Critical Infrastructure Protection-the cyber/information dimension: report on national infrastructure coordination initiatives

Executive Order 13010, entitled "Critical Infrastructure Protection," states that certain national infrastructures are so vital that their incapacity or destruction would have a debilitating impact on the defense or economic security of the United States. Threats to these critical infrastructures fall into two categories: physical threats and cyber threats. The order established the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP). The Commission is to assess the scope and nature of the vulnerabilities of, and threats to, critical infrastructures; to determine what legal policy issues are raised by efforts to protect critical infrastructures and assess how these issues should be addressed; and to recommend a comprehensive national policy and implementation strategy for protecting critical infrastructures from physical and cyber threats and assuring their continued operation. While the Commission is conducting its analysis and until the President has an opportunity to consider and act on its recommendations, there is established an Infrastructure Protection Task Force (IPTF). The IPTF will increase coordination of existing infrastructure protection efforts in order to better address, and prevent, critical infrastructure crises that would have a debilitating regional or national impact.