Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resource Allocation
You are the critical infrastructure protection (CIP) specialist in the plans directorate of a public safety organization in one of the 100 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States.
Based on the total number of Critical Infrastructure and Key Resources (CIKR) in your jurisdiction (national, state, county, and local), you have been tasked by the director of public safety to develop some courses of action to inform a recommendation regarding the use of available resources for protection of CIKR.
The director understands the complexities associated with the many contributing factors and realizes that there will always exist a shortfall or deficiency between essential tasks and available resources. The director also understands there will never be one solution that captures everything that needs to be considered and accomplished. The director will make the final decision based on your assessment.
Guidance
Keep the following in mind as you work on this assignment:
You should base your recommendations by completing a risk analysis using the Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA)-approved risk analysis table (introduced in Phase 3), the National Planning Scenarios, and the Joint National Priorities for Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience.
This is a draft formal report.
Assignment Guidelines
Complete the following for this assignment:
Select a metropolitan area in the United States that you plan to analyze for this assignment. Because this project is a preparation for the Phase 5 Group Project, coordination is required with your small group to determine and select an appropriate metropolitan area.
Address the following in 1,500–1,750 words:
What are 5–10 of the most significant CIKR assets that exist within your metropolitan area? Explain in detail.
Select 2 CIKR assets from your list above, and conduct a risk analysis on each using the National Planning Scenarios. Coordinate with your small group teammates to avoid duplication of effort in the Group Project during Phase 5.
What are the most important resources that the metropolitan area has available for the protection of its CIKR? Explain in detail.
For each of the selected CIKR, provide a detailed recommendation of how you would use the available resources to protect these CIKR.
This should be the majority of your submission.
What challenges exist for the metropolitan area regarding CIP? Explain your response.
How will these challenges be overcome? Explain in detail.
Provide recommendations and justification of those recommendations to the director.
Be sure to reference all sources using APA style.
Solution Preview
Introduction
Critical infrastructure and Key resources refer to the totality of resources that are natural as well as man-made and upon which a country heavily depends on for its functions, along with the systems for their protection, delivery as well as processing. Critical infrastructure combines IT, food, transport, water systems, agricultural, communications, energy and other sectors. The United States has identified in number 16 sectors of critical infrastructure. CIKR puts into place resources involved together with those systems and the core services like the military, intelligence communities, and police (Goetz, E & Shenoi, 2008).
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