November has been declared Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month by US President Biden. In the press brief, Biden emphasized the steps taken by the Administration to defend critical infrastructure from physical and cyber threats and underlined the need for security awareness and action to sustain the resilience of critical infrastructure.
The brief compares the damage caused by cyberattacks to the damage caused by storms and forest fires. According to Biden, when critical infrastructure is attacked, everyday Aemricans suffer as a consequence. “Crumbling infrastructure around the world affects us at home as well: Extreme weather, cyberattacks, and other disasters have ripple effects, threatening global stability and disrupting supply chains everywhere.” In response to this growing problem, the current Administration is looking to bolster the country’s cybersecurity. The US President is working with Federal agencies to prevent and mitigate cyberattacks. Biden has reestablished the National Infrastructure Advisory Council to provide guidance on how the US’s critical Infrastructure sectors can minimize physical and cyber risks and enhance their security and resilience.
Following Biden’s declaration, the US Cybersecuirty and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) echoed the sentiment in a subsequent announcement. CISA called for all Americans to remember that Infrastructure Security is National Security. “Keeping the nation’s critical infrastructure secure is important to our national security, economy and overall way of life. Critical infrastructure spans everything from telecommunications and chemical facilities to healthcare and financial systems and much more. It is interdependent with other critical infrastructure and supporting systems and encompasses all the essential services that keep our country and our economy running.”
CISA urged all organizations to improve their security measures throughout November and beyond. They note the need for organizations to be aware of new cyber vulnerabilities that come as a result of the integration of information technology and operational technology into critical infrastructure. CISA advises organizations to ensure all organization members are up to date with the latest methods for defending against cyberattacks, consider ways to increase resilience and minimize risk on both the offline and online fronts, and incorporate resilience into design when updating and creating new critical infrastructure.
