The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) launched on Monday its 2026 Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month campaign, urging infrastructure owners and operators to strengthen preparedness and improve their ability to withstand and recover from disruptions. Running throughout November under the theme ‘Resolve to be Resilient,’ the initiative comes amid geopolitical shifts, rapid advances in artificial intelligence and evolving threats to essential services.
CISA called on organizations across government and industry to understand their infrastructure and dependencies, prioritize significant risks, develop actionable plans and measure progress to improve response and recovery capabilities. The agency emphasized that critical infrastructure resilience requires coordinated action among federal, state, local, tribal and territorial governments, private companies and other stakeholders.
The agency also highlighted interconnected nature of the nation’s 16 critical infrastructure sectors, warning that disruptions affecting one sector can produce cascading consequences across others. It also underscored the need to address cyber and physical threats, particularly risks involving operational technology and industrial control systems, which can have significant consequences for essential services. CISA is making resources, guidance and a campaign toolkit available to help organizations strengthen security and resilience throughout the month.
“Our work depends on people who understand their systems and stay prepared,” Nick Andersen, acting CISA director, said in a media statement. “Resilience comes from knowing what matters most and having a plan you can actually use when something goes wrong.”
Throughout the month, CISA will highlight four practices that help infrastructure owners and operators stay prepared. Owners and operators should identify their most important systems and the outside services those systems depend on, and organizations should understand the risks that matter most to their operations. Teams should also develop clear plans that guide response and recovery, while organizations track progress and update those plans based on real lessons learned.
As threats continue to emerge, it’s imperative that everyone does their part to be more resilient. Strong resilience in critical infrastructure helps protect lives and jobs, keeps communities connected, and reduces disruptions. Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month empowers American industry, state and local governments, and the Federal Government to each do their part to protect U.S. security, prosperity, and freedom.
Organizations can participate in Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month with CISA’s toolkit, which includes graphics and plain language text that organizations can use to show the steps they are taking this November to be more resilient.
CISA assessed that resilience means doing the work up front to prepare for a disruption, anticipating that it will in fact happen, and exercising not just for response but with a deliberate focus on continuity and recovery, improving the ability to operate in a degraded state, and significantly reducing downtime when an incident occurs. Small steps make a big difference. From Be Air Aware practices to CI Fortify guidance, there are practical ways organizations can improve resilience right now.
CISA partners with critical infrastructure owners and operators nationwide to help reduce risk and build security capacity to withstand new threats and disruptions, whether from natural hazards or other physical and cyber threats.
The agency calls upon Sector Risk Management Agencies to educate sector partners about critical infrastructure issues and how they relate to and impact the sector’s security environment and business operations, utilize newsletters, mailings, and websites to highlight critical infrastructure protection, security and resilience, and dependencies that require innovation and investment, and highlight public-private partnerships and information sharing initiatives between SRMA, CISA, other governmental agencies (federal, state, local, tribal and territorial [FSLTT]), and the national critical infrastructure community to improve resilience and security of these critical assets.
It also pushes for hosting virtual town halls, events, and webinars to discuss regional, sector-specific, and cross-sector critical infrastructure issues; promoting training and exercise opportunities for critical infrastructure owners, operators, and community members; and promoting mutual aid and community partnerships.
CISA called upon federal agencies to support resilience by acting on the principle that resilience is strongest when leadership is exercised closest to the impact. Agencies should advance regional mutual assistance networks to reduce dependency on federal response, encourage risk-informed insurance markets and incentives for proactive mitigation, and build community-level capacity to manage disruptions without default federal intervention.
They should also reduce redundant governance bodies and streamline risk assessment requirements so that essential information flows quickly and supports rapid, confident decision-making. Clarifying the roles, responsibilities, and decision authorities of infrastructure partners is equally important, as is simplifying consequence management planning and practice through targeted exercises and simulations. Measures should be scalable and appropriate for small systems, remote communities, and under-resourced operators, with mutual aid, community partnerships, and regional coordination used to expand capacity.
Resilience is not static. It evolves based on conditions, capabilities, and other external factors, so agencies should review lessons learned from disruptions, exercises, and real-world operations, then adjust investments and strategies to ensure continuous improvement and long-term reliability.
CISA also pointed agencies and partners to several resources. The Interagency Security Committee offers a wide range of resources to enhance the security of federal government facilities, and CISA’s infrastructure Resilience capabilities, tools, and services are available for exploration. Critical infrastructure owners and operators can review and monitor the CISA CI Fortify page for information and updates on defending against disruptive cyberattacks through proactive isolation and recovery planning.
In addition, CISA hosts an SLTT Security Operations Center (SOC) Call, an analyst-to-analyst exchange and open forum where participants can ask questions about pertinent cybersecurity issues, emerging or ongoing vulnerabilities, and cyber threats. The series is ideal for technical analysts involved in network defense operations, incident response, and vulnerability management, and interested participants can learn more or sign up by emailing [email protected]. Organizations can also check whether they qualify for the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity Grant Program.
For community-level engagement, CISA encouraged public safety officials to connect with private sector businesses and to meet with local business owners to discuss their dependencies on critical infrastructure and distribute relevant materials. Messages about the importance of infrastructure security and resilience can be included in newsletters, mailings, and websites. Local leaders can meet with CISA representatives in their state or district to better understand local infrastructure and the risks it faces, host a town hall meeting to discuss local critical infrastructure issues, and write an opinion editorial in the local paper about the importance of critical infrastructure security and resilience.
CISA also recommended that members of Congress meet with CISA representatives in their states or districts to understand local infrastructure and the risks it faces. Members can promote training and exercise opportunities to owners and operators, and engage state and local officials on current initiatives to improve security and resilience. They can also meet with local business owners to discuss critical infrastructure dependencies and interdependencies. To raise public awareness, members can include a message about the importance of infrastructure security and resilience in newsletters, mailings, and websites, and write an opinion editorial in the local paper on the importance of critical infrastructure.
The agency also provides several resources that support security capacity-building efforts, including those focused on active shooter preparedness, vehicle ramming mitigations, unmanned aircraft systems, school safety, chemical security, and bombing prevention. CISA also conducts exercises to help stakeholders assess their plans and can provide free site visits to assess current security posture and identify any vulnerabilities and areas for improvement.
