Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets: Definition and Identification

CRS Report for Congress
Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets:
Definition and Identification
October 1, 2004
John Moteff and Paul Parfomak
Resources, Science, and Industry Division

Congressional Research Service ˜ The Library of Congress

Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets:
Definition and Identification
Summary
The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures
and Key Assets (NSPP) details a major part of the Bush administration’s overall
homeland security strategy. Implementing this Strategy requires clear definition of
“critical infrastructures” and “key assets.” Although the Strategy provides such
definitions, the meaning of “critical infrastructure” in the public policy context has
been evolving for decades and is still open to debate.
Twenty years ago, “infrastructure” was defined primarily with respect to the
adequacy of the nation’s public works. In the mid-1990's, however, the growing
threat of international terrorism led policy makers to reconsider the definition of
“infrastructure” in the context of homeland security. Successive federal government
reports, laws and executive orders have refined, and generally expanded, the number
of infrastructure sectors and the types of assets considered to be “critical” for
purposes of homeland security. The USA PATRIOT Act of 2001(P.L. 107-56)
contains the federal government’s most recent definition of “critical infrastructure.”
The NSPP contains the most recent detailed list of critical infrastructures and assets
of national importance. The list may continue to evolve, however, as economic
changes or geopolitical developments influence homeland security policy.
There is some debate among policy makers about the implications of an
ambiguous or changing list of critical infrastructures. Ambiguity about what
constitutes a critical infrastructure (or key resource) could lead to inefficient use of
limited homeland security resources. For example, private sector representatives
state that they need clear and stable definitions of asset criticality so they will know
exactly what assets to protect, and how well to protect them. Otherwise, they risk
protecting too many facilities, protecting the wrong facilities, or both. On the other
hand, arbitrarily limiting the number of critical infrastructures a priori due to
resource constraints might miss a dangerous vulnerability. Clear “criticality” criteria
will also be important if federal agencies intend to implement and enforce any
potential future security regulations related to critical infrastructure.
This report will not be updated.

Contents
In troduction ......................................................1
Background ......................................................1
What is “Infrastructure”?........................................1
“Critical” Infrastructure and “Key Resources” ...........................3
Presidential Decision Directive 63.............................4
Executive Order 13228.....................................6
The USA PATRIOT and Homeland Security Acts................6
National Strategy for Homeland Security.......................7
National Strategy for Physical Infrastructure Protection............9
Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7.....................9
Differentiating Critical and Non-Critical “Assets”...................10
Challenges Identifying Critical Assets.............................12
Critical Infrastructure in the 9/11 Commission Report................14
Policy Issues.....................................................14
List of Tables
Table 1: Critical Infrastructures and Lead Agencies Under PDD-63..........5
Table 2: Critical Infrastructures and Lead Agencies Under HSPD-7.........10
Table 3. Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets Over Time.................15

Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets:
Definition and Identification
Introduction
The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures
and Key Assets details a major part of the Bush administration’s overall homeland¹
security strategy. Implementing this strategy requires government agencies and
private sector partners to identify and prioritize assets most essential to the United
States’ economic and social well-being. A key implementation requirement,
therefore, is clear definition of what the administration considers to be critical
infrastructures and key assets. While the Strategy provides the administration’s
definitions, along with its rationale for including specific infrastructures on the
critical list, the meaning of “critical infrastructure” in the public policy context has
been evolving for decades and is still open to debate.
This report reviews the concept and definition of “critical infrastructure” as it
has appeared in federal reports, legislation and regulation since the early 1980s. The
report highlights the changes and expansion of that definition as the focus of public
policy debates shifted from infrastructure adequacy to infrastructure protection.
Finally the report summarizes current policy issues associated with critical
infrastructure identification by federal agencies and the private sector. The report is
intentionally limited to definitional issues and categorization of infrastructure. For
a more general discussion of national policy regarding critical infrastructure
protection, including its evolution, implementation, and continuing issues, see CRS
Report RL30153, Critical Infrastructures: Background, Policy, and Implementation.
Background
What is “Infrastructure”?
The American Heritage Dictionary, defines the term “infrastructure” as
The basic facilities, services, and installations needed for the functioning of a
community or society, such as transportation and communications systems, water
and power lines, and public institutions including schools, post offices, and²

prisons.
¹ Office of the President. The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical
Infrastructure and Key Assets. February, 2003.
² The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Houghton
(continued...)

This definition, however, and others like it, are broad and subject to interpretation.
As a practical matter, what is considered to be infrastructure depends heavily upon
the context in which the term is used.
In U.S. public policy, the definition of “infrastructure” has been evolutionary
and often ambiguous. Twenty years ago, “infrastructure” was defined primarily in
debates about the adequacy of the nation’s public works—which were viewed by
many as deteriorating, obsolete, and of insufficient capacity. A typical report of the
time, issued by the Council of State Planning Agencies, defined “infrastructure” as
“a wide array of public facilities and equipment required to provide social services
and support private sector economic activity.” According to the report, infrastructure
included roads, bridges, water and sewer systems, airports, ports, and public
buildings, and might also include schools, health facilities, jails, recreation facilities,
electric power production, fire safety, waste disposal, and communications services.³
In a 1983 report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) defined
“infrastructure” as facilities with “the common characteristics of capital intensiveness
and high public investment at all levels of government. They are, moreover, directly
critical to activity in the nation’s economy.” The CBO included highways, public
transit systems, wastewater treatment works, water resources, air traffic control,
airports, and municipal water supply in this category. The CBO also noted that the
concept of infrastructure could be “applied broadly to include such social facilities
as schools, hospitals, and prisons, and it often includes industrial capacity, as well.”⁴
In a subsequent report, however, CBO narrowed this definition of “infrastructure” to
exclude
some facilities often thought of as infrastructure–such as public housing,
government buildings, private rail service, and schools–and some environmental
facilities (such as hazardous or toxic waste sites) where the initial onus of⁵
responsibility is on private individuals.
Congress, itself, has often enacted legislation defining or affecting one or more
infrastructure sectors, but has rarely done so comprehensively. In 1984, Congress did
enact a bill that established the National Council on Public Works Improvement with
a mandate to report on the state of public works infrastructure systems (P.L. 98-501).
Analysis required by that act was to include “any physical asset that is capable of
being used to produce services or other benefits for a number of years” and was to
include but not be limited to “roadways or bridges; airports or airway facilities; mass
transportation systems; wastewater treatment or related facilities; water resources

² (...continued)
Mifflin Company. Boston, MA. 2000. (Definition 2).
³ Vaughan, R. and Pollard, R. Rebuilding America, Vol. I, Planning and Managing Public
Works in the 1980s. Council of State Planning Agencies. Washington, DC. 1984. pp 1-2.
⁴ U.S. Congressional Budget Office. Public Works Infrastructure: Policy Considerations
for the 1980s. April 1983. p 1.
⁵ U.S. Congressional Budget Office. New Directions for the Nation’s Public Works.
September 1988. pp xi-xii.

projects; hospitals; resource recovery facilities; public buildings; space or
communication facilities; railroads; and federally assisted housing.”⁶
The Council established by P.L. 98-501 provided yet another definition of
“infrastructure.” The Council’s report characterized “infrastructure” as facilities with
high fixed costs, long economic lives, strong links to economic development, and a
tradition of public sector involvement. Taken as a whole, according to the Council,
the services that they provide “form the underpinnings of the nation’s defense, a
strong economy, and our health and safety.” Under this definition of “infrastructure,”
the Council included highways, streets, roads, and bridges; airports and airways;
public transit; intermodal transportation (the interface between modes); water supply;
wastewater treatment; water resources; solid waste; and hazardous waste services. ⁷
The Council’s report was one of the last significant federal initiatives during the
1980s to consider the definition of “infrastructure.” By the early 1990s, policy
makers’ attention had largely moved away from infrastructure issues broadly.
Instead, legislative proposals tended to address the needs of individual infrastructure
sectors.
“Critical” Infrastructure and “Key Resources”
The growing threat of international terrorism in the mid-1990s renewed federal
government interest in infrastructure issues. Unlike the previous period, which was
focused on infrastructure adequacy, federal agencies in the 1990s were increasingly
concerned about infrastructure protection. This concern, in turn, led policy makers
to reconsider the definition of “infrastructure” in a security context.
On July 15, 1996, President Clinton signed Executive Order 13010 establishing
the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP).⁸ This
Executive Order (E.O.) defined “infrastructure” as
The framework of interdependent networks and systems comprising
identifiable industries, institutions (including people and procedures), and
distribution capabilities that provide a reliable flow of products and
services essential to the defense and economic security of the United
States, the smooth functioning of government at all levels, and society as
a whole.
This definition of “infrastructure” is consistent with the broad definitions from the
1980's. E.O. 13010 went further, however, by prioritizing particular infrastructure
sectors, and specific assets within those sectors, on the basis of national importance.

⁶ P.L. 98-501, sec. 203.
⁷ National Council on Public Works Improvement. Fragile Foundations: A Report on
America’s Public Works, Final Report to the President and Congress. Washington D.C.
February 1988: 33.
⁸ Executive Order 13010—Critical Infrastructure Protection. Federal Register, July 17,

1996. Vol. 61, No. 138. pp 37347-37350. Reference is on page 37347.

E.O.13010 stated 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.”⁹ The Commission’s final report to the
President echoed the E.O.’s definition of vital infrastructure.¹⁰
The general concept of “vital” or “critical” infrastructure in E.O. 13010 was not
entirely new, having appeared in some form in many of the policy debates in the
1980s. The Order did break new ground, however, in listing what it considered to
be critical infrastructures. According to E.O. 13010, these critical infrastructures
were:
^! telecommunications;
^!electrical power systems;
^!gas and oil storage and transportation;
^!banking and finance;
^! transportation;
^!water supply systems;
^!emergency services (including medical, police, fire, and rescue);
and,
^!continuity of government.
The list of critical infrastructure sectors in E.O. 13010 was much broader than that
reported by the National Council on Public Works Improvement. In addition to
transportation, water systems, and public services—sectors with “a tradition of public
sector involvement”—E.O. 13010 included infrastructures predominantly owned by
private companies: telecommunications, energy, and financial services.
Presidential Decision Directive 63. In response to the President’s
Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection final report, President Clinton
signed Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63) on May 22, 1998.¹¹ The
Directive’s goal was to establish a national capability within five years to protect
“critical” infrastructure from intentional disruption. According to PDD-63, “critical”
infrastructures were “those physical and cyber-based systems essential to the
minimum operations of the economy and government.” This definition expanded
little on that in E.O. 13010, but was noteworthy for its specific mention of “cyber”
infrastructure.¹²

⁹ Executive Order 13010. p 37347.
¹⁰ President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, Critical Foundations:
Protecting America’s Infrastructure, October 1997.
¹¹ The Clinton Administration’s Policy on Critical Infrastructure Protection: Presidential
Decision Directive No. 63, White Paper, May 22, 1998.
¹² The distinction between physical security and cyber-security is almost inextricable and
not clearly articulated. For example, physical assets in electric power include the generation
plant, transformers, and power lines. The computer hardware and communication links that
control the generation and flow of electricity could be considered physical or cyber assets.
Data transmitted and stored on the computers and transmitted over the communication lines
and the software used to process that data are considered cyber assets. Physical security
(continued...)

To help achieve its goal, PDD-63 directed certain federal agencies to lead the
government’s security efforts and identify private sector liaisons in specific critical
infrastructure sectors. These lead agencies and associated critical infrastructures are
summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Critical Infrastructures and Lead Agencies Under PDD-63
Lead AgencyCritical Infrastructure
Dept. of CommerceInformation and communications
Dept. of the TreasuryBanking and finance
Environmental ProtectionWater supply
Agency
Dept. of TransportationAviation
Highways (including trucking)
Mass transit
Pipelines
Rail
Waterborne commerce
Dept. of Justice/FBIEmergency law enforcement services
Federal EmergencyEmergency fire service
Management. AgencyContinuity of government services
Dept. of Health andPublic health services, including prevention, surveillance,
Human Serviceslaboratory services, and personal health services
Dept. of EnergyElectric power
Oil and gas production and storage
^Sou^r^{ce: P}^DD-⁶³
PDD-63 also identified certain “special functions” related to critical infrastructure
protection to be chiefly performed by federal agencies: national defense, foreign
affairs, intelligence, law enforcement.
The first version of a National Plan for Critical Infrastructure (also called for by¹³
PDD-63) defined “critical infrastructures” as “those systems and assets—both
physical and cyber—so vital to the Nation that their incapacity or destruction would
have a debilitating impact on national security, national economic security, and/or

¹² (...continued)
typically means protecting assets (including computers) from damage caused by physical
forces such as explosion, impact, and fire. Cyber-security typically means protecting both
physical and cyber assets from operational failure or manipulation due to unauthorized
access to operating software or data. Securing critical infrastructures may require a broad
combination of both physical and cyber measures (from installing fences to installing
firewall software).
¹³ Defending America’s Cyberspace: National Plan for Information Systems Protection.
Version 1.0. An Invitation to a Dialogue. White House. 2000

national public health and safety.”¹⁴ While the Plan concentrated on cyber-security
of the federal government’s critical infrastructure, the Plan refers to those
infrastructures mentioned in the Directive.
Executive Order 13228. Following the terror attacks of September 11, 2001,
President Bush signed new Executive Orders relating to critical infrastructure¹⁵
protection. Executive Order 13228, signed October 8, 2001, established the Office
of Homeland Security and the Homeland Security Council. Among the duties
assigned the Office was to coordinate efforts to protect:
^!energy production, transmission, and distribution services and
critical facilities
^!other utilities
^! telecommunications
^!facilities that produce, use, store, or dispose of nuclear material
^!public and privately owned information systems
^!special events of national significance
^!transportation, including railways, highways, shipping ports and
waterways
^!airports and civilian aircraft
^!livestock, agriculture, and systems for the provision of water and
food for human use and consumption.¹⁶
The list in E.O. 13228 is noteworthy for its specific inclusion of nuclear sites, special
events, and agriculture, which were not among the sectors identified in PDD-63.
In a separate Executive Order 13231,¹⁷ signed October 16, 2001, President Bush
established the President’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Board. Although the
name of the Board implied a broad mandate, its duties focused primarily on
information infrastructure. However, the E.O. made reference to the importance of
information systems to other critical infrastructures such as “telecommunications,
energy, financial services, manufacturing, water, transportation, health care, and¹⁸
emergency services.”
The USA PATRIOT and Homeland Security Acts. In response to the
terror attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act of
2001(P.L. 107-56). The PATRIOT Act was intended to “deter and punish terrorist
acts in the United States and around the world, to enhance law enforcement
investigatory tools, and for other purposes.” In its findings, P.L. 107-56 states that

¹⁴ Ibid. Executive Summary. p 1. Section 1016 of the USA PATRIOT Act (P.L.107-56),
passed October 16, 2001, used essentially the same definition.
¹⁵ Executive Order 13228—Establishing the Office of Homeland Security and the Homeland
Security Council. Federal Register, Vol. 66, No. 196, October 8, 2001. pp51812- 51817.
¹⁶ E.O. 13228. Section 3 (e) (i), (ii), (iv), (v) and (vi), pp. 51813-51814.
¹⁷ Executive Order 13231—Critical Infrastructure Protection in the Information Age.
Federal Register, Vol. 86, No. 202. October 18, 2001. pp. 53063-53071.
¹⁸ E.O. 13231. Section 1 (a), p. 53063.

Private business, government, and the national security apparatus increasingly
depend on an interdependent network of critical physical and information
infrastructures, including telecommunications, energy, financial services, water,
and transportation sectors (Sec. 1016(b)(2)).
The act goes on to define “critical” infrastructure as
systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that
the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a debilitating
impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety,
or any combination of those matters (Sec. 1016(e)).
This definition was adopted, by reference, in the Homeland Security Act of 2002
(P.L. 107-296 , Sec. 2(4)) establishing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The Homeland Security Act also formally introduces the concept of “key
resources,” defined as “publicly or privately controlled resources essential to the
minimal operations of the economy and government” (Sec. 2(9)). Without
articulating exactly what they are, the act views key resources as distinct from critical
infrastructure, albeit worthy of the same protection (Sec. 2(15)(A)).
National Strategy for Homeland Security. The President’s National
Strategy for Homeland Security (NSHS), issued in July 2002, restates the definition
of critical infrastructure provided in the PATRIOT Act. The Strategy expands on this
definition, however, summarizing its rationale for classifying specific infrastructure
sectors as critical.
Our critical infrastructures are particularly important because of the functions or
services they provide to our country. Our critical infrastructures are also
particularly important because they are complex systems: the effects of a terrorist
attack can spread far beyond the direct target, and reverberate long after the
immediate damage.
America’s critical infrastructure encompasses a large number of sectors. Our
agriculture, food, and water sectors, along with the public health and emergency
services sectors, provide the essential goods and services Americans need to
survive. Our institutions of government guarantee our national security and
freedom, and administer key public functions. Our defense industrial base
provides essential capabilities to help safeguard our population from external
threats. Our information and telecommunications sector enables economic
productivity and growth, and is particularly important because it connects and
helps control many other infrastructure sectors. Our energy, transportation,
banking and finance, chemical industry, and postal and shipping sectors help¹⁹

sustain our economy and touch the lives of Americans everyday.
¹⁹ U.S. Office of Homeland Security. The National Strategy for Homeland Security. July 16,

2002. p 30.

The National Strategy listed the following critical infrastructure sectors:
^! Agriculture
^! Food
^! Water
^!Public Health
^!Emergency Services
^! Government
^!Defense Industrial Base
^!Information and Telecommunications
^! Energy
^! Transportation
^!Banking and Finance
^!Chemical Industry
^!Postal and Shipping²⁰
This list of critical infrastructures encompasses those of E.O. 13228, but adds
chemicals, and postal and shipping services due to their economic importance. While
there may be some debate, in particular, about why the chemical industry was not on
earlier lists that considered military and economic security, it seems to have been
added also because individual chemical plants could be sources of materials that
could be used for a weapon of mass destruction, or whose operations could be
disrupted in a way that would significantly threaten the safety of surrounding
communities. While not identifying it as such in this list, the National Strategy also
discusses “cyber infrastructure” as closely connected to, but distinct from, physical
infrastructure. The Strategy states that DHS “will place an especially high priority
on protecting our cyber infrastructure.”²¹
In addition to identifying critical infrastructure, the Strategy also introduces the
concept of “key assets” as a subset of nationally important key resources. The
Strategy defines “key assets” as
individual targets whose destruction would not endanger vital systems, but could
create local disaster or profoundly damage our Nation’s morale or confidence.
Key assets include symbols or historical attractions, such as prominent national,
state, or local monuments and icons. In some cases, these include quasi-public
symbols that are identified strongly with the United States as a Nation.... Key
assets also include individual or localized facilities that deserve special
protection because of their destructive potential or their value to the local²²
community.
The Strategy also mentions “high profile events ... strongly coupled to our national
symbols or national morale” as worthy of special federal protection.

²⁰ U.S. Office of Homeland Security. July 16, 2002. p 30.
²¹ U.S. Office of Homeland Security. July 16, 2002. p 31.
²² U.S. Office of Homeland Security. July 16, 2002. p 31.

National Strategy for Physical Infrastructure Protection. The Bush
Administration's National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical
Infrastructures and Key Assets (NSPP), released in February, 2003, reaffirms the
critical infrastructure sectors identified in the National Strategy for Homeland
Security. The 2003 Strategy also defines three categories of what it considers to be
“key assets.”
One category of key assets comprises the diverse array of national monuments,
symbols, and icons that represent our Nation’s heritage, traditions and values,
and political power. They include a wide variety of sites and structures, such as
prominent historical attractions, monuments, cultural icons, and centers of
government and commerce.... Another category of key assets includes facilities
and structures that represent our national economic power and technological
advancement. Many of them house significant amounts of hazardous materials,
fuels, and chemical catalysts that enable important production and processing
functions.... A third category of key assets includes such structures as prominent
commercial centers, office buildings, and sports stadiums, where large numbers
of people regularly congregate to conduct business or personal transactions,²³
shop, or enjoy a recreational pastime.
The Strategy specifically identifies nuclear power plants and dams as key assets.
Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7. On December 17, 2003,
President Bush issued Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7 (HSPD-7)
clarifying executive agency responsibilities for identifying, prioritizing and protecting
critical infrastructure. The Directive requires that DHS and other federal agencies
collaborate with “appropriate private sector entities” in sharing information and
protecting critical infrastructure (Par. 25). HSPD-7 supercedes PDD-63 (Par. 37).
HSPD-7 adopts, by reference, the definitions of “critical infrastructure” and
“key resources” in the Homeland Security Act (Sec.6). It also adopts the critical
infrastructure and key asset categories in the National Strategy for the Physical
Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets. HSPD-7 does revise the list
of lead federal agencies and associated critical infrastructures included in PDD-63
to reflect the role of the Department of Homeland Security as an independent cabinet
department, as shown in Table 2.
Although HSPD-7 specifies a list of infrastructures, it leaves open the possibility
that the list could be expanded. According to the Directive, DHS “shall ... evaluate
the need for and coordinate the coverage of additional critical infrastructure and key
resources categories over time, as appropriate” (Sec. 15). Nonetheless, the list of
critical infrastructures in Table 2 appears to be the most recent and still in force.

²³ Office of the President. The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical
Infrastructure and Key Assets. February, 2003. p 71.

Table 2: Critical Infrastructures and Lead Agencies Under HSPD-7
Lead AgencyCritical Infrastructure
Dept. of HomelandInformation technology
Security T elecommunications
Chemicals
Transportation systems, including mass transit, aviation,
maritime, ground/surface, and rail and pipeline systems
Emergency services
Postal and shipping services
Dept. of AgricultureAgriculture, food (meat, poultry, egg products)
Dept. of Health andPublic health, healthcare, and food (other than meat,
Human Servicespoultry, egg products)
EPADrinking water and waste water treatment systems
Dept. of EnergyEnergy, including the production refining, storage, and
distribution of oil and gas, and electric power (except for²⁴
commercial nuclear power facilities)
Dept. of the TreasuryBanking and finance
Dept. of the InteriorNational monuments and icons
Dept. of DefenseDefense industrial base
^Sou^r^{ce: HSP}^D^-⁷
Differentiating Critical and Non-Critical “Assets”
Identifying and prioritizing which assets of an infrastructure are most essential
to its function, or pose the most significant danger to life and property if threatened
or damaged, is necessary for developing an effective protection strategy. But the
scope and complexity of critical infrastructure sectors can make it a daunting task to
identify which specific assets are critical. For example, a recent report by the
National Research Council (NRC) characterizes the extent of the U.S. domestic
transportation system, one of the critical infrastructures, as follows:
The U.S. highway system consists of 4 million interconnected miles of paved
roadways, including 45,000 miles of interstate freeway and 600,000 bridges. The
freight rail networks extend for more than 300,000 miles and commuter and
urban rail system’s cover some 10,000 miles. Even the more contained civil
aviation system has some 500 commercial-service airports and another 14,000
smaller general aviation airports scattered across the country. These networks

²⁴ The security of nuclear power plants and nuclear materials, including nuclear materials
used in medical, industrial, and academic work, and the transportation of those materials is
primarily the responsibility of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. HSPD-7 requires the
Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and the Commission to work
to together to ensure the security of these key assets and materials.

also contain many other fixed facilities such as terminals, navigation aids, switch²⁵
yards, locks, maintenance bases and operation control centers.
Left out of this description of the transportation system is a large maritime network
of inland waterways, ports, and vessels.
As the definitions of “critical infrastructure” and “key resources” have evolved
in U.S. homeland security policy, responsible agencies have been seeking greater
refinement and prioritization within these categories. In 1999, for example, the
Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (CIAO), which was established to support
President Clinton’s National Infrastructure Protection Plan, determined that many
federal agencies responsible for critical infrastructure protection lacked a clear
understanding of what constituted a “critical asset” within an infrastructure. As a
result, the CIAO instituted a new program by which an agency could identify and
assess its critical assets, identify the dependencies of those assets on other systems,
including those beyond the direct control of the agency, and prioritize. The
Homeland Security Act implies some type of critical asset differentiation as well by
requiring DHS to “identify priorities for protective and support measures” within the
nation’s critical infrastructure sectors (Sec. 201(d)(3)).
President Bush’s National Strategy for Homeland Security explicitly adopts
critical asset differentiation. The Strategy states:
The assets, functions, and systems within each critical infrastructure sector are
not equally important. The transportation sector is vital, but not every bridge is²⁶
critical to the Nation as a whole.
The Strategy formally introduces the concept of “critical assets” as a way for the
federal government to “focus its efforts on the highest priorities” in critical
infrastructure protection.²⁷
The Bush Administration’s National Strategy for the Physical Protection of
Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets reaffirms the requirement to prioritize critical
assets. The Strategy calls for what amounts to a prioritized master list.
To frame the initial focus of our national protection effort, we must acknowledge
that the assets, systems, and functions that comprise our infrastructure sectors are
not uniformly “critical” in nature, particularly in a national or major regional
context... We must develop a comprehensive, prioritized assessment of facilities,
systems, and functions of national-level criticality and monitor their preparedness²⁸

across infrastructure sectors.
²⁵ National Research Council. Transportation Research Board. TRB Special Report 270.
Deterrence, Protection, and Preparation--The New Transportation Security Imperative.
July 2, 2002. Available in preprint form at [http://www.trb.org/]
²⁶ U.S. Office of Homeland Security. July 16, 2002. p 31.
²⁷ U.S. Office of Homeland Security. July 16, 2002. p 31.
²⁸ Office of the President. February, 2003. p 2.

While the Strategy calls for objective assessment of critical assets it acknowledges
that the “criticality”of individual assets is potentially fluid. The Strategy states that,
“as we act to secure our most critical infrastructures and assets, we must remain
cognizant that criticality varies as a function of time, risk, and market changes.”²⁹
The requirements of HSPD-7 continue the policy of critical asset prioritization
and protection in the Strategy. It is interesting to note, however, that HSPD-7
requires DHS to do so “with an emphasis on critical infrastructure and key resources
that could be exploited to cause catastrophic health effects or mass casualties
comparable to those from the use of a weapon of mass destruction.” This emphasis
on health and safety appears to imply yet another basis for prioritizing infrastructure
protection.
Challenges Identifying Critical Assets
Private companies and federal agencies have shared responsibility for
identifying critical assets since PDD-63 was issued in 1998. That Directive required
each lead federal agency to work with “private sector entities” in their respective
infrastructures to “contribute to a sectoral National Infrastructure Assurance Plan by
... assessing the vulnerabilities of the sector to cyber or physical attacks,” among
other tasks (Sec. IV). According to PDD-63 “these assessments shall ... include the
determination of the minimum essential infrastructure in each sector” (Sec. VIII.1).
The responsibility of the private sector to work with federal agencies in developing
and maintaining lists of “minimum essential infrastructure,” or critical assets,
continues to be an essential part of the government’s infrastructure protection
strategy.
Individual critical infrastructure sectors have implemented independent and
often varying approaches for identifying their own critical assets. For example, the
June 2001 security guidance issued by the National Petroleum Council (NPC) for oil
and natural gas infrastructure stated the following:
The first step in the risk management process is to identify and put a value on
each of the key assets of the organization. These key assets can be people,
facilities, services, processes, programs, etc. Next, the “impact of loss” for each
of these assets is estimated. This is a measure of the loss to the company if the
asset is damaged or destroyed. A simple rating system based on user-defined
criteria can be used to measure the value of the asset (e.g., very low, low,
moderate, high, extremely high) and the impact of its loss. In a more complex
risk management system, the value of an asset and impact of loss can be
calculated in monetary units. These values may be based on such parameters as
the original cost to create the asset, the cost to obtain a temporary replacement
for the asset, the permanent replacement cost for the asset, costs associated with
the loss of revenue, an assigned cost for the loss of human life or degradation of
environmental resources, costs to public/stakeholder relations, legal and liability³⁰

costs, and the costs of increased regulatory oversight.
²⁹ Office of the President. February, 2003. p 3.
³⁰ National Petroleum Council. Securing Oil and Natural Gas Infrastructures in the New
(continued...)

While it acknowledged the need to identify critical assets, the NPC’s guidance left
it up to individual companies to determine the specific basis for “criticality” in their
security assessments. It is important to note that the NPC initially defined a “key
asset” with respect to a potential “loss to the company” rather than broader economic
or social welfare impacts as called for in federal critical infrastructure strategies.
This emphasis illustrates the practical challenge of relying on private companies to
identify critical assets in the context of national infrastructure security.
In an effort to establish and implement a more consistent standard for what
constitutes a critical asset, the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of
Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets requires DHS to “develop a uniform
methodology for identifying facilities, systems, and functions with national-level
criticality ... [and] build a comprehensive database to catalog these critical facilities,
systems, and functions.”³¹ Under Section 201 of the Homeland Security Act (P.L.
107-296), responsibility for this critical asset catalog lies with the DHS’s Information
Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate (IAIP).
Developing a uniform methodology for identifying critical assets, and compiling
a critical asset list for the United States as whole, has been difficult for IAIP. In
April 2004, IAIP reported that it had compiled a list of 1,700 critical assets, but
confusion among private sector and state government partners about what constituted
a critical asset cast doubt on the validity and completeness of that list.³² For example,
among electric utilities, there was some question as to why certain assets were
considered critical by IAIP, since some of those assets were not in use and others did
not support significant electric loads.³³ Similar inconsistencies emerged when IAIP’s
list was compared to critical asset lists developed by state agencies. As the Assistant
Secretary for Infrastructure Protection in DHS testified before Congress “what we
have done to identify critical assets in the United States and what the states and local
municipalities and cities have done often do not reconcile.”³⁴ According to press
accounts, subsequent classified briefings with Members of Congress to review lists
of critical assets in their states have continued to raise concerns about IAIP’s critical
asset identification.³⁵

³⁰ (...continued)
Economy. Washington, DC. June 2001. p 41.
³¹ Office of the President. February, 2003. p 23.
³² These 1,700 assets, considered to be “nationally” critical by IAIP, were derived from a
database of 33,000 assets considered regionally or locally critical, as compiled from
submissions by state agencies and other infrastructure security partners.
³³ Personal communication with industry official, September 29, 2003.
³⁴ Liscouski, Robert, Asst. Sec., Infrastructure Protection, Dept. of Homeland Security,
Testimony before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security; Infrastructure and
Border Security Subcommittee. April 21, 2004.
³⁵ Starks, T., and Andersen, M.E. “Congress, Industry Both in Dismay Over Homeland
Security’s Performance on Critical Infrastructure.” CQ Homeland Security. July 29, 2004.

Critical Infrastructure in the 9/11 Commission Report
The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (known
as the 9/11 Commission) made its final report public on July 22, 2004. Among other
things, the Commission was chartered to report on the United States’ preparedness
for, and response to, the terror attacks of September 11, 2001. Many of the
recommendations made in the 9/11 Commission’s report deal indirectly with critical
infrastructure protection, especially as the goals of critical infrastructure protection
have evolved to include countering the type of attack that occurred on September 11.
However, the Commission’s report does not specifically address the definition or
identification of critical infrastructure, although the report does call for using a
systematic risk management approach to set priorities and allocate resources for
critical infrastructure protection. Although the Commission discussed in more detail
issues related to transportation security, none of its recommendations advocate a
change in the direction of, or the organizational structures that have evolved to
implement, existing infrastructure protection policies. Nevertheless, the
Commission’s recommendations could speed up implementation in some areas,
given the attention and renewed urgency expressed by the Commission.³⁶
Policy Issues
The U.S. government’s definition of “critical infrastructure” has evolved over
the years, and at any given time has left considerable room for interpretation.
Furthermore, since the 1980's, the number of sectors included under that definition
has generally expanded from the most basic public works to a much broader set of
economic, defense, government, social and institutional facilities, as illustrated in
Table 3. The list may continue to evolve and grow as economic changes or
geopolitical developments influence homeland security policy.
Should Congress care if the overall list of critical infrastructures remains fluid?
One concern is that an unclear or unstable understanding of what constitutes a critical
infrastructure (or key resource) could lead to inefficient security policies. At the very
least, a growing list of infrastructures in need of protection implies growing attention
from the federal government and, implicitly, a need for more resources devoted to
protect them. Under the Homeland Security Act and other legislation, the federal
government is required to interact with each critical infrastructure, to support and
maintain a database of vulnerabilities, to integrate the database with threat analyses,
to monitor incidents on each of the infrastructures, and to issue warnings as
appropriate. These activities call for time and resources. The federal government
also may choose to assist financially in effecting necessary protective measures, not
only for infrastructure owned and operated at the state or local level, but also for
privately owned and operated infrastructures. Allocating limited public resources
across an excessively broad range of infrastructures may be an inefficient use of
resources. However, arbitrarily limiting the number of critical infrastructures a priori
due to resource constraints might miss dangerous vulnerabilities.

³⁶ For additional discussion, see CRS Report RL3253, Critical Infrastructure Protections:
The 9/11 Commission Report, by John Moteff..

CRS-15
Table 3. Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets Over Time
^{U.S. G}^overnm^e^{nt Reports}^{and E}^x^{ecutive Orders}
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^a^s^p^o^r^t^aⁱⁿ^X^XXXX^X^X^X
^a^ter^su^p^p^l^y^/w^{aste w}^a^ter
^eⁿ^t
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^b^{lic h}^ealth^X^X^X^X^X
ⁱ^s^on^s^X
^du^s^t^{rial capacity}^X
^a^s^t^{e s}^e^rv^ices^X
ⁱ^{ki/CRS-RL32631}^lecom^m^uⁿⁱ^cation^s^X^X^X^X^X^X
^g/w^r^g^y^XXX
^s^.or^nki^{ng a}ⁿ^d^fi^na^nc^e^X^X^X^X^X
^le^ak^erg^eⁿ^c^y^s^e^rv^ices^X^X^X^X^X
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^://wiki^f^o^rm^atⁱ^oⁿ^s^y^s^t^em^s^X^X^X^X^X
^h^ttp^clear^f^acilities^X
^en^ts^X
^ri^cu^l^t^u^re/^f^{ood s}^u^ppl^y^XX^X^X
^eⁿ^s^{e in}^du^s^t^{rial bas}^e^XX
^em^{ical in}^du^s^t^ry^X
^sta^l^{/ ship}^pⁱ^{ng se}^r^v^ic^e^s^XX
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^f^r^astr^u^c^tu^r^e^secto^r^{s in}^th^{e cited}^r^e^p^o^r^ts.

Unclear or shifting criteria for identifying individual critical assets and key
assets may also lead to protection inefficiencies, especially where private companies
are responsible for security spending. These criteria may become particularly
important if federal agencies intend to implement and enforce any potential future
security regulations related to critical infrastructure. Various private sector
representatives state that they need clear and stable definitions of asset criticality so
they will know exactly what assets to protect, and how well to protect them.
Otherwise, they risk protecting too many facilities, protecting the wrong facilities, or
both. Either outcome would increase ultimate costs passed through to consumers
without commensurate security benefits, and could potentially divert scarce private
resources from better uses, such as public safety or environmental protection.
As oversight of the federal role in infrastructure security continues, questions
may be raised concerning the ongoing efforts of DHS to define and priortize critical
and key assets. In addition to this specific issue, however, Congress may wish to
assess how critical infrastructure identification fits in the nation’s overall strategy to
protect critical infrastructure. For example, if asset criticality is not clearly defined,
increasing resources for infrastructure security inspections by DHS officials could be
of limited value. Likewise, diverting infrastructure resources away from safety to
enhance security might further reduce terror risk, but not overall public risk, if safety
programs become less effective as a result. U.S. infrastructure security necessarily
involves many groups: federal agencies, industry associations, large and small asset
operators, and critical and non-critical asset owners. Reviewing how these groups
work together to achieve common security goals is an oversight challenge for
Congress.