Exploring Cybersecurity Critical Infrastructure
Critical Infrastructure in the U. S. includes 18 different sectors: Agriculture and Food, Banking and Finance, Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Communications, Critical Manufacturing, Dams, Defense Industrial Base, Emergency Services, Energy, Government Facilities, Healthcare, and Public Health, Information Technology, National Monuments and Icons, Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste, Postal and Shipping, Transportation Systems, plus Water and Wastewater (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2022). The countries’ vulnerabilities, ranging between federal and local sectors, remain linked, referencing the mutuality of the levels wherein safeguarding plus readiness encompass the strength country-wide (Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency, 2020; U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2022). The overarching accountability for establishing critical infrastructure objectives lies with the government. However, the enactment of steps and phases to diminish the susceptibility of privately owned and corporate possessions is contingent principally on the private-sector’s knowledge, skills, and actions.
Problem Statement
COVID-19 shaped a variety of cybersecurity issues owing to the growth in telemedicine. 2020 represented a significant increase in healthcare cyber-attacks, referencing a projected influence on the shielded health information (PHI) approximating 26 million individuals in America (Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 2020). The Healthcare and Public Health Sector safeguards the entire sectors of the economy to include threats for instance terrorism, pandemics, and natural catastrophes (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2022). Because the vast bulk of the sector’s resources, such as hospitals, are confidentially possessed and operated, partnership and data and material sharing amongst the open and private segments is indispensable to the growing resilience of America’s Healthcare and Public Health critical infrastructure (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2022). In neighborhoods, healthcare inclines as supplied as well as controlled, the public health level, concentrated predominantly on populace health, is continued as managed throughout every echelon of administration: local, national, regional, state, territorial, and tribal (U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 2022). Regional hospitals provide vital standard healthcare amenities and act as initial answerers amidst disasters and public health emergencies like COVID-19. This role requires that hospitals collaborate with other government entities inside the community. Referencing the given state, concluding hospitals’ positions in the communal-wise catastrophe retort is very serious, especially as it relates to protections from cybersecurity attacks. This paper looks to explore the most relevant and viable approaches to developing leadership and knowledgeable decision-making concerning protecting U.S. Critical Infrastructure from a framework of sound cybersecurity protection approaches in the age of COVID-19.