November 30 is National Computer Security Day. The day is all about encouraging everyone to be proactive in ensuring the equipment and systems they use on a day-to-day basis are secure. This is especially important as we enter the holiday season and many partake in online shopping, often without stopping to consider if what they are doing is safe.

Today the United States’ critical infrastructure (CI) is under one of the most severe threats since the 1930s Great Depression, caused by the massive disruptions by the COVID-19 pandemic’s mass infections of people who work in and depend on the CI’s 16 sectors.

The global pandemic has resulted in a drastic increase in the number of employees working from home. This situation has led to challenges for cybersecurity staff, who are now having to ensure that employees in a variety of locations are working securely, on top of their standard daily tasks.

November is National Infrastructure Security Month. Most people take for granted the infrastructure systems and services that support us – from transportation systems to communications networks to office buildings to concerts. These and more are part of our nation’s critical infrastructure.

Water is likely not the first place you think of for a location of a data center, but that is exactly what Microsoft thought in 2018, when they sunk a data center off the coast of Orkney Islands in Scotland for what they have dubbed Project Natick. The goal of the underwater data center was to determine if being housed in cool temperature can improve energy efficiency and reduce costs that are normally associated with cooling servers on land, reported Rory Cellan-Jones for BBC in 2018.

Capitology Blog talked with Dr. Ron Martin, Capitol Tech's Professor of Practice in Critical Infrastructure, Industrial Control System Security, and Access and Identity Management, to discuss critical infrastructure and the importance of celebrating national Critical Infrastructure Security Month.

There are many fields in which someone interested in cyber and information security can pursue a career. One area that is always in demand is counterterrorism.