Critical Infrastructure Protection

​Keeping Infrastructure Strong and Secure

November is Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month, a nationwide effort to raise awareness and reaffirm the commitment to keep our Nation’s critical infrastructure secure and resilient. Cal OES has committed to building awareness of the importance of critical infrastructure.

The Critical Infrastructure Protection Division (CIP) is dedicated to identifying, prioritizing, and protecting California's critical infrastructure and assets, as well as to safeguarding critical infrastructure information. Throughout all phases of emergency management, CIP works in coordination with our Federal, State, Tribal, local, and private sector partners to enhance critical infrastructure protection efforts.

During November, we focus on engaging and educating public and private sector partners to raise awareness about the systems and resources that support our daily lives, underpin our society, and sustain our way of life. Safeguarding both the physical and cyber aspects of critical infrastructure is a national priority that requires public-private partnerships at all levels of government and industry.

Managing risks to critical infrastructure involves preparing for all hazards—including natural and manmade incidents and events—reinforcing the resilience of our assets and networks, and staying ever-vigilant and informed.

November is a time to review our personal and organizational emergency plans to be as prepared as possible for potential problems and disruptions. We all need to play a role in keeping infrastructure strong, secure, and resilient. We can do our part at home, at work, and in our community by being vigilant, incorporating basic safety practices and cybersecurity behaviors into our daily routines, and making sure that if we see something, we say something by reporting suspicious activities to local law enforcement.

To learn more, visit www.dhs.gov/critical-infrastructure-security-and-resilience-month.

We all play a role in keeping our community safe. If you see something, SAY SOMETHING. It takes a community to protect a community. Informed, alert communities play a critical role in keeping our nation safe. To submit a tip or lead about suspicious activity, please contact local law enforcement or report it to your local fusion center. On the Cal OES State Threat Assessment Center webpage, you will find links to all of California's fusion centers, under "California State Threat Assessment System." Each fusion center website will have a link or instructions on how to report suspicious activity. You can also visit the California State Threat Assessment System website.

What is Critical Infrastructure?

Critical infrastructure are the assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, public health or safety, or any combination thereof.

Protecting California’s critical infrastructure and key resources is a vital component to the overall strategy to protect California and its citizens. Cal OES recognizes that California society and way of life are dependent on a reliable network of infrastructure.

Critical Infrastructure Sectors:

Snapshot of California's Critical Infrastructure

• Water: 1,468 dams, of which 140 have capacities greater than 10,000 acre-feet; 701 miles of canals and pipelines; and 1,595 miles of levees
• Electrical power: 1,008 in-state power plants, nearly 70,000 megawatts install generation capacity, and substations and transmission lines deliver over 200 billion kilowatt hours to customers annually
• Oil and Natural Gas: over 115,000 miles of oil and natural gas pipelines, 20 refineries and over 100 oil and natural gas terminal facilities, and more than a dozen of the U.S.’s largest oil fields
• Transportation: over 170,000 miles of public roads; over 50,000 lane miles of highways; over 12,000 bridges; 246 public use airports, 30 of which provide scheduled passenger service. Los Angeles International Airport is the seventh busiest worldwide
• California has 11 seaports handling more than half of all the US shipping freight. Three of the country’s largest container ports are in California: Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland. Nationally, Los Angeles is the busiest by container volume, internationally the eighth busiest, and when combined with Long Beach is the fifth busiest
• Public Health: 450 acute care hospitals
• Emergency Services: 1, 974 fire stations
• Chemical: Approximately 95 “high-risk” facilities
• Agriculture: 81,500 farms; more than 400 commodities; in 2012 total agriculture-related sales for output was $44.7 billion, representing 11.3% of the national total
• Finance: 7,374 commercial banks with deposits totaling $753 billion; 410 credit unions with assets totaling $115 billion.

​Critical Infrastructure Protection Division 

Infrastructure security and resilience requires collaboration across all government levels and the promotion of effective public and private sector partnerships. The Critical Infrastructure Protection Division’s (CIP) focus is to better protect, secure, and reduce vulnerabilities to the state’s critical infrastructure assets using risk-based methodologies, vulnerability and security assessments, and information sharing practices and tools among the 16 DHS-identified critical infrastructure sectors.

CIP assesses risk to California's critical infrastructure, fulfills federal data requests for homeland security and emergency management programs, and develops related guidelines and/or policies. Additionally, the Division develops and implements California’s Critical Infrastructure Protection Program to include risk management and analyses for the identification, prioritization and protection of California’s critical assets from natural and technological hazards, human-caused threats, and for situational awareness and emergency management/incident response and planning. Risk assessments in California are primarily conducted at the local/regional level. CIP participates in the assessment process as needed to help critical infrastructure owners and operators, and State, local, and tribal partners understand and address risk. Subsequently, CIP and partner assessors provide infrastructure owners and managers with risk reductions options, as well as tools and training to help manage risk to their assets, systems, and networks.

​CIP’s Key Stakeholders and Partners

• Homeland Security Advisor (HAS), Cal OES Director Mark Ghilarducci (see Cal OES Homeland Security webpage for more information)
• Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
• Office of Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis (OCIA)
• Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards
• Office of Infrastructure Protection (OIP)
• Protective Security Advisors (PSA)
• State Threat Assessment System (STAS)
• State Threat Assessment Center
• Central California Intelligence Center (Sacramento)
• Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (San Francisco)
• Joint Regional Intelligence Center (Los Angeles)
• Law Enforcement Coordination Center (San Diego)
• Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center
• State Agencies
• California Highway Patrol
• California Department of Food and Agriculture
• Department of Water Resources
• California Natural Resources Agency
• California Department of Technology
• California Energy Commission
• California Environmental Protection Agency
• Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI)
• Anaheim/Santa Ana
• Bay Area
• Los Angeles/Long Beach
• Riverside
• San Diego
• Fusion Centers
• Academia
• CREATE Homeland Security Center at the University of Southern California
• Argon National Lab
• Councils/Committees/Associations
• California Maritime Security Council
• California Utilities Emergency Association (CUEA)
• Homeland Infrastructure Foundation – Level Data (HIFLD)
• Infragard
• Local first responders
• Infrastructure asset owners/operations and security managers

​California Maritime Security Council (CMSC)

The CMSC was established on October 12, 2006, by Executive Order S-19-06 to enhance port security through statewide collaboration and information sharing. The Cal OES Director serves as Committee Chair, and the Commander, U.S. Coast Guard District Eleven serves as Vice Chair. The CMSC, through developing and facilitating partnerships among local, state, federal, academic and private sector stakeholders, has enhanced California’s maritime security by identifying threats, improving security measures and communications, and refining the state’s maritime security strategy. Through the implementation of its strategy to protect ports and the maritime community, California continues to support the National Preparedness Goal and the National Preparedness System, and to promote efforts for maritime domain awareness.

​Funding Opportunity: The Port Security Grant Program (PSGP) is one of the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) grant programs that directly supports maritime transportation infrastructure security activities. For more information on this grant funding, please visit FEMA’s website for the Port Security Grant Program.

​Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII)

​The PCII Program seeks to facilitate greater sharing of critical infrastructure information between private sector and government entities by protecting the information from public disclosure. PCII training is available to federal, state, or local government employees or contractors, who have homeland security responsibilities. PCII cannot be used for regulatory purposes and can only be accessed in accordance with strict safeguarding and handling requirements.

For more information, please contact the California PCII Administrator Tom Ducker at 916-845-8947.

For general PCII information, please visit the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's PCII Office webpage.