Will Hollywood Be Added to the Critical Infrastructure List in 2015?

by Steve Charles, Co-founder and Executive Vice President

For years the feds have defined and re-defined what is critical to our national and economic security, think: power grid, water systems, the financial system and more than a dozen other industries dubbed Critical Infrastructure Sectors. But, it wasn’t until the Sony hack, we began to think the Entertainment and First Amendment sector might get added to the list as well.

Whether you think the Sony hack is just about preventing embarrassment to North Korea’s ruling elite, or is a warm-up act for more cyber mayhem — in sectors that would actually cripple our economy — the threat is real and our response must be real. But, let’s make sure our response is also smart. Emotional (political) reactions usually aren’t.

Let’s remember that the players in the public sector — federal, state, local, and tribal governments — have been working a long time with private sector operators through the Critical Infrastructure Cyber Community Voluntary Program (coordinated within the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate); these voluntary programs are trying to build trust across traditional boundaries so we can fight cyber mayhem arm-in-arm, even though some of us are competitors or sit on opposite sides of the aisle.

This is going to require new levels of “Trust, but verify” —  something Stephen M.R. Covey refers to as “Smart Trust” in his book I’m reading now entitled, The Speed of Trust; a relevant concept as we ponder the new structures that 2015 will bring.