Geoscience Reference
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lists; intellectual property; patents; engineering drawings and specifications; system
capabilities and vulnerabilities; financial data; and operating, emergency, and con-
tingency procedures. In addition to the operational installations that make up the
energy infrastructure itself, installations include headquarters offices; field offices;
training centers; contractor installations; and testing, research, and development
laboratories. Activities include movement of personnel and property, training pro-
grams, communications and networking, negotiations, and technology research
and development.
The energy facility, the local government, and energy industry associations have
roles and responsibilities for identifying assets, effects of asset loss, vulnerabilities,
threats, and risk mitigation options. Coordination among energy facilities; local,
state, and federal agencies; and energy industry associations is crucial to this process.
Energy facilities need to identify the critical functions of the facility, and deter-
mine which physical and cyber assets perform or support the critical functions.
The key assets identified should be related to the criticality of overall operations
of the individual facilities. Potential assets include substations, transmission lines,
pipelines, critical valve nests, power plants, pump stations, city gate stations, com-
pressor stations, storage installations, interconnections, energy control centers,
energy management systems, SCADA systems, remote monitoring and control
units [remote terminal units (RTU)], communications systems linking RTUs and
energy control centers, certain backup systems, and e-commerce capabilities. They
should evaluate the consequences or impacts to the critical functions of the energy
facility from the disruption or loss of each of these critical assets and prioritize the
critical assets based on these.
Not all assets and activities warrant the same level of protection. The cost of
reducing risk to an asset must be reasonable in relation to its overall value. The
value, however, does not need to be expressed in dollars. A potential loss can be
stated in terms of human lives or the impact on the local or state economy.
The first set of questions is designed to guide the process of identifying the criti-
cal functions of the energy facility and the assets that perform or support them, and
evaluating the potential consequences of disruptions or loss of these critical assets.
Criticality Criteria (Functions and Assets)
What critical mission activities take place at the energy facility or its
remote sites?
What critical or valuable equipment is present at the facility or its remote
sites?
Where are the critical assets located?
Have people, installations, and operations been considered when assess-
ing assets?
− Have cyber networks and system architectures (e.g., SCADA systems,
business e-mail, and e-commerce) been documented fully?
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