Critical Infrastructure
In discussions of cyberattacks, one of the most widely-used terms is "critical infrastructure"--infrastructure that is integral in society's functioning.
For example, consider the energy grid. If the power in a large city were to go out for an extended period of time, it would impact hospitals and emergency services. In the winter, a lack of heat can be life-threatening in cold areas.
In fact, attacks against power grids have already begun--Russia, for example, hacked Ukraine's power grid in 2015, shutting off the power in Kiev, Ukraine's capital. Although the attacks only lasted a few hours, they demonstrated the potential of hacks against critical infrastructure and the need for strong cyber-protection (More information on the Russia-Ukraine hack.).
Other kinds of critical infrastructure include:
For example, consider the energy grid. If the power in a large city were to go out for an extended period of time, it would impact hospitals and emergency services. In the winter, a lack of heat can be life-threatening in cold areas.
In fact, attacks against power grids have already begun--Russia, for example, hacked Ukraine's power grid in 2015, shutting off the power in Kiev, Ukraine's capital. Although the attacks only lasted a few hours, they demonstrated the potential of hacks against critical infrastructure and the need for strong cyber-protection (More information on the Russia-Ukraine hack.).
Other kinds of critical infrastructure include:
- Communications
- Chemicals
- Critical Manufacturing
- Dams
- Defense Bases
- Food and Agriculture
- Emergency Services
- Financial Services
- Healthcare
- Transportation
- Information Technology
- Water
- Government Facilities
Some of these are more integrated into the internet than others; however, as the world becomes increasingly digitized, critical infrastructure will as well. Attacks against critical infrastructure can be devastating, and have become increasingly frequent.
What are your nations doing to protect against attacks on critical infrastructure, if anything? What portions of your infrastructure are most vulnerable to cyber attacks? What attacks would be most devastating to your nations' functioning?
Sources:
- https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/NIAC%20Catastrophic%20Power%20Outage%20Study_508%20FINAL.pdf
- https://www.npr.org/2018/03/23/596044821/russia-hacked-u-s-power-grid-so-what-will-the-trump-administration-do-about-it
- https://jsis.washington.edu/news/cyberattack-critical-infrastructure-russia-ukrainian-power-grid-attacks/
- https://www.dhs.gov/cisa/critical-infrastructure-sectors
The delegation of Malaysia is fully aware of the importance of securing critical infrastructure universally. Malaysia's critical infrastructure is crucial to the well-being of the state as it includes the sectors of national defense and security, banking, communication, and water, to name a few. An attack of Malaysia's critical infrastructure would mean the crippling of national economic strength, national image, public health and safety, and our defense capabilities. To ensure this never happens in the future, Malaysia has implemented various safety measures. Our government implemented the National Cyber Security Policy to address risks to Malaysia’s critical infrastructure with action plans like email filtering, anti-virus software, new security policies, and more. In addition, the policy calls for the cooperation between the private and public sector to effectively protect the critical infrastructure of Malaysia, as a good portion of our national infrastructure is in the hands of the private sector.
ReplyDeleteThe Delegation of Malaysia looks forward to discussing this issue more in committee.
The Central African Republic understands the importance in protecting a global cyberspace that continually increases in importance. We also believe that steps need to be taken to ensure that developing nations, typically more prone to more significant damage as a result of cyberattacks, are able to build their digital infrastructures without the harmful anxiety that cyberthreats result in. We've already played a role in building cybersecurity in our region - participating in the first ever African forum of cybercrime, which encompasses the topic of cyberterrorism, in tandem with the Council of Europe and the African Union. We'd love to discuss with other delegations on how nations can develop efficient cybersecurity systems that focus on both preventing and detecting possible breaches, fostering the multilateral collaboration that has become crucial in gaining the edge in the new 21st century cybersecurity arms race.
ReplyDeleteAs the delegation of the United States of America, we believe that it is essential to protect against attacks on critical infrastructure. As our very own Department of Homeland Security offers a wide array of free tools and resources to government and private sector partners we enable the critical infrastructure security and resilience mission. Our nation's well-being relies upon secure and resilient critical infrastructure, the assets, networks, and systems that underpin American Society. With this, The National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) was created to guide the national effort to manage risk to the Nation's critical infrastructure. The community involved in managing risks to critical infrastructure is wide-ranging, composed of partnerships among owners and operators such as federal, state, local, and tribunal, as well as non-profit organizations. To better address cyber-related risks to critical infrastructure, in 2014, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) developed with the Executive Order 13636, Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity, which allows the federal government to coordinate with these critical infrastructure operators to further improve information sharing and collaboratively develop and implement risk-based approaches to cybersecurity. One of our most vulnerable critical infrastructure includes communications. The communication sector is huge and diverse, through all Internet-related services, to accessing all control devices in every other sector. Without this properly functioning, it is difficult to imagine the smooth operations of business, public safety, government or transportation. Communications is a critical integral part of the US economy, public safety and government, the economic and national security consequences of a cyber attack could be detrimental.
ReplyDeleteThe delegation of the Unites States
The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has taken action on protecting critical infrastructure through national legislation despite the lack of cyber development within its borders. First they implemented the general ICT policy and strategy in 2009. This focused on guarding critical infrastructure, promoting network resilience, and address the cyber security aspect of national security. The most important piece of Ethiopian legislation regarding cyber security is The National Information Security Policy 2011. It enables the Ethiopian government to create prevention and reactionary measures against cyber terrorism on Ethiopian infrastructure. Ethiopia has even created INSA, which is an organization dedicated to protecting Ethiopian infrastructure and networking. Furthermore they have established Computer Emergency Response Teams to react to ongoing cyber attacks and be integrated with local police units. Ethiopian infrastructure is often an easy target due to it lacking in development. However due to the lack of digitalization within Ethiopia, the most critical infrastructure is primarily that which helps transport food, water, or healthcare facilities.
ReplyDeleteThe Delegation of Ethiopia
The delegation of China understands the importances of strong, secure infrastructure. Military power and national security are among China’s top priorities, and maintaining strong cyber-infrastructure is an essential aspect to this goal. As President Xi Jinping stated, “There can be no national security without cybersecurity”. To accomplish these goals, China has invested in many frontier technologies such as artificial intelligence. It has also made massive efforts in cyber technologies for public security, such as facial recognition and vehicle and smart-phone tracking, and strong surveillance. The state of China also owns two leading cybersecurity technological companies, CEC and CETC, which are two leading corporations in the industry. They operate under ChinaSoft and China Cybersecurity, along with 400 other privately owned Chinese cybersecurity firms. These ensure safety to critical infrastructure in light of a cyberattack, which could severely damage China’s economy, the people’s well-being, and public image. In particular, one of China’s most important and vulnerable pieces of critical infrastructure is transportation. With a massive population, China has invested 8.5% of its GDP in building roads, railroads, airports, etc. The railway system contains 25% of the world’s traffic. Things such as communications are crucial to such a large network, and any blow to this critical infrastructure would severely damage the well-being of millions and millions of people.
ReplyDelete- The Delegation of China
The delegation of Andorra fully recognizes the threat of cyberterrorism to critical infrastructure. With Andorra's past as an official tax haven, numerous precautions have been taken to improve cybersecurity for the protection of financing and business in Andorra, such as our recent attempts to improve cybersecurity through partnerships with countries such as Israel. However, as more and more of our infrastructure comes online, it is essential that we enact more safeguards against cyber attacks. These safeguards cannot be limited to a few countries; cyberterrorism and cyber attacks transcend country borders. An attack on one country could easily spread to many others with catastrophic effects.
ReplyDeleteThe UN has not done nearly enough to protect critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. Resolution 2341 of 2017 (https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/RES/2341%282017%29&referer=/english/&Lang=E) was passed by the UN Security Council and called for greater international cooperation to prevent international crime through organizations such as INTERPOL as well as establishing that cyberterrorism is a crime. However, this resolution did not establish a clear, international system for protecting against cyber attacks on critical infrastructure, and the UN has yet to have done so. The delegation of Andorra looks forward to working with fellow delegates to resolve this issue.