The Jones family has never given much thought to "Critical Infrastructure Protection." Despite their dependency on water, power, food, etc., their daily assumption is that when the light switch is flipped, the lights will go on; when they go to shower, the water will flow. They get up each morning, turn the lights on, go to the kitchen to open a fully stocked refrigerator, prepare a meal and start their day. Dad checks his bank balance on the computer then heads off to get gas before work, swiping his credit card at the station. Mom regularly drives over the 95 bridge and through the Baltimore Harbor tunnel to get to her job and Dad takes the train daily to Washington, D.C.'s Union Station then transfers to metro to complete his morning commute. Their son also uses public transportation to get to his internship at the mayor's office, passing through minimal security to get to his cubicle in their city's Town Hall. Their daughter volunteers as a candy striper at the local hospital where she delivers flowers, messages and goodwill to the temporary residents.

Few people realize the extent of their interaction with and dependence on our critical infrastructure. In fact until 9/11, we as a nation had not imagined scenarios that could unearth our vulnerabilities as directly as the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Beyond wartime, we had not worked out how to react and who would be responsible for mitigating the potential vulnerabilities that surfaced when faced with deliberate acts of terror on the infrastructure we took for granted. Read the monograph.  

Thank  you to Council member Telcordia for sponsoring this monograph.