Critical Infrastructure
Effective, rapidly deployable security solutions
Critical Infrastructure industries cover many areas, not least Government Facilities, Power Generation facilities, Chemical sector and Emergency services, Transportation and Energy Sectors. Wireless technology has a major role to play in securing critical infrastructure.
Wavesight technology delivers a unique set of capabilities to support these initiatives with a broad range of wireless broadband solutions.
Emergency Services Infrastructure
The Emergency Services Sector is a community of millions of highly skilled, trained personnel, along with the physical and cyber resources, that provide a wide range of prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery services during both day-to-day operations and incident response. This sector includes geographically distributed facilities and equipment organised primarily at the federal, state and territorial levels of government, such as Police forces, fire stations and Ambulance Services. In certain event there is collaboration Defence and military agencies. The emergency services sector also includes private sector resources, such as industrial fire departments, private security organizations, and private emergency medical services providers that work with airports and nuclear facilities.
Five distinct disciplines compose the Emergency services sector, encompassing a wide range of emergency response functions and roles:
- Law Enforcement
- Fire and Rescue Services
- Emergency Medical Services
- Emergency Management
- Public Works
The Emergency Services sector also provides specialised emergency services through individual personnel and teams. These specialized capabilities may be found in one or more various disciplines, depending on the jurisdiction:
- Tactical Incident Teams
- Hazardous Devices Team/Public Safety Bomb Disposal
- Public Safety Dive Teams/Maritime Units
- Canine Units
- Aviation Units (i.e., police and medevac helicopters)
- Hazardous Materials (i.e., HAZMAT)
- Search and Rescue Teams
- Public Safety Answering Points (i.e., 999, 911 call centres)
- Private Security Guard Forces
- National Civil Support
Energy Sector
Energy infrastructure fuels the economy of the 21st century. Without a stable energy supply, health and welfare are threatened, and the global economy cannot function. The Energy Sector as uniquely critical because it provides an “enabling function” across all critical infrastructure sectors.
More than eighty percent of western energy infrastructure is owned by the private sector, supplying fuels to the transportation industry, electricity to households and businesses, and other sources of energy that are integral to growth and production across the nation.
The energy infrastructure is divided into three interrelated segments: electricity, oil, and natural gas. The heavy reliance on pipelines to distribute products highlights the interdependencies between the Energy and Transportation Systems Sector.
The reliance of virtually all industries on electric power and fuels means that all sectors have some dependence on the Energy Sector. The Energy Sector is well aware of its vulnerabilities and is leading a significant voluntary effort to increase its planning and preparedness.
The global Energy Sector has adopted critical infrastructure security and resilience goals: assessing security risks and threats, securing critical infrastructure from all hazards, enhancing critical infrastructure resilience, sharing information to enable risk-informed decision making, and promoting learning and adaptation. Because the vast majority of energy infrastructure is owned and operated by the private sector, Energy Sector security and resilience efforts are a shared responsibility between the government and industry.
Critical infrastructure protection, security, and resilience are not new concepts to Energy Sector asset owners and operators. The Electricity and Oil and Natural Gas Subsectors have faced and will continue to face challenges from many types of hazards. The subsectors prepare for these challenges through an all-hazards approach that includes implementing protection measures, as well as developing, exercising, and utilising restoration and recovery plans.
Considerable media attention has also been devoted to threats to energy infrastructure, including cyber and physical security threats, space weather events, and possible terrorist attacks. Once threats have been identified, consequences and vulnerabilities can be quantified to determine the cost benefits of risk mitigation measures.
Transportation Systems
The Transportation Sector consists of several key subsectors, or modes:
Global Pipeline Systems consist of more than 20 million miles of pipelines carrying nearly all of the natural gas and about fifty percent of hazardous liquids, as well as various chemicals. Above ground assets, such as compressor stations and pumping stations are also included.
Chemical & Petro-Chemical
The Chemical Sector is composed of several hundred thousand chemical facilities in a complex, global supply chain. This industry converts various raw materials into more than 100,000 diverse products that are essential to modern life. Based on the end product produced, the sector can be divided into five main segments, each of which has distinct characteristics, growth dynamics, markets, new developments, and issues:
• Basic chemicals • Specialty chemicals • Agricultural chemicals • Pharmaceuticals • Consumer products
Securing facilities that manufacture, store, use, or transport potentially dangerous chemicals against growing and evolving threats requires vigilance from both the private and public sector.
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