Cybersecurity Policy for Water and Electricity Infrastructures

This course focuses on the cybersecurity programs of the electricity and drinking water infrastructures and the policies that support them. These two sectors are part of the lifeline infrastructure, which also includes transport and communications. The Department of Homeland Security's National Protection and Programs Directorate oversees both subsectors and manages the National Infrastructure Protection Program. The program follows a 5-step continuous improvement process called the Risk Management Framework. Sector-Specific Agencies designated by DHS collaborate with industry representatives to implement this framework and document the results in Sector-Specific Plans. In 2013, President Obama issued an executive order directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to create voluntary recommendations for infrastructure cybersecurity measures. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework was based on the Electricity Subsector Cybersecurity Capability Maturity Model developed by the Department of Energy. The Environmental Protection Agency recommended that the NIST framework be voluntarily applied in the drinking water sector, while the Department of Energy recommended the no-cost application of the ES-C2M2 in the electricity subsector. This course will cover both subsectors, as well as elements and applications of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (ES-C2M2).