Should AI Be Designated Critical Infrastructure?
The push to designate AI as critical infrastructure reflects growing recognition that AI systems underpin national security, economic stability, and essential services — making them high-value targets for adversaries. Without a formal designation, AI companies lack structured access to federal threat intelligence, coordinated incident response, and cybersecurity resources that other critical sectors enjoy. Supply chain disruptions and foreign cyberattacks targeting AI infrastructure could cascade across multiple dependent industries simultaneously. Designating CISA as the lead agency would establish clear accountability and standardized security baselines across the AI sector. The absence of this framework today represents a governance gap that adversaries are already positioned to exploit.
Tactical Insight
Policy & Governance Actions
- Advocate for and prepare internal documentation to align with a formal AI critical infrastructure designation framework.
- Engage with CISA's existing sector risk management resources to proactively adopt applicable security standards before any mandate takes effect.
Supply Chain Risk Management
- Conduct thorough third-party risk assessments of all AI model providers, data suppliers, and cloud infrastructure partners.
- Establish contractual security requirements and audit rights for all vendors contributing to AI system pipelines.
- Map AI supply chain dependencies to identify single points of failure or foreign-controlled components.
Long-term Resilience Improvements
- Develop and test sector-specific incident response playbooks that address AI model poisoning, data integrity attacks, and API abuse scenarios.
- Participate in information-sharing partnerships (ISACs, CISA advisories) to receive early warning of threats targeting AI infrastructure.
- Implement continuous monitoring and anomaly detection across AI training pipelines, inference endpoints, and data ingestion sources.