Critical Infrastructure Security – Why Does it Matter?

May 10, 2023 By admin No Comments 3 minutes

What is critical infrastructure security? Why does its security matter? In short, critical infrastructure refers to all the essential concerns to do with the physical and virtual protection of systems that make or break the well-being of society and its economic grounds as a whole.

These kinds of critical infrastructures are needed to ensure the smooth operations of security, facilities, systems, and more. It gives a country or nation all the safety it needs to thrive. It can range from health, monetary gain, online privacy protection, and more. This guide highlights the absolute importance of critical infrastructure and why it is needed. 

What is Critical Infrastructure?

Critical infrastructure security is the concerning area encompassing the security of frameworks, organizations, and resources whose persistent performance is considered significant. This is to guarantee the security of a given country, its economy, and the general public’s well-being or potential security.

Energy, healthcare, transportation, water supply, communication systems, financial services, emergency systems, and defense are all examples of critical infrastructure. Even though critical industries are virtually identical across all nations, they may differ according to a nation’s requirements, resources, and stage of development.

Are There Any Setbacks to it?

There are many benefits and necessary needs for critical infrastructure security, however, there are equally as many security threats associated with it. The number of sectors controlled within the critical infrastructure unit is massive. Infrastructure security is to maintain sectors under health facilities, power plants, IoT devices, and more. 

Although, flaws have to be considered other than focusing on the importance of critical infrastructure security. For instance, the fact that they’re labeled as critical means that updates to them won’t be so easy to maintain. Plus, most of the sectors are controlled by private firms, which means it’s much more complicated to secure by the government. 

Bruce Schneier, a security expert, gave his input on the matter.  His opinion was that there are bigger critical infrastructure security threats, which are not frequently associated with targeted equipment destruction attacks. It mainly focuses on malware invasions that can take down all important systems. This could cause some serious damage. 

16 Critical Infrastructure Security Sectors

There are around 16 sectors of critical infrastructure. However, it completely depends on the country you’re in. Also, these sectors intermingle and are dependent on one another. This ensures the solid functioning and performance of critical infrastructures. 

This way, the operation and functioning of the country, the government, the economy, and the society are smooth. With that said, here are the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, namely in the US: 

• Chemical sector 
• Communication sector 
• Dams sector 
• Energy sector 
• Commercial facilities 
• Financial services 
• Healthcare and public health 
• Nuclear reactors, waste, and materials sector 
• Emergency services 
• Critical manufacturing sector 
• Defense industrial base sector 
• Transportation systems 
• Water and wastewater systems 
• Government facilities 
• Food and Agriculture 
• Information technology 

Bottom Line – Why Does Critical Infrastructure Security Matter?

You now know what critical infrastructure is and how it helps to make or break a society, the country, and other essential aspects of your country. However, is critical infrastructure security safe? Are they prone to cyberattacks? 

Yes, at times, the damage is pretty hard. Any attack on the infrastructure always has significant consequences. This puts a damper on the effective operation of public health or its citizen’s safety. For this reason, maintaining solid critical infrastructure security is essential for both private sectors and federal agencies.