ABSTRACT
Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) is a topic that is now beginning to span generations. The basic concept of critical infrastructure protection finds its roots in concepts such as vital point protection that can cast back several thousand years with the protection of key shelter points, food stores, and other features such as water sources. Those involved in the planning of conflicts extended this to such infrastructure as food, water, ammunition, fuel and equipment. Civil infrastructure followed the same course, with the need for protecting vital points gradually expanding from vital points to the protection of distributed infrastructure (such as transportation, telecommunications, water, and other networks) to the more holistic protection of critical services described in previous editions. Some will remember the year 2000 (Y2K) issue as an emerging crisis that was one of the first clear examples of this expansion, involving the surveys of several critical infrastructures (such as the electrical grid) in preparation for the possible disruption of services that included power, communications, financial services, and transportation. For others, the issue began shortly after the attacks on September 11, 2001. While acts of terrorism have continued, other threats such as severe weather, climate change, and cyber threats and others have re-emerged and the threat spectrum has again broadened to cover a more holistic approach. What this book addresses is a fundamental shift in how we look at CIP—changing the approach from one that can 2be described as a series of connected, consecutive mad dashes to one that better approximates a marathon.
