Recently, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Cyber and Infrastructure Analysis (DHS/OCIA) released Sector Risk Snapshots, which provide a brief overview and risk profile of the 16 critical infrastructure sectors, the Education, Electric, and Oil and Natural Gas sub-sectors, and the seven Transportation Systems Modes.
The Snapshots provide an introduction to the diverse array of critical infrastructure sectors, touching on some of the key threats and hazards concerning the sectors, and highlighting the common, first-order dependencies and interdependencies between sectors.
The Snapshots are intended to serve as quick reference aids for homeland security partners, particularly State and local partners, and fusion center analysts, and each Snapshot includes a list of resources that partners can go to for more comprehensive sector information.
The Healthcare and Public Health (HPH) Sector is the lead sector responsible for protecting and sustaining the Nation’s health. The HPH Sector includes acute care hospitals, ambulatory healthcare, public-private financial systems, Federal, State, and local public health systems; disease surveillance; and private sector industries that manufacture, distribute, and sell drugs, biologics, and medical devices.
The HPH Sector is vulnerable to a variety of all-hazards threats, and is especially concerned about potentially catastrophic impacts resulting from biological, cyber, vehicle-borne explosive devices, and insider threats. Such attacks could result in large numbers of illness and casualties, denial of service, or theft of confidential patient information.
The HPH Sector is dependent on the Chemical, Communications, Energy, Information Technology, Nuclear, Transportation Systems, and Water & Wastewater Sectors- each providing essential services to the Sector for daily business operations and other activities. The HPH Sector is interdependent on the Emergency Services and Food and Agriculture Sectors. Emergency Services and HPH coordinate on emergency medical response activities. HPH is dependent upon Food and Agriculture for daily operations, pharmaceutical and vaccine development, and biomedical research. In turn, Food and Agriculture is dependent on food defense regulation and emergency response.
Learn more about the HPH Sector and other Critical Infrastructure Sectors:
