What is Critical Infrastructure? (CII)

Critical Infrastructure refers to the process, systems, facilities, technologies, networks, assets and services essential to the health, safety, security or economic well-being of society and the effective functioning of government.

Critical Infrastructures is the basic facility that is required for the proper functioning of a community or society. It includes the assets or services or facilities which if destroyed or degraded, will have a significant impact on the social, cultural, financial or political well-being of a nation.

Critical Information Infrastructure

National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre is an organisation of the Government of India created under Sec 70A of the Information Technology Act, 2000, through a gazette notification on 16th Jan 2014.

Critical infrastructures include the assets which are essential for the proper functioning of a nation’s economy. It is the backbone and foundation of a nation.

Protecting, maintaining and ensuring the continuity of the operation of all the sectors of critical infrastructure are vital to the political, cultural, financial and social well-being of a nation.

All the sectors of critical infrastructures are considered critical because these sectors are an essential part of our daily life. All the sectors of critical infrastructure are independent, error in one sector leads to errors in another sector.

Modern critical infrastructures depend on ICT for its proper functioning and control. Information technology and telecommunications rely on energy and all other sectors rely on them. All the sectors of critical infrastructure rely heavily on ICT and hence are prone to cyber attacks.