On Critical Infrastructures, Their Security and Resilience - Trends and Vision

Abstract

This short paper is presented in observance and promotion of November, the National Month of Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (CISR), established by the United States Department of Homeland Security in 2013. The CISR term focuses on essential assets (critical infrastructures) and two ultimate goals of making them secure and resilient. These assets and goals were put together in 2013 in the now well-known Presidential Policy Directive on CISR (PPD-21). This paper presents easy-to-ready material laying down the building blocks of CISR - what it means to you as a regular citizen, professional, or government worker. This paper presents concepts behind security and resilience pertinent to various types of activities - from every day to field-specific activities. This paper also presents basic elements to the field: 1. high-level introduction to the organizational units dealing with CISR in the United States; 2. explanation of basic terms and a list of further reading material; and 3. several discussion topics on the vision and future of CISR in critical infrastructure cyber-physical systems.