National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems

"Protection of our Nation’s critical infrastructure is a responsibility of the government at the Federal, State, local, Tribal, and territorial levels and of the owners and operators of that infrastructure.  The cybersecurity threats posed to the systems that control and operate the critical infrastructure on which we all depend are among the most significant and growing issues confronting our Nation.  The degradation, destruction, or malfunction of systems that control this infrastructure could cause significant harm to the national and economic security of the United States.

Section 1.  Policy.  It is the policy of my Administration to safeguard the critical infrastructure of the Nation, with a particular focus on the cybersecurity and resilience of systems supporting National Critical Functions, defined as the functions of Government and the private sector so vital to the United States that their disruption, corruption, or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on national security, economic security, public health or safety, or any combination thereof. 

Sec. 2.  Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative.  Accordingly, I have established an Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative (Initiative), a voluntary, collaborative effort between the Federal Government and the critical infrastructure community to significantly improve the cybersecurity of these critical systems.  The primary objective of this Initiative is to defend the United States’ 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.  The goal of the Initiative is to greatly expand deployment of these technologies across priority critical infrastructure..."
Cybersecurity and infrastructure 

Spending on Infrastructure and Investment

"he federal government spends hundreds of billions of dollars every year on infrastructure and other investments, either directly or through grants to state and local governments. During testimony that CBO’s Director gave at the beginning of February on the outlook for the federal budget and the economy, some Members of Congress asked about issues related to infrastructure and investment. Because answers during Congressional hearings need to be brief, this blog post provides additional information about those issues and highlights some of CBO’s related work..."
Infrastucture spending

Build America Investment Initiative:Federal Guide to Infrastructure Planning and Design.

"Purposes of this Guide This Guide describes the important role of planning and design – typically known as ‘predevelopment’ – in the life of an infrastructure project and provides:
• Guiding principles for predevelopment;
• Case studies highlighting how the Federal government has partnered with local and State governments and other stakeholders on predevelopment activities to advance more and better infrastructure projects; and
• An extensive list of Federal agency resources that support predevelopment through funding and technical assistance. The audience for this Guide is local, State and tribal governments, public and private utilities, non-profi t organizations, investors, project sponsors, Federal agency staff, and other stakeholders..".
Infrastructure planning

Critical Infrastructures: Background, Policy, and Implementation
"The nation’s health, wealth, and security rely on the production and distribution of certain goods and services. The array of physical assets, functions, and systems across which these goods and services move are called critical infrastructures (e.g., electricity, the power plants that generate it, and the electric grid upon which it is distributed).

The national security community has been concerned for some time about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to both physical and cyber attack. In May 1998, President Clinton released Presidential Decision Directive No. 63. The Directive set up groups within the federal government to develop and implement plans that would protect government-operated infrastructures and called for a dialogue between government and the private sector to develop a National Infrastructure Assurance Plan that would protect all of the nation’s critical infrastructures by the year 2003. While the Directive called for both physical and cyber protection
from both man-made and natural events, implementation focused on cyber protection against man-made cyber events (i.e., computer hackers). However, given the physical damage caused by the September 11 attacks, physical protection of critical infrastructures has received increased attention.."

Critical Infrastructure Protection
"The nation's critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR) include systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating impact on national security, national economic vitality, or public health and safety. Ensuring CIKR resiliency and protection is essential to our security and way of life.

The Department's Office of Infrastructure Protection leads the coordinated national effort to build resiliency and reduce and mitigate risk across the 18 CIKR Sectors, which include such key areas as food and water, energy, communications and transportation systems, and emergency services. Since the vast majority of the nation's critical infrastructure is privately owned and operated, strong partnerships between government and private industry are essential to achieve these shared goals..."

Job Loss and Infrastructure Job Creation Spending During the Recession
"After the long economic expansion that characterized much of the current decade,
the nation entered its eleventh postwar recession in December 2007. The unemployment rate, which is a lagging economic indicator, did not start to rise until May 2008 when it jumped 0.5 percentage points to 5.5%. By December 2008, the
unemployment rate exceeded 7.0% and well over 600,000 jobs were lost—the biggest monthly decrease since December 1974, when another deep recession was taking place. These labor market indicators and comments equating the latest recession to
the Great Depression intensified congressional interest in passage of legislation early in 2009 aimed at encouraging creation of new jobs and warding off further
loss of jobs. (See CRS Report R40655, The Labor Market During the Great Depression and the Current Recession.)

To mitigate all but one recession since the 1960s, Congress chose to increase
federal spending on infrastructure. (See CRS Report 92-939, Countercyclical Job Creation Programs.) But, there are a number of issues associated with using expenditures on public works to quickly create jobs in times of recession.
(See CRS Report R40107, The Role of Public Works Infrastructure in Economic Stimulus.)..."

CHEMICAL, BIOLOGICAL, AND RADIOLOGICAL EVENTS AND THE CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE WORKFORCE
"The National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) convened a Working Group to study the impact of chemical, biological, and radiological (CBR) events on the critical infrastructure worker, and to make recommendations to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security that will strengthen our nation’s ability to respond to a CBR event. The timing and methodology of such an event is difficult to predict, and estimates on its impact are wide-ranging. However, there are specific principles that, when effectively implemented, will improve our ability to identify, respond to, and recover from an attack on our critical infrastructure. The NIAC designed this report to identify attributes of different chemical, biological, or radiological event scenarios, identify key elements necessary to sustain critical infrastructure operations, and to make recommendations that will improve our ability to contain the impact, recover from its consequences, and restore the nation’s critical infrastructure to a pre-event state."