Securing The Deployment of Critical Infrastructure

The protection of our Nation’s most critical infrastructure sectors is a shared responsibility across Government and Industry. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (aka the Infrastructure Bill) represents transformational legislation intended to fortify, modernize, and secure the transportation, energy, water, and communications sectors. Doing so, however, will require due diligence necessary ensure technology capabilities map to mission needs. Executive Order 14028 underscores that incremental improvements are insufficient. Instead, the Order states that “the Federal Government needs to make bold changes and significant investments in order to defend the vital institutions that underpin the American way of life.”

Information Technology (IT) and Operational Technology (OT) systems will require process integration to monitor, analyze, and protect the vital machine that ensures our safety. Moreover, the cyber-physical threats posed to the systems that control and operate the critical infrastructure we depend upon are among the most significant and growing issues confronting our Nation. Fortunately, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices can afford opportunities for ubiquitous, continuous connectivity while protecting the digital communication, data, and control across an expansive threat landscape. The end game is to defend our critical infrastructure by encouraging and facilitating deployment of technologies and systems that provide threat visibility, indications, detection, and warnings, and that facilitate response capabilities for cybersecurity in essential control system and operational technology networks.