IT and Technology: Critical Infrastructure
As the 21st century is marked by the ubiquitous presence of the information technologies, the issue of cybersecurity is one of the opportunities and challenges at the same time. The data that is shared by a vast number of digital tools of communication bears strategic importance for many industries and components of the infrastructure. Judging from the official information, there are 16 critical infrastructure sectors that are constantly under attack (The Department of Homeland Security, 2016; Laughlin, 2016, p.346). It is possible to state the Communications Sector and the Defense Industrial Base Sector are two major subdivisions of the U.S. infrastructure that might be most at risk currently.
To substantiate this statement, it is possible to note that the Communications Sector serves as a foundation of functioning of all subdivisions and branches of the national infrastructure that range from the Energy Sector, the Information Technology Sector, and the Financial Services Sector to the Emergency Services Sector, Transportation Systems Sector, and many other infrastructural components. The communication of the information via satellite, wireless, and wireline providers is a pre-requisite of successful performance of economy and trade, manufacturing and healthcare. Therefore, the innovations of the cyber security in the Communications Sector have to be enforced and supported both by the government and the private sector. For example, currently, health care field suffers from numerous breaches and violations of security when the electronic protected health information (ePHI) such as private medical records is disclosed to third parties. Thus, there is an issue of cyber security within the framework of health care services (Mohammed, Mariani, & Mohammed, 2015, p.60). It largely depends on means of communication utilizes by health care units, as the security breaches often happen because of the gaps in encryption methods and weak points in the wireless networks which are still very insecure (Bajwa, 2014, 294). The Defense Industrial Base Sector is another critical sector that is currently at risk as the current geopolitical situation in the world is very unstable. The incidence of terrorist activity and the numerous cases of social unrest prove that the government has to allocate more assets to develop the Defense Industrial Base Sector to ensure the security in the country. The private sector can play a crucial role in decreasing this risk and fostering the process of enforcement of cyber security. There is a vast number of private entrepreneurs that are engaged in the business operations that are concerned with designing software represented by different programs, applications, and digital platforms that help to strengthen the quality of data security.
It is utterly indispensable to ensure that the data transmission is effectuated with the incorporation of encryption technologies. The private sector in the IT field is focused on the elaboration of the most efficacious wireless networks and connection, as well as on the designing of the most powerful encryption methods. In this way, the private sector will address the overall objectives of PPD 21 & EO 13636, as these directives aspire to …
