Center for Infrastructure Protection & Homeland Security

In the News – This Week in Critical Infrastructure: Week of February 12, 2018

This Week in Critical Infrastructure we look at the latest policy related to U.S. elections systems and supply chain risk management, a new GAO report on the likely impact of EMPs on the electric grid, and a critical take on the latest infrastructure investment proposal and how it may impact U.S. water systems.


U.S. Democrats push $1 billion bill for election security

From Reuters, Congressional Democrats introduced new legislation on Wednesday to provide $1 billion in new funding for election security, focused on cyber defenses for U.S. voting systems. This follows warnings from U.S. intelligence officials that the midterms this November are likely to be targeted by Russia and other foreign adversaries.

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DHS, lawmakers doubling down on supply chain risk management

From Jory Heckman at Federal News Radio, a report on recent initiative launched internally at the Department of Homeland Security to analysis supply chain security between the federal government and its contractors. The initiative doubles down on existing efforts by allocating more staff within the National Protection and Programs Directorate to the issue.

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Electricity Suppliers Have Taken Actions to Address Electromagnetic Risks, and Additional Research Is Ongoing

In this Government Accountability Office report released earlier this month, GAO assessed the readiness and state of research related to the potential impacts of Electromagnetic Pulse Risks on the U.S. electric grid. Overall, GAO found that most suppliers had taken steps to assess their risk and expected impacts to be relatively small.

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American drinking water could soon get a lot dirtier

From Business Insider, Hilary Brueck reports on criticism of President Trump’s latest infrastructure proposal with regard to potential impacts on U.S. water systems. Some experts have expressed concern over the potential dangers of reduced regulation in the proposal, a move the White House hopes would increase the speed of new projects while critics argue it would increase the risk of contamination of drinking water.

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