TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter contributed by Marcus H. Sachs
Historical Context
Increasing Threats and Vulnerabilities
Identifying and Characterizing the Cyber Threat
A critical infrastructure is a vital physical or cyber asset or system, the destruction of which would destabilize a national economy or way of life or jeopardize national security. Some examples of these infrastructures are energy grids, transportation systems, telecommunications networks, emergency first responders, healthcare facilities, and government organizations. In today s highly connected world, a nation s critical infrastructures depend on the reliability of two key systems, which are also considered critical infrastructures: the electric power grid and communications networks.
Attacks on either of these systems have the potential to cause ripple effects in other infrastructures and could, in the worst case, lead to a national economic collapse. Fortunately, both the electric power grid and the communications networks in the United States are now very mature, having their roots in the 19th century. In both cases, redundancies and backups are in place to ensure their reliable operation in the worst of disasters. In the United States and most other countries, the federal government regulates these industries and provides funding for safety systems, surge capacity, and backup capabilities.
A relative newcomer to the infrastructure community is the global Internet, a massive network of networks that sprang from a loose collection of academic, private, military, and government computer networks in the 1970s and 1980s. In less than 20 years, the Internet grew from fewer than 10,000 hosts to...
