Question

What are the Joint National Priorities and how does the federal government propose implementing them?

Answer 1

# JOINT NATIONAL PRIORITIES-

-The first call to action furthered by the National Infrastructure Protection Plan advocated for the development of joint national priorities to inform resource allocation and decision-making on the part of critical infrastructure partners.

DHS first published the Joint National Priorities to help guide the critical infrastructure comunity's efforts to improve security and resilience. The new Priorities have incorporated inputs to reflect critical changes in the evolving risk environment and to align to the priorities and key issues that have been set forth. These updated Priorities include:

# Reduce risk to national critical functions.

#Enhance incident response and recovery capabilities.

#Improve information sharing.

#Protect critical infrastructure against nation-state cyber threats.

#Drive security and resilience in investment and innovation.

##££

1. Strengthen the Management of Cyber and Physical Risks to Critical Infrastructure

Strengthening risk management of cyber and physical threats and hazards is a national priority, as articulated in PPD-21

and Executive Order. NIPP promotes an integrated, holistic approach to address the increasing reliance

of critical infrastructure assets on information and communications technology systems and networks. Critical infrastructure partners should use the Framework for Improving Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity wthin their organizations and promote its use across sectors and stakeholders.

In addition, the critical infrastructure community should explore technological, behavioral, and organizational solutions for managing cyber and physical risks to critical infrastructure.  

2. Build Capabilities and Coordination for Enhanced Incident Response and Recovery

The critical infrastructure community should share timely and relevant information during and following incidents to

support the rapid restoration of lifeline functions.Critical infrastructure partners should prepare and maintain integrated

cyber response and recovery plans to help their organizations manage cyber incidents efficiently and effectively. The critical infrastructure community should improve the tracking and implementation of corrective actions identified  

through incidents and exercises to inform future planning and response efforts.

3. Strengthen Collaboration Across Sectors, Jurisdictions, and Disciplines

Public-private partnerships are the pr imary mechanism for coordinating and integra ting individual partner efforts to

manage critical infrastructure risk and share information. A particular priority in the future is to le verage existing na tional

and international partnerships and expand a netw ork of regional and State, local, tribal, and territorial coalitions to strengthen national capacity.  

4. Enhance Effectiveness in Resilience Decision-Making

There is broad recognition across the cr itical infrastructure community of the need to str engthen infrastructure resilience

—particularly for infrastructure providing lifeline functions—to increase its a bility to withstand and ra pidly recover from

all hazards under evolving conditions. Effective planning r equires evaluation of long-term trends affecting infrastructure

risk, such as climate change and incr easing reliance on information and communications technology systems. Critical

infrastructure partners should consider r esilience at each stage of the suppl y chain and infrastructure lifecycle, including

research and development, design, investment, construction, operation, maintenance, repair, and disposal, destruction, or

decommissioning.This includes identifying and explor ing innovative financing mechanisms to encoura ge investments

that enhance all-hazard resilience.

5. Share Information To Improve Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery Activities

Sharing timely, relevant information and intelligence pr omotes awareness of thr eats and hazards, enabling the

implementation of measures to mitiga te risk. Collaborative efforts in government and industr y focus on determining

priorities for analysis in the context of the cr itical infrastructure operating environment, establishing and using r eliable

and appropriate means of dissemina tion across and within sectors, and providing feedback for continuous improvement.

The overall goal of these eff orts is an inf ormation-sharing culture based on the “need to share” and “responsibility to provide.”