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CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE


'Critical infrastructure' is a term used by governments to describe material assets that are essential for the functioning of a society and economy. Most commonly associated with the term are facilities for:

electricity generation and distribution;

telecommunication;

water supply;

agriculture, food production and distribution;

heating (natural gas, fuel oil);

public health;

transportation systems (fuel supply, railway network, airports);

financial services;

security services (police, military).
'Critical-infrastructure protection' is the study, design and implementation of precautionary measures aimed to reduce the risk that critical infrastructure fails as the result of war, disaster, civil unrest, vandalism, or sabotage.

Contents
National critical-infrastructure protection programmes
Germany
United Kingdom
United States
External links

National critical-infrastructure protection programmes


Germany

The German critical-infrastructure protection programme includes IT systems, headed by the German Federal Office for Information Security.
United Kingdom

In the UK the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure provides information, personnel and physical security advice to the businesses and organisations which make up the UK's national infrastructure, helping to reduce its vulnerability to terrorism and other threats.
It can call on resources from other government departments and agencies, including MI5, the Communications Electronics Security Group and other Government departments responsible for national infrastructure sectors.
United States

The USA has had a wide-reaching Critical Infrastructure Protection Program in place since 1996. Its Patriot Act of 2001 defined critical infrastructure as those "systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitation impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination of those matters."
These have identified a number of critical infrastructures and responsible agencies:
# Agriculture and Food – Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services
# WaterEnvironmental Protection Agency
# Public Health – Department of Health and Human Services
# Emergency Services – Department of Homeland Security
# GovernmentDepartment of Homeland Security
# Defense Industrial BaseDepartment of Defense
# Information and TelecommunicationsDepartment of Commerce
# EnergyDepartment of Energy
# Transportation and ShippingDepartment of Transportation
# Banking and FinanceDepartment of the Treasury
# Chemical Industry and Hazardous Materials – Department of Homeland Security
# PostDepartment of Homeland Security
# National monuments and icons - Department of the Interior

External links



Infracritical: comparison of US and international definitions of infrastructure]

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