Home Programs Emergency management Critical infrastructure protection About critical infrastructure

About critical infrastructure

	See also...
	Government Operations Centre Canadian Cyber Incident Response Centre

Canada's critical infrastructure consists of those physical and information technology facilities, networks, services and assets which, if disrupted or destroyed, would have a serious impact on the health, safety, security or economic well-being of Canadians or the effective functioning of governments in Canada.

• Critical infrastructure sectors
• All-hazards approach
• Definition of the protection of critical infrastructures
• Better risk management

Critical infrastructure sectors

Our national critical infrastructure is made up of ten sectors:

1. Energy and utilities (e.g. electrical power, natural gas, oil production and transmission systems)
2. Communications and information technology (e.g. telecommunications, broadcasting systems, software, hardware and networks including the Internet)
3. Finance (e.g. banking, securities and investment)
4. Health care (e.g. hospitals, health care and blood supply facilities, laboratories and pharmaceuticals)
5. Food (e.g. safety, distribution, agriculture and food industry)
6. Water (e.g. drinking water and wastewater management)
7. Transportation (e.g. air, rail, marine and surface)
8. Safety (e.g. chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear safety, hazardous materials, search and rescue, emergency services and dams)
9. Government (e.g. services, facilities, information networks, assets and key national sites and monuments)
10. Manufacturing (e.g. defence industrial base, chemical industry)

All-hazards approach

Canada's critical infrastructure could potentially be affected by both physical and cyber threats. For example, electricity supply can be severely disrupted by a tornado (physical threat), a major accident (physical or cyber threat) or a computer hacking attack that disables an essential control system (cyber threat). The NCIAP takes into consideration all hazards.

Definition of the protection of critical infrastructure

Critical infrastructure protection can be defined as actions and programs that:

• identifiy the critical infrastructure and its specific components (human, physical and cyber)
• assess vulnerabilities
• take mitigative or protective measures to reduce vulnerabilities

Better risk management

Given the interdependencies and connectedness among critical infrastructures, an interruption of any one service could have a cascading effect and disrupt other essential services or systems. For example, during the 1998 Ice Storm, large segments of rural and urban communities were in the dark and without heat. Traffic and street lights were out. Banking and government services were interrupted. The disruption in one sector -- electricity -- affected a score of others, interrupting the delivery of important services upon which Canadians depend.