In the United States, 16 critical infrastructure (CI) sectors provide the essential services that fuel and underpin American society, day-to-day life and well-being. An attack or disruption to CI assets, systems and networks that contribute to critical functionality would have a catastrophic impact on national security, economic security, public health or safety.

In light of evolving natural and man-made threats, securing and making CI resilient must be a shared responsibility, requiring not only effective public-private partnerships, training and exercises, but also a collective effort to raise awareness about the critical need security and resilience play in enhancing the ability to respond to and recover from all events, as well as minimizing losses and ensuring continuity of operations.

Recognizing 2021’s National Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, Security magazine had the honor of working with security leaders within the public and private sectors to bring you October’s Special Report — comprised of five different features to be used as best practices and resources to assist CI organizations in bolstering their security postures to prevent and reduce the risks of disruptions.

Our special appreciation goes to Brian Harrell, Vice President and Chief Security Officer at AVANGRID, and to all of the following contributing authors for providing their subject matter expertise:

• Daniel Kaniewski, Managing Director of Public Sector, Marsh McLennan
• Dr. David Mussington, Executive Assistant Director, Infrastructure Security, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
• Scott Aaronson, Vice President, Security and Preparedness, Edison Electric Institute
• Kate Ledesma, Resilience and Policy Manager, North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center
• Michael Arcenaux, Managing Director, WaterISAC