Critical Infrastructure AND Key Resources Creative Writing Examples

Risks emerge from the complex interrelationships between natural and manmade hazards and threats such as floods, terrorist attacks, material spills, power outages, hurricanes, etc. The vital infrastructure and key assets are vulnerable to the occurrences due to their virtual, physical, and geographical interconnections. CIKR protective measures balance the strength and resiliency of the United States during the adverse times. Through the utilization of preparedness, focus, risk-based protection, and prevention activities, the country can manage all the hazards they face. This article is a formal report directed to the Chief Police in Homeland Security and other top officers to expand their knowledge concerning Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources Preventive measures that the city can use to avoid and regulate risk exposures.
Vital infrastructure must have the ability and security to withstand and quickly recover from all disasters. Coordinated and proactive efforts are essential to strengthen the systems, network, and assets that are important to the nation’s well-being, prosperity, safety, and public confidence. The endeavor is shared amongst the state, federal, territorial, tribal, and local authorities as well as public and private operators and owners of the critical infrastructure. The Department of Homeland Security spearheads strategic guidance provision to the private and public entities, controls the Federal activities that promote resilience and security of the assets, and maintains the efforts of national unity (Homeland Security Digital Library, 2015).
The following measures can make a country resilient and strong. They include observing the continuity in entrepreneurship, reports of any suspicious operations, sharing incident and threat information, educating the personnel concerning critical infrastructure, preparing for hazards, and investing in cyber and physical risk management plans and products. Critical infrastructure is considered the pillar of the nation’s health, security, and economy. The DHS interacts with businesses, local governments, and communities to enhance the resilience of vital assets and prepare for the disasters. They also provide hasty methods to recover from the hazards. The department offers a range of tools known as key resources in the critical infrastructure to the private sector and governments to enable them to carry out the strengthening mission (Chertoff, 2009).
The CIP provides a procedure for reallocating, demobilizing, and managing State resources to the disaster-stricken regions. It has two distinct purposes. One is reporting and monitoring the operational conditions of the critical facilities during emergency periods. Secondly, CIP coordinates federal and state assistance to recover the losses incurred in the hazards so that they maintain public safety. Various national and federal policies govern the activities of the CIP at the federal level. They include the National Plan, Patriot Act, National Response Framework, Defense Support for Civilian Authorities, National Incident Management System, amongst others (Homeland Security Digital Library, 2015).
The national regulations and frameworks guide the manner through which America conducts its disaster response. They are built upon flexible, adaptable, and scalable structures that align the primary roles across the nation, interlocking government levels, the private section, and NGOs. They are intended to grasp the particular authorities and practices that can control different incidents. Terrorism has a specific policy established to monitor the impacts of the activity called the Patriot Act. The law emerged after the September attacks in 2001. The Congress decided to adopt surveillance mechanisms to control national security activities that prevent terrorism (Chertoff, 2009).
The federal government considers the policies that govern CIKR operations for future appropriations and authorizations of assets and response techniques. The National Infrastructure Protection Plan was created in 2003 to protect all of the country’s vital assets. The DHS has reviewed the program consistently so that it can conform to the guidelines of the Presidential Policy Directives 21 concerning critical infrastructure. The NIPP is a section of the national review procedure that solicits public comments on the language and issues that arise from the policies developed to provide disaster response. The Presidential Law Directive together with the Executive Order 13636 assists the NIPP in enhancing the cybersecurity of vital facilities (Homeland Security Digital Library, 2015).
Through the issue of the NIPP, PD 21, and EO, the U.S. Government administers create an integrative strategy to improve the resilience and strength of critical infrastructure against hazards through a national framework that incorporates cyber security. The CIKR has 16 sectors that make the protection of crucial assets easy. The 16 domains’ assets, networks, and systems are considered essential to the country such that any destruction or incapacitation can interfere with the public safety or health, economic, and physical security. They include the dams, communications, energy, chemical, emergency services, critical manufacturing, commercial facilities, healthcare, nuclear reactors, government facilities, financial services, information technology, water, food and agriculture, defense, and transportation sectors (Chertoff, 2009).
The DHS is the service agency of the commercial facilities, critical manufacturing, dams, emergency services, public health, information technology, nuclear reactors, communications, and chemical sectors. The other domains have different agencies. For example, environmental protection controls the water sector, transportation department directs the transportation systems, human services manages health care, general service administration controls government facilities, health and human services direct food and agriculture, and the U.S. energy department fuels the power sector. Each discipline controls crucial assets. For instance, the defense base enables the production and design of the weapon systems, and the emergency services are the first defense lines for mitigating risks (Homeland Security Digital Library, 2015).

References

Chertoff M. (2009). National Infrastructure Protection Plan: Partnering to enhance protection and resiliency. Retrieved January 7, 2016 from http://www.dhs.gov/xlibrary/assets/NIPP_Plan.pdf.
Homeland Security Digital Library. (2015). Presidential Policy Directive 21: Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience. Retrieved January 7, 2016 from https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=731087.