New York Information Network (NYIN)
General Information
This information has been archived for historical purposes.
The urgent call for the protection of our critical infrastructure began on Sept. 11 when leaders of government and industry, as well as millions of Americans were awakened from their slumber of national safety and security.
In the aftermath of September 11th, President Bush created the Office of Homeland Security and charged Governor Tom Ridge with its leadership. The Executive Order that created the Office of Homeland Security also established the Critical Infrastructure Protection Board or the CIP Board. The CIP board was authorized to coordinate federal efforts and programs that involve protection of information systems and networks supporting critical infrastructure, and to recommend policies and coordinate programs for protecting those information systems including those owned or operated by the private sector. Critical infrastructures have been identified as: Telecommunications, Energy, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Transportation, Health Care, Emergency Services and Water Systems.
The CIP Board in turn, created a standing committee known as FBIIC (Financial and Banking Infrastructure Information Committee) which is an information sharing and coordination organization. FBIIC membership consists of representatives of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Conference of State Bank Supervisors (CSBS), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the Federal Reserve Board, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), the Office of Cyberspace Security (OCS), the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), the Office of Homeland Security (OHS), the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
FBIIC’s overall goal is to facilitate within the financial sector coordination of federal efforts and programs relating to the protection of the nation’s information systems for critical infrastructure. In other words, FBIIC is responsible for identifying vulnerabilities of financial services sector to terrorism and coordinating efforts across the sector to improve security and reliability of financial information infrastructure. In order to fulfill its role as a policy coordinating committee, FBIIC agencies are expected to implement the broad policies enunciated by the CIP Board internally and to encourage private sector cooperation.
One of the issues identified by FBIIC was the timely transmission of critical information between regulators and the regulated industries. Specifically, FBIIC recommended the need to develop a "communication pathways" for insurance sector.
Additionally, here in New York, protecting the well being of New York’s citizens and critical infrastructure has been the foremost priority of Governor Pataki since the tragic events of September 11th. Soon after September 11th, Governor Pataki established the Office of Public Security to address safety and security issues on a statewide basis. As stated before, at the national level, President Bush created the Office of Homeland Security and charged it with strengthening America’s protection against terrorism.
The creation of these offices resulted in an unprecedented flow of critical information on matters related to our preparedness and safety. In order to maximize the value of this information, it was imperative that we establish the necessary infrastructure to distribute this time-sensitive information to all authorized parties as quickly as possible for countermeasures as well as ensure that sensitive information pertaining to our national security does not fall into the wrong hands.
