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November 15, 2001
Speaking to the National Academy of Public
Administration's Panel on the Federal System on November 15,
Nancy
J. Wong, Deputy Director, National Outreach and Awareness,
for the U.S. Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office
(CIAO), described how critical infrastructures support
the nation's defense, economy, public health, welfare, and
safety.
Ms. Wong listed these critical infrastructures:
Information and Communications
Electric Power
Transportation
Oil and Gas Delivery and Storage
Banking & Finance
Water
Emergency Services
Critical Government Services
"When the World Trade Center was attacked
on September 11, five of the six electric nodes were knocked
out, potentially devastating for the entire Northeast region,
including Boston. Because of the elaborate back-up systems
that had been developed, electrical power was quickly restored,
greatly enhancing the ability to respond to the emergency."
"Much of the planning work that helped
government and businesses get back to work in New York City
had been done as part of the Y2K preparation." Ms. Wong
presented the spectrum of possible actions to manage infrastructure
risk, from restoration and recovery to crisis management and
emergency response, through mitigation, prevention and deterrence.
For critical infrastructures, prevention and deterrence are
where CIAO and industry are focusing, because that is the
only approach that will ensure reliability, availability,
and systems integrity for essential services to the customers.
Much work remains to be done and it will
require unprecedented partnerships between business and government,
said Ms. Wong, an executive on personal leave of absence from
Pacific Gas and Electric Company who also was a private sector
commissioner and led the National Risk Assessment Team for
the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.
"While the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) focuses primarily on emergency response, "
said Ms. Wong, "CIAO stresses deterrence, prevention,
and mitigation. She observed that most companies are quite
willing to take steps to secure their critical infrastructures
once they know their risks, because they are quite simply
going to be out of business if a disaster hits their facilities
and services and they have not taken steps in advance to protect
themselves and their customers.
Though the rhetoric often refers to the
federal government as responsible for national security, the
vast majority of infrastructures are owned by private companies
or by state and local governments. Businesses know it is state
and local governments that they deal with; public trust in
government services also has to start with trust in their
local public services. It is another example of the rule:
"Think globally, act locally."
CIAO is primarily a convening and coordinating
agency. It has several roles, including participating in developing
national strategies, assisting federal agencies to identify
state, local, and private infrastructure dependencies, increasing
national awareness and outreach, and addressing potential
obstacles in laws and regulations and in the marketplace.
In the last two years, it formed a Partnership for Critical
Infrastructure Security which has coordinators from all the
nation's major sectors who meet and keep in contact with each
other to share information on security measures and advance
national interests in improved protection for critical infrastructures.
CIAO was established in 1998 to carry out
the recommendations of the President's Commission on Critical
Infrastructures, which made its final report in October 1997.
CIAO is now part of the Department of Commerce, with a dotted
line relationship to the National Security Council. CIAO also
expects to be working with the new Office of Homeland Security
and helping to support its policies and interests.
The agency focused much of its early
work on the nation's telecommunications infrastructure. Ms.
Wong noted that the preparations for Y2K prevented what could
have been serious problems in critical infrastructures and
services. The lessons learned from Y2K are now being applied
to other risk management priorities.
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