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What does critical infrastructure (CI) mean? What are soft and hard targets? What does the term cascading effects mean? What is the most important CI where you live or work? Why do you say this?
TEXTBOOK: Bennett, B. T. (2018). Understanding, assessing, and responding to terrorism: Protecting critical infrastructure and personnel (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9781119237785.
Critical Infrastructure (CI) is defined as any physical or virtual asset, system, or network that is vital to the functioning of a society and economy. This includes both public and private components such as telecommunications systems, utilities, transportation networks, financial services, healthcare services, and food supply chains. Soft targets are those that have been identified by terrorists as potentially vulnerable to attack due to their lack of security measures; hard targets are heavily guarded with strong protection against potential terrorist attacks. The term cascading effects refers to the idea that an attack on one part of critical infrastructure can have far-reaching consequences throughout other connected parts of the infrastructure.
The most important CI where I live or work is likely the electrical power grid. Access to electricity is essential for businesses in order for them to operate properly and efficiently; without it production would grind almost entirely to a halt which would be devastating for any business’s bottom line. Additionally access to electricity keeps homes safe from intruders by powering exterior lighting systems and alarm systems—without it home security could be severely compromised making homeowners more vulnerable. Electricity also powers medical equipment used both at home and in hospitals which makes it even more critical for maintaining public health and safety.