratories, high-value material storage centers, and facilities dedicated to housing cyber systems and networks

Healthcare and Public Health Sector

• This sector protects the economy from terrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters 

• The focus of this sector is population health, meaning its management occurs on all levels of government

• Because it is more privately owned, communication between the public and private sectors is key to functionality

Information Technology Sector

• This sector is a key player in the security, economy, public safety, and health of the entire nation

• Produce and provides hardware, software, IT systems and services, and aids in internet coverage

Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector

• The department of homeland security’s Nuclear Sector Risk Management Agency is responsible for the safety and efficiency of this sector

• Radioactive sources are used in medical testing and treatment, depth measuring at oil and gas drill sites, sterilization at food manufacturing facilities, academic research, and security examinations of packages and cargo

• There are 99 active power reactors, 18 decommissioning power reactors, 31 research and test reactors, and 8 active nuclear fuel cycle facilities

• There are over 20,000 licensed users of radioactive source and over 3 million yearly shipments of radioactive materials

Transportation Systems Sector

• The goal of this sector is to safely and swiftly move people and goods throughout the country and overseas

• There are seven main sub-sectors of this sector:

  1. Aviation: includes aircrafts, air traffic control, airports, heliports, and landing strips, aircraft repair stations, fueling facilities, navigation aids, and flight school

  2. Highway and Motor Carrier: includes over 4 million miles of roadways, over 600,000 bridges, and over 350 tunnels, commercial trucks and vehicles, commercial motor-coaches and school buses, vehicle and driver licensing systems, and traffic control systems

  3. Maritime Transportation System: includes 95,000 miles of coastline, 361 ports, 25,000 miles of waterways, and intermodal landside connections

  4. Mass Transit and Passenger Rail: includes terminals, operational systems, transit buses, trolleybuses, monorail, subways/metros, light rail, passenger rail, and carpool/rideshare services

  5. Pipeline Systems: includes over 25 million miles of pipelines, compressor stations, and pumping stations

  6. Freight Rail: includes seven major rail carriers, over 138,000 miles of active railroad, over 1.33 million freight cars, and almost 20,000 locomotives

  7. Postal and Shipping: transports about 720 million letters and packages daily, includes large integrated carriers, regional and local couriers, mail services, mail management firms, and chartered and delivery services

Water and Wastewater Systems Sector

• Ensuring safe, disease free, drinking and use water is essential to this sector

• There are over 153,000 public drinking water systems and over 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment systems across the nation. Consequently, over 80% of the population receives their drinking water from these systems and 75% have their sewage treated by one of these systems

Stay tuned each week for a deeper understanding of each of these critical infrastructure, where we’ll get into the nitty gritty of how these sectors are secured, physically and technologically.

Resource: https://www.cisa.gov/critical-infrastructure-sectors