With 102 departments and agencies representing diverse sets of actors and missions, the Federal Civilian Executive Branch (FCEB) is the primary interface of the Executive Branch with the American people. These organizations are responsible for delivering services and supporting infrastructure that are critical to our way of life, making them rich targets for cyber-attacks from adversaries seeking to degrade the United States domestically and abroad without the risks associated with conventional and more direct kinetic confrontation.
As cited in a 2023 Center for Strategic and International Studies report: “There is an increasing chance that a major geopolitical crisis will become a form of digital hostage-taking, with authoritarian states seeking to disrupt FCEB agencies as a way of signaling the risks of escalation to U.S. politicians and the public. This logic flips decades of strategy on its head and makes countervalue targeting--holding innocent civilians at risk--the preferred gambit for authoritarians.”
Despite this seismic shift in threat, our federal budget, national security, and policy efforts continue to overlook the importance of the FCEB by focusing primarily on the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community. This misalignment of national security resources and prioritization threatens the very core of our democracy and global stability.
To counter this existential threat to America and its allies, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology (ICIT) has established the Center FCEB Resilience, a multi-disciplinary program with a mission to modernize and secure the FCEB and private sector critical infrastructure through technology, policy, education, and engagement.
The Center for FCEB Resilience represents ICIT’s commitment to creating a safer and more equitable world. This program will fundamentally reshape the government’s approach to scaling and securing the FCEB and private sector critical infrastructure, ensuring security and prosperity for future generations of Americans. Through a series of public and private sector research and educational initiatives, the Center will strengthen America’s national security by:
1. Educating FCEB leaders on cutting-edge solutions and strategies for effective decision-making;
2. Educating and developing policy recommendations for lawmakers and agency executives;
3. Convening public and private sector stakeholders to share best practices and foster strong communication and cohesion;
4. Creating and distributing publicly available materials to support the program's objectives.
Videos
Videos
Our Supporters
The Center for FCEB Resilience is made possible thanks to generous donations from organizations who share our passion for improving the resilience of critical infrastructure that provides for people’s foundational needs.