[Edit] Rural infrastructure

Rural infrastructure differs in many ways from urban infrastructure. While publicly controlled assets critical to human survival exist in rural areas much as they do in urban areas, transport and utilities tend to be much less extensive and relied on less by residents. Other municipal services may also be reduced, e.g. nature's services may be relied upon for potable water drawn from private wells, while other private infrastructural capital, e.g. a dam or canal or irrigation ditch, may be relied upon instead of public means of water diversion and supply. There may also be much more reliance on community emergency response teams such as volunteer fire fighters

Cip Overview

Every day in the United States, products and services flow, almost seamlessly, to and from homes, communities, and government. Making this possible are the systems and networks (the roads, airports, power plants, and communication facilities) that comprise the United States’ national economic infrastructure. Should infrastructure be disrupted by natural causes (hurricanes, earthquake, etc.) or enemy attack there could be dire circumstances. For example, natural gas supply might be interrupted or electrical power cut causing computers, communications and other infrastructure to shut down. Some may think this unlikely or unthinkable, but the possibility is real. These scenarios need be considered and preparations made. In order to accomplish this there is a need to understand what is required to adequately protect critical infrastructure. Some questions are: What is the critical infrastructure of the United States? How can it be protected? What contingency plans are necessary? What are the costs? How much responsibility belongs to industry and how much to government?

The infrastructure of the United States includes systems and networks from several major sectors such as:

• Energy, including oil, natural gas, and electric power

• Banking and finance

• Transportation (Including air, surface, and water transportation )

• Telecommunications and Information Technology (IT)

• Water systems

• Government and private emergency services

Some elements of the infrastructure have become essential to the minimum operations of the economy and government. These systems are part of the critical infrastructure of the United States.

Given the nature of our critical infrastructure, protecting it takes more than our traditional view of defense. The needs to think and plan outside the box exist in order to protect the assets. Critical Infrastructure Protection is a national program, created through a partnership between the government and private industry. The CIP program includes a national structure and the development of a comprehensive National Infrastructure Assurance Plan.

[Edit] Purpose

The purpose of critical infrastructure protection is to establish a real-time ability for all sectors of the critical infrastructure community to share information on the current status of infrastructure elements. Ultimately, the goal is to protect our critical infrastructure by eliminating known vulnerabilities. To understand this paradigm the following definitions are given:

• Protection- Can be defined as the state of being defended, safeguarded, or shielded from injury, loss, or destruction from natural or un-natural forces.

• Vulnerability– The quality of being susceptible to attack or injury, warranted or unwarranted, by accident or by design.

• Risk– The possibility or likelihood of being attacked or injured.

• Mitigation– The ability to alleviate, reduce, or moderate a vulnerability, thus reducing or eliminating risk.