Title: “When the Backbone Breaks: Risk and Resilience in Communications, IT, or Financial Services”
This week’s materials focus on Communications, Information Technology (IT), and Financial Services—each of which forms part of the digital backbone of modern life. These sectors face highly dynamic and often overlapping threats, from sophisticated cyberattacks to cascading failures tied to outdated systems or global events.
Similar to last week’s discussion post, your task is to select one of these 3 sectors and address all four of the following:
1. Identify two major risks or vulnerabilities unique to your chosen sector (e.g., 911 service disruptions; cloud platform outages; financial transaction fraud). Use Chapter 12 of Pesch‑Cronin & Marion.
2. Explain how the sector currently assesses and manages these risks, referencing tools or frameworks from the chapter such as the CSSP Risk Framework (Communications), ITSRA (IT Sector), or Financial Sector Risk Priorities (e.g., Goals 1–4 in Tables 12.5–12.6).
3. Incorporate a recent real-world incident (from 2024 or 2025) where a threat materialized in your chosen sector. Summarize the incident, its impact, and how the sector’s risk and response mechanisms performed. (Example: a March 2025 cyberattack on a major U.S. bank or a communications system failure that disrupted emergency response.)
4. Recommend one improvement—legislative, technological, training, funding, or policy-related—that would strengthen resilience in your sector, drawing from your readings, the incident, and risk frameworks.
Remember; you are to select just one of this week’s Infrastructure Sectors, and answer all 4 of the preceding questions.
Sector to use is Communications
Note: AI is strictly prohibited. Please cite all references with pages numbers.
References:
Pesch-Cronin & Marion – Critical Infrastructure Protection, Risk Management, & Resilience – Chapter 12
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPz2y8Duby4