National Critical Functions Set released

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials have released the first set of National Critical Functions, which officials said would have a dire nationwide impact if interrupted.

The DHS Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) provided the functions they said are used or supported by government and the private sector of such importance to the nation their disruption, corruption or dysfunction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety.

“Identifying these National Critical Functions has been a collaborative process between public and private sector partners and marks a significant step forward in the way we think about and manage risk,” CISA Director Christopher Krebs said. “By moving from an individual, sector-specific lens to a more comprehensive, cross-cutting risk management framework, we can identify and manage risk in a more strategic and prioritized manner.”

The functions fall under four general categories: Connect, Distribute, Manage and Supply. CISA will work with partners to develop a Risk Register from the set of tasks by performing a risk analysis, dependency analysis, and consequence modeling.

The Risk Register will assess the likelihood and consequences of significant degradation to a National Critical Function, along with identification of government and industry readiness to work together to reduce risk.