Unit 8 Assignment (1)
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UNIT 8 ASSIGNMENT
1
Unit 8 Assignment
CJ 355: Homeland Security
Purdue University Global
December 10, 2022
Critical infrastructure
is defined as systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so
vital to the U.S. that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would have a
debilitating impact on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or
any combination of those matters (NIST, 2022). Critical infrastructure includes the vast network
of highways, connecting bridges and tunnels, railways, utilities, and buildings necessary to
maintain normalcy in daily life (DHS, 2022). It should be alarming how many American citizens
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do not know or do not want to know how crucial critical infrastructure is to the security of our
economy. Commercial Facilities, Dams, and Financial Industries are just three examples of
numerous critical infrastructures in the United States. All three of the examples are susceptible to
a terror attack because each one of the examples can be brought to its knees by a black hat
hacker with a computer and internet access. A black hat hacker is a hacker (criminal) that breaks
into computer networks with malicious intent (Kaspersky, 2022).
The most essential of the critical infrastructures is the Financial Services Sector. If a
hacker were to break into the database, they would have the ability to leak millions of
individuals' personal financial information for others to see and be taken advantage of. A way of
protecting this critical infrastructure is for the Department of Treasury to have complete control
of the SLA. If the Department of Treasury had complete control, it would be a win-win with the
federal government and all parties. SLAs ease the concern over risk, which increases trust
between parties. The SLA would reduce uncertainty by laying out what transpires in the event of
a breach.
The commercial facilities are typically privately owned and controlled, with little
communication with the federal government. One way to protect commercial facilities from a
terror attack is to communicate more with the federal government and build higher security
barriers within the firewalls. Because if the security barriers within the firewalls are not fully
secured, then hackers can force their way into the hardware and make it completely vulnerable.
Dams Sector delivers critical water retention and control services in the United States,
including hydroelectric power generation, municipal and industrial water supplies, agricultural
irrigation, sediment and flood control, river navigation for inland bulk shipping, industrial waste
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management, and recreation (CISA, 2022). If a hacker were to break into the database, they
would have the opportunity to release the water and create catastrophic flooding in neighboring
regions, which would also cause homes and businesses to become destroyed and underwater.
One of the most notorious high-profile data security breaches happened to Yahoo from
2013-2016. During the three-year data breach, the hackers acquired names; phone numbers;
dates of birth; passwords, and email addresses. Encrypted and unencrypted security questions
and answers of nearly three billion people. Many believe that the country of Russia was linked to
the data breach because the four individuals charged for the data breach were Russian
Intelligence Officers. It took Yahoo nearly three years after the start of the incident (2016) to
notify the general public that they had suffered a security breach. When Yahoo notified the
general public, they were mandated to go step by step with the general public. By doing this,
they ensured that the public's accounts were safe (invalidating unencrypted security questions
and answers so that they could not be used to access an account and asking potentially affected
users to change their passwords) (White, 2021).
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References
CISA. (2022). Dams Sector.
https://www.cisa.gov/dams-sector
DHS. (2022). Critical Infrastructure.
https://www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/critical-
infrastructure
Kaspersky. (2022). What is a Black-Hat Hacker?
https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-
center/threats/black-hat-hacker
NIST. (2022). Critical Infrastructure.
https://csrc.nist.gov/glossary/term/critical_infrastructure
White, J. (February 4, 2021). Yahoo Announces 500 million Users Impacted by Data Breach.
https://lifelock.norton.com/learn/data-breaches/company-data-breach