infrastructure in homeland security

Dyemond,

Critical infrastructures are assets, networks, and systems, that are either physical or virtual. They are vital to the United States, so much that if they were to be incapacitated or destroyed that it would have a debilitating effect on security, public health, and safety, national economic security, or a combination of them all (FEMA, n.d.). Key resources are privately or publicly controlled resources that are essential to the minimal operations of the government and the economy. If attacks would occur on any of these two major things, then it would significantly disrupt the functioning of how the government and other businesses work. A list of these CIKR’s is Commercial nuclear reactors, government facilities, transportation systems, drinking water, and water-treatment, emergency services, public health and healthcare, national monuments and icons, and many others.

My personal experience with infrastructures are pretty limited, but I do remember during the 2011 Tsunami that hit Japan and destroyed one of their nuclear reactors. When I moved to Japan a month later, I remember hearing about how everyone within a hundred-mile radius had to take pills to counter the radiation from harming them and how everyone’s day to day life schedule changed a bit before everything went back to normal, as if nothing ever happened. That is why it is extremely important to make sure that all CIKR is secured from every day from devastation and attacks.

FEMA. (n.d.). Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources. Retrieved from https://emilms.fema.gov/IS520/PAN0101400text.htm