Cybersecurity: Critical Infrastructure Authoritative Reports and Resources
Released: 2018-11-30T00:00:00

Introduction

Critical infrastructure is defined in the USA PATRIOT Act ( P.L. 107-56 , §1016(e)), signed October 26, 2001, as "systems and assets, physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or d estruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health and safety, or any combination of those matters."

Presidential Decision Directive 63 (or PDD-63), signed May 22, 1998, identified activities whose critical infrastructures should be protected:

information and communications; banking and finance; water supply; aviation, highways, mass transit, pipelines, rail, and waterborne commerce; emergency and law enforcement services; emergency, fire, and continuity of government services; public health services; electric power, oil and gas production; and storage.

In addition, PDD-63 identified four activities in which the federal government controls the critical infrastructure: (1) internal security and federal law enforcement; (2) foreign intelligence; (3) foreign affairs; and (4) national defense.

In February 2013, the Obama Administration issued PPD-21, Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience, which superseded HSPD-7 issued during the George W. Bush Administration. PPD-21 made no major changes in policy, roles and responsibilities, or programs, but did order an evaluation of the existing public-private partnership model, the identification of baseline data and system requirements for efficient information exchange, and the development of a situational awareness capability. PPD-21 also called for an update of the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and a new Research and Development Plan for Critical Infrastructure, to be updated every four years.

This report serves as a starting point for congressional staff assigned to cover cybersecurity issues as they relate to critical infrastructure. Much is written about protecting U.S. critical infrastructure, and this CRS report directs the reader to authoritative sources that address many of the most prominent issues. The annotated descriptions of these sources are listed in reverse chronological order with an emphasis on material published in the last several years. This report includes resources and studies from government agencies (federal, state, local, and international), think tanks, academic institutions, news organizations, and other sources related to the following sectors:

Table 1 , overview reports and resources; Table 2 , energy, including electrical grid, smart grid, SCADA, and industrial control systems; Table 3 , financial industry, including banks, insurance, SEC guidance, FFIEC, FDIC, FSOC, and IRS; Table 4 , health, including Healthcare.gov, health insurance, Medicaid, and medical devices; Table 5 , telecommunications and communications, including wired, wireless, Internet service providers, GPS, undersea cables, and public safety broadband network; Table 6 , transportation, including Coast Guard, air traffic control, ports and maritime, and automobiles; and Table 7 , other critical infrastructure sectors not listed above.

Source: Highlights compiled by CRS from the reports.

Note: Page counts are documents; other cited resources are web pages.