Protecting Critical Infrastructure

Protecting critical infrastructure organizations against cyber attacks is a perpetual topic of conversation in Washington.  Over the past few years, President Barack Obama along with various senators and congressmen have proposed several cybersecurity programs.  They include the NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Cybersecurity Framework and an increase in threat intelligence sharing between critical infrastructure organizations, federal intelligence, and law enforcement agencies in order to bolster cybersecurity in critical infrastructure segments. 

While Washington still ponders some type of solution, cybersecurity discussions about critical infrastructure are nothing new. Recognizing a national security vulnerability, President Bill Clinton first addressed critical infrastructure protection (CIP) with Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63) in 1998. Soon thereafter, Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre cautioned Congress about CIP by warning of a potential “cyber Pearl Harbor.” Hamre stated that a devastating cyber-attack, “… is not going to be against Navy ships sitting in a Navy shipyard. It is going to be against commercial infrastructure.”  Years later, in October 2012, similar alarms were sounded, when Defense Secretary Leon Panetta also warned of a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” against critical infrastructure.