Cyber-Infrastructure Protection Policy:

Infrastructure challenges continue to drive considerable public policy debate. The nation’s economy relies very heavily on the combined provision of three critical infrastructures: energy, banking and finance, and information technology (IT). These three critical infrastructures are interconnected, interdependent and cross-cutting essential services to the whole economy. Indeed, the “incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety...” Contrasts among the infrastructure protection security investments by each sector and a systems analysis approach of their combined impact provides insight into the security investment challenges for cyber-infrastructure. Increasing vulnerability to cyber-attacks and cyber-warfare now clearly presents a “cyber-security conundrum” defying simple or straightforward resolution because of the strong, but persistently opposing factions in the political economy. A path to understanding how these contradictory influences coalesce informs a path towards resolution as analyzed here.