Putting the critical back in critical infrastructure

argument #876

Putting the critical back in critical infrastructure

The paradox — operational competence on top of a missing managerial core — reads as the diagnosis behind today's critical-infrastructure-attack debates: America defends its grid, pipelines, and water as fifty experiments, not one program.

Critical infrastructure security in the U.S. is implemented fifty different ways — each state and locality has "unilaterally interpreted their roles and priorities," so the national mission is "highly adapted locally and is not clearly and/or consistently interpreted, understood, applied, or implemented across the nation" despite national doctrine demanding uniformity.

Why it matters

The paradox — operational competence on top of a missing managerial core — reads as the diagnosis behind today's critical-infrastructure-attack debates: America defends its grid, pipelines, and water as fifty experiments, not one program.