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Critical infrastructure is a term used by government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
s to describe assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy. Most commonly associated with the term are facilities for:



as proposed a list of European critical infrastructures based upon inputs by its Member States.

Each designated ECI will have to have an Operator Security Plan (OSP) covering the identification of important assets, a risk analysis based on major threat scenarios and the vulnerability of each asset, and the identification, selection and prioritisation of counter-measures and procedures.

United Kingdom In the UK the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure provides information, personnel and physical security advice to the businesses and organisations which make up the UK's national infrastructure, helping to reduce its vulnerability to terrorism and other threats.

It can call on resources from other government departments and agencies, including MI5
MI5

The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff ....
, the Communications Electronics Security Group and other Government departments responsible for national infrastructure sectors.

USA has had a wide-reaching Critical Infrastructure Protection
Critical Infrastructure Protection

Critical Infrastructure Protection or CIP is a concept that relates to the preparedness and response to serious incidents that involve the critical infrastructure of a region or nation....
 Program in place since 1996.






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Critical infrastructure is a term used by government
Government

Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
s to describe assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy. Most commonly associated with the term are facilities for:

  • electricity generation
    Electricity generation

    Electricity generation is the process of converting non-electrical energy to electricity. For electric utility, it is the first process in the delivery of electricity to consumers....
    , transmission and distribution;
  • gas production, transport and distribution;
  • oil and oil products production, transport and distribution;
  • telecommunication
    Telecommunication

    Telecommunication is the assisted Transmission of Signal over a distance for the purpose of communication. In earlier times, this may have involved the use of smoke signals, Drum , Semaphore line, flag signals or heliograph....
    ;
  • water supply
    Water supply

    Water supply is the process of self-provision or provision by third parties in the water industry, commonly a public utility, of water resources of various qualities to different users....
     (drinking water, waste water/sewage, stemming of surface water (e.g. dikes and sluices));
  • agriculture
    Agriculture

    Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
    , food production and distribution;
  • heating
    Heating

    Heating may refer to:*HVAC: Heating, ventilation and air-conditioningHeating devices, or systems:*Block heater, or headbolt heater, an electric heater that heats the engine of a car to ease starting in cold weather...
     (e.g. natural gas
    Natural gas

    Natural gas is a gas consisting primarily of methane. It is found associated with fossil fuels, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is created by methanogenic organisms in marshes, bogs, and landfills....
    , fuel oil
    Fuel oil

    Fuel oil is a fractional distillation obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash point of approximately and oi...
    , district heating
    District heating

    District heating is a system for distributing heat generated in a centralized location for residential and commercial heating requirements such as space heating and water heating....
    );
  • public health
    Public health

    Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals." It is concerned with threats to the overall health of a community based on population health analysis....
     (hospitals, ambulances);
  • transportation systems (fuel supply, railway network, airports, harbours, inland shipping);
  • financial services
    Financial services

    Financial services refer to Service provided by the finance industry. The finance industry encompasses a broad range of organizations that deal with the management of money....
     (banking, clearing
    Clearing (finance)

    In banking and finance, clearing denotes all activities from the time a commitment is made for a financial transaction until it is settled . Clearing is necessary because the speed of trades is much faster than the cycle time for completing the underlying transaction....
    );
  • security services
    Security services

    Security services are state institutions for the provision of intelligence , primarily of a strategic nature, but also including protective security intelligence....
     (police, military).


Regional critical-infrastructure protection programmes


European Union


The European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection ([EPCIP]) has been laid out in EU Directives by the Commission (e.g., EU COM(2006) 786 final). It has proposed a list of European critical infrastructures based upon inputs by its Member States.

Each designated ECI will have to have an Operator Security Plan (OSP) covering the identification of important assets, a risk analysis based on major threat scenarios and the vulnerability of each asset, and the identification, selection and prioritisation of counter-measures and procedures.

Germany


The German critical-infrastructure protection programme includes IT systems, headed by the German Federal Office for Information Security.

United Kingdom

In the UK the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure provides information, personnel and physical security advice to the businesses and organisations which make up the UK's national infrastructure, helping to reduce its vulnerability to terrorism and other threats.

It can call on resources from other government departments and agencies, including MI5
MI5

The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of the intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service , Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence Staff ....
, the Communications Electronics Security Group and other Government departments responsible for national infrastructure sectors.

United States

The USA has had a wide-reaching Critical Infrastructure Protection
Critical Infrastructure Protection

Critical Infrastructure Protection or CIP is a concept that relates to the preparedness and response to serious incidents that involve the critical infrastructure of a region or nation....
 Program in place since 1996. Its Patriot Act of 2001 defined critical infrastructure as those "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitation impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters."

These have identified a number of critical infrastructures and responsible agencies:

  1. Agriculture
    Agriculture

    Agriculture refers to the production of food and goods through farming and forestry. Agriculture was the key development that led to the rise of civilization, with the animal husbandry of domestication animals and plants creating food surpluses that enabled the development of more Population density and Social stratification societies....
     and Food
    Food

    Food is any substance, usually composed of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and water, that can be Eating or Drinking by an animal or human for nutrition or pleasure....
     – Departments of Agriculture
    Department of Agriculture

    In many country and subnational entity, the Department of Agriculture is the government agency responsible for regulating agriculture....
     and Health and Human Services
  2. Water
    Water

    Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
     – Environmental Protection Agency
    United States Environmental Protection Agency

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an List of United States federal agencies of the federal government of the United States charged to Regulation of chemicals and protect human health by safeguarding the natural environment: air, water, and land....
  3. Public Health – Department of Health and Human Services
  4. Emergency Services – Department of Homeland Security
  5. Government
    Government

    Government is the body within any organization that has the authority to make and the power to enforce laws, regulations, or rules. Typically, the government refers to a civil government -- local, provincial, or national -- but commercial, academic, religious, or other formal organizations are also administered by governing bodies....
     – Department of Homeland Security
  6. Defense Industrial Base – Department of Defense
    United States Department of Defense

    The United States Department of Defense is the federal department charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government relating directly to national security and the Military of the United States....
  7. Information
    Information

    Information as a Conveyed concept has a diversity of meanings, from everyday usage to technical settings. Generally speaking, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control system, data, form, instruction, knowledge, Meaning , stimulation, pattern, perception, and knowledge representation....
     and Telecommunications – Department of Commerce
  8. Energy
    Energy

    In physics, energy is a scalar physical quantity that describes the amount of Work_ that can be performed by a force. Energy is an attribute of objects and systems that is subject to a conservation law....
     – Department of Energy
    United States Department of Energy

    The United States Department of Energy is a United States Cabinet-level department of the United States government of the United States responsible for Energy policy of the United States and nuclear safety....
  9. Transport
    Transport

    Transport or transportation is the movement of passenger and cargo from one location to another. Transport is performed by various modes of transport, such as aviation, rail transport, road transport, ship transport, cable transport, pipeline transport and space transport....
    ation and Shipping
    Shipping

    Shipping is physical process of transporting product and cargo. Virtually every product ever made, bought, or sold has been affected by shipping....
     – Department of Transportation
    United States Department of Transportation

    The United States Department of Transportation is a federal United States Cabinet department of the United States government of the United States concerned with transportation....
  10. Banking and Finance
    Finance

    The field of finance refers to the concepts of time, money and risk and how they are interrelated. Banks are the main facilitators of funding through the provision of credit, although private equity, mutual funds, hedge funds, and other organizations have become important....
     – Department of the Treasury
    Department of the Treasury

    Several countries have a Department of the Treasury. These departments include:* Department of the Treasury * United States Department of the Treasury...
  11. Chemical Industry
    Chemical industry

    The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. It is central to modern world economy, converting raw materials into more than 70,000 different products....
     and Hazardous Materials – Department of Homeland Security
  12. Post
    Mail

    Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects, wherein written documents, typically enclosed in envelopes, and also small packages, are delivered to destinations around the world....
      – Department of Homeland Security
  13. National monuments and icons - Department of the Interior
  14. Critical Manufacturing - Department of Homeland Security (14th sector announced 03-Mar-2008; recorded 30-Apr-2008)


See also

  • Megaproject
    Megaproject

    A megaproject is an extremely large-scale investment project. Megaprojects are typically defined as costing more than United States dollar1 billion and attracting a lot of public attention because of substantial impacts on communities, Natural environment, and budgets....
  • Megaprojects and Risk
    Megaprojects and risk

    Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition is a book by Bent Flyvbjerg, Nils Bruzelius, and Werner Rothengatter dealing with the risks and legalities of promotion, policy, planning, and construction of megaprojects....
  • Infrastructure Security
    Infrastructure Security

    Infrastructure security is the security provided to protect infrastructure, especially critical infrastructure, such as airports, highways rail transport, hospitals, bridges, transport hubs, network communications, Media , the Grid , dams, nuclear reactors, seaports, Oil refinery, and water systems....
  • Infrastructure
    Infrastructure

    Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise , or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....


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