Computer Crime and
Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS)

Critical Infrastructure Protection

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  1. Attorney General's Speech on Critical Infrastructure Protection
  2. Presidential Decision Directive 63 - Protecting the Nation's Critical Infrastructures
  3. President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP)

Our national defense, public safety, economic prosperity, and quality of life have long depended on the efficient delivery of essential services -- energy, banking and finance, transportation, vital human services, and telecommunications. The rapid growth and integration of the telecommunications infrastructure has made all of these sectors interdependent, and in the process, created unprecedented risks. CCIPS has long been involved in investigations of cyber-attacks; the entire federal sector is now organizing to address these new threats.
The Department of Justice and the FBI rose to the challenge by creating the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) in early 1998. On May 22, 1998, the President issued Presidential Decision Directive 63 (PDD-63), which called for the creation of a national plan to protect the services on which we depend daily.

A. Attorney General Janet Reno's Speech on Critical Infrastructure Protection

On February 27, 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno addressed the Conference on Critical Infrastructure Protection, held at Lawrence Livermore Laboratories, in Livermore, California, to announce the formation of the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. The Center is a joint government and private sector partnership, including representatives from the relevant agencies of federal, state, and local governments, and the private sector, to address the daunting challenge of protecting the critical infrastructures on which our nation depends. The NIPC is designated as the national focal point for threat assessment, warning, investigation, and response to attacks on the critical infrastructures. The concept for the NIPC grew out of the Report of the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (see section C below) and from the government's experiences in dealing with illegal intrusions into government and private sector computer systems over the last five years. The Attorney General's speech is available via the link below.
B. Presidential Decision Directive 63 - Protecting the Nation's Critical Infrastructures
On May 22, 1998, President Clinton announced two new directives designed to strengthen the Nation's defenses against terrorism and other unconventional threats: Presidential Decision Directives (PDD) 62 and 63. PDD-63 focuses specifically on protecting the Nation's critical infrastructures from both physical and "cyber" attack. These attacks may come from foreign governments, foreign and domestic terrorist organizations, and foreign and domestic criminal organizations. The NIPC is a part of the broader framework of government efforts established by PDD-63. A Fact Sheet summary and more detailed White Paper on PDD-63 are available through the links below.

C. President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP)

President Clinton created the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection (PCCIP) to advise and assist the President of the United States by recommending a national strategy for protecting and assuring critical infrastructures from physical and cyber threats. The PCCIP Web site may be accessed via the link below, which provides access to the Commission Final Report as well as Legal Foundations, a compilation of 14 supplemental reports of the PCCIP legal team that provide background on and further explain the legal recommendations that appear in tbe the PCCIP's final report.

  • The Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section's List of Relevant Web Sites
    • Go to . . . CCIPS home page || Justice Department home page
    Updated page February 8, 1999
    usdoj-jmd/irm/css/mam