A Brief History of Critical Infrastructure Protection in the United States Critical ath P KATHI ANN BROWN Foreword by John A. McCarthy, Critical Infrastructure Protection Project, George Mason University A Brief History of Critical Infrastructure Protection in the United States Critical ath P KATHI ANN BROWN Foreword by John A. McCarthy, Critical Infrastructure Protection Project, George Mason University Critical Path: A Brief History of Critical Infrastructure Protection in the United States Copyright© 2006 All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in crit- ical articles and reviews. For information, contact [email protected]. First printing, June 2006 Designed and published by Spectrum Publishing Group, Inc. Fairfax, Virginia www.spgidesign.com Printed in the United States of America Dedicated to the Commissioners and staff of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection and to the many patriotic owners and operators of the nation’s critical infrastructure who have worked to actualize the Commission’s findings and make the country safer. “The measures and countermeasures game is never over. As you develop a capability, obviously it will have weaknesses. Then, as the enemy—or whatever— exploits those weaknesses, why, you figure out ways to counter those exploitations. It’s never-ending.” General Robert T. Marsh President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection Oral history interview, March 17, 2004 Table of Contents Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 From the Post Roads of the 1790s to the Great War of 1914: The First Century of Critical Infrastructure in the United States Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Building a New Foundation: The New Deal and World War II Chapter Three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 “Peaks of Fear and Valleys of Apathy”: Industry and Defense During the Cold War Chapter Four . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Under the Radar: New Threats, New Vulnerabilities in a Post Cold War World Chapter Five . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Wake-up Call: The Emergence of High-Tech Terrorism Chapter Six. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 A Great Debate: The Deliberations of the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection Chapter Seven. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102 Thinking Differently: Inverting the National Security Pyramid Chapter Eight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Sticks and Stones to Bits and Bytes: The Commission’s Recommendations Chapter Nine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 Critical Foundations: The final report of the Commission Chapter Ten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 “The Real Heart of the Problem”: Implementation Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Appendix B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171 Appendix C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173 Appendix D. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Critical Infrastructure Protection Program. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Center for History and New Media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Milestones Historical Consultants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 John A. McCarthy Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 Kathi Ann Brown Biography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 Preface I n the fall of 2003, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) at George Mason University was invited by the Critical Infrastructure Protection Program (CIPP), also affiliated with GMU, to undertake a special oral history program to document the evolution of the nation’s critical infrastructure protection policy. We were delighted to accept. Two years earlier, the events of September 11, 2001 had set in motion a major reorganization of the federal government’s emergency response system and had ignited a national conversation about security and defense issues. The timing seemed right to begin capturing and archiving some of the early thinking about critical infrastructure protec- tion that preceded creation of the Department of Homeland Security in November 2002. These issues were of particular interest to CHNM because of our work in creating the September 11 Digital Archive, which became the premiere online repository of information related to the 9/11/2001 attacks. A natural focal point for the first phase of the oral history project was the President’s Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP), created in the summer of 1996 by President Bill Clinton, part- ly in response to the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City the previous year. Deliberate destruction of a little-known federal building, located far outside the “nerve center” of Washington, D.C., set off a chain reaction of events and effects that reverberated well beyond Oklahoma City. Government officials quickly realized that the toll on human life and the building itself was compounded by the crip- pling of key functions. From the loss of a payroll department to the devas- tation of a wing of the FBI, damage from the bomb was felt from coast-to- coast by other government agencies, employees and/or the private sector in ways previously unimagined. On the recommendation of an interagency group chaired by Attorney vii General Janet Reno, Clinton gave the PCCIP a mandate to study the complexities of the nation’s critical infrastructures and issue recommen- dations for improving their security. Chaired by General Robert T. Marsh, the PCCIP included a number of senior-level government officials, pri- vate industry executives, and leaders from the academic community. The group deliberated for fifteen months and in October 1997 issued its final report: Critical Foundations: Protecting America’s Infrastructures. As John McCarthy notes in his Introduction to Critical Path, the PCCIP’s work marked an important, if quiet, shift in thinking about national security and defense. CHNM was especially fortunate to inter- view many of the key figures on the PCCIP, as well as others who helped to implement the Commission’s recommendations. By capturing their insights for the record we hope to make their experience and expertise of use and value to all who follow in their footsteps. Roy Rosenzweig Director, Center for History and New Media George Mason University January 2006 viii