Critical infrastructure is composed of 16 sectors including Communications,
Emergency Services, Energy, Food and Agriculture, Government Facilities, Healthcare
and Public Health, IT, and Water and Wastewater Systems. Critical infrastructure is
defined as infrastructure so vital that the destruction of just one would cause highly
debilitating effects on our safety and well-being as a country (CISA 2023). Many cyber
criminals would thirst for the power and control to take over any of these infrastructures.
Prioritizing the protection of these systems is crucial. For example [le, in the healthcare
sector attackers will prevent workers from accessing computers that deal with
cardiology or emergency services which could in turn cause fatal consequences
(Dienna p.12). Vulnerabilities or weaknesses in a network, something as simple as not
changing the default password on a medical computer, i.e. Siemens, can cause an
increase in cyber-attacks in that specific sector. SCADA uses intrusion detection
techniques (Dienna p.8) that help lower the further movement of an attack on a network.
Cybersecurity professionals try to prevent attacks on important critical
infrastructure by implementing advanced technologies across our network. Not only
does this apply to large networks but also as small as a local home computer. It takes
everyone to help prevent and mitigate future intrusions that could jeopardize our data.
References
Djenna, Amir, et al. “Internet of Things Meet Internet of Threats: New Concern Cyber Security
Issues of Critical Cyber Infrastructure.” Applied Sciences, vol. 11, no. 10, 17 May 2021,
p. 4580, www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/11/10/4580.
CISA. “Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience | Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security
Agency CISA.” Www.cisa.gov, 2023, www.cisa.gov/topics/critical-infrastructure-
security-and-resilience.