Critical Infrastructure Center (CIC)

Welcome to Capitol Tech's hub of Critical Infrastructure (CI) and CI education!

Capitol Technology University is the first university to educate students in degree areas combining operations training of critical infrastructure facilities; critical information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) which can be vulnerable to cyber attacks, especially when coupled; the industrial internet of things (IIOT); and the cybersecurity needed to protect these facilities.

Why has the U.S. government designated 16 sectors of critical infrastructure? Because these sectors need cybersecurity, and other forms of protection, so we can maintain our lives. From the most basic aspects of life—having clean air to breathe and water to drink—to the more complex— coordinating airplane traffic and securing nuclear reactors, life as we know it depends on these 16 critical infrastructure sectors.

“We often take it for granted that we can turn on the faucet and there’s clean water, or that we can flip on the light switch and there’s electricity. We often think of critical infrastructure as operating behind the scenes. But if a power plant gets attacked and goes down, then electricity stops. If a water treatment plant gets attacked, then you don’t have clean drinking water” ~ Dr. Bradford Sims, President of Capitol Technology University

For more information, email CI@captechu.edu.

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Information Technology

Businesses, governments, academia, and private citizens are dependent upon information technology, making this sector important to all aspects of our lives.

Government Facilities

The Government Facilities Sector includes office buildings, embassies, courthouses, national laboratories, and special use military installations in the United States and overseas.

Transportation

Anything that moves people and/or goods—train, planes, boats, highways, mass transit, pipelines and shipping services—is protected by the Transportation Systems Sector.

Chemical

The Chemical Sector protects the manufacturing, storing, and transporting of the potentially dangerous chemicals that are used to create more than 70,000 products we use daily.

Nuclear

The Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste Sector secures everything from the power reactors that provide electricity to millions of Americans, to the medical isotopes used to treat cancer patients.

Financial

The Financial Services Sector needs protection from large-scale power outages, natural disasters, and an increase in the number and sophistication of cyberattacks.

Defense

The Defense Industrial Base Sector plays a vital role in the design, development, production, delivery, and maintenance of military weapons, systems and more.

Water & Wastewater

Thanks to the Water and Wastewater Systems Sector, the approximately 153,000 public drinking water systems and more than 16,000 publicly owned wastewater treatment systems are protected.

Healthcare

The Healthcare and Public Health Sector protects Americans from hazards such as terrorism, infectious disease outbreaks, and natural disasters.

Commercial Facilities

Thank the Commercial Facilities Sector for the safety and security of people in crowded settings such as; hotels, convention centers, amusement parks, museums, offices, shopping malls, zoos, apartments, casinos, and sports stadiums.

Emergency Services

The Emergency Services Sector coordinates the efforts of millions of people who provide prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery services during both day-to-day operations and incident response.

Communications

The Communications Sector is a complex web of terrestrial, satellite, and wireless transmission systems that enables banks to transmit transactions, paramedics to respond to emergencies, and people to communicate.

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