Homeland Security Outlines National Priorities for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience
Government
The priority areas are:
- Addressing cyber and other threats posed by the People’s Republic of China;
- Managing evolving risks and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies;
- Identifying and mitigating supply chain vulnerabilities;
- Incorporating climate risks into sector resilience efforts; and
- Addressing the growing dependency of critical infrastructure on space systems and assets.
The guidance issued by DHS reflects a key step in the whole-of-society effort directed by the President to protect the critical infrastructure systems on which Americans rely every day.
The Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), as the national coordinator of critical infrastructure security and resilience efforts, will drive sector-specific risk assessments and management plans by (or for) Sector Risk Management Agencies (SRMAs) and other important partners that address the outlined priority risk areas and adopt the identified risk mitigation activities, culminating in the National Infrastructure Risk Management Plan.
The 2024 Homeland Security Threat Assessment states that domestic and foreign adversaries will likely continue to target our critical infrastructure, in part because they perceive targeting these sectors would be detrimental to U.S. industries and the American way of life. From attacks aimed at disrupting services to espionage focused on gaining access to networks and stealing sensitive information, these actors are constantly adapting their techniques to gain access and potentially compromise these entities.
Critical infrastructure systems provide essential goods and services to Americans like clean water, dependable electricity, food, communications, internet connectivity, and manufactured goods. By issuing this guidance, the Department of Homeland Security is leading the national effort to identify and mitigate threats and make more resilient our critical infrastructure in this era of technological advancement and dynamic global volatility.