Critical Infrastructure Protection: Securing Essential Systems Against Cyber Threats

From cyber attacks on emergency call centers to electric and telecom network infiltrations, here’s what to know about the threats plaguing critical infrastructure sectors and how to fight back

“We’re sorry, the number you are calling is not available.”

Service outages can bring emergency services like 911 to a standstill. While old tech is to blame in some cases, data from Carbyne and NENA’s (911 Association) 2025 survey report indicates that telephony denial of service (TDoS) attacks and cyber attacks were to blame for one in 10 outages.

This is particularly worrisome when you consider that NENA estimates that these centers handle the 240 million 911 calls made each year (i.e., 457 calls per minute). But emergency services isn’t the only critical infrastructure sector that needs protection and is at risk due to modern cyber threats:

• Hackers recently opened the water closure system’s valves to full capacity at the Lake Risevatnetdam facility in Norway. (Source: Energiteknikk)
• In Q1 2025, education as a sector experienced an average of 4,484 weekly attacks per organization. Government and telecom sector organizations came in second and third, totaling 2,678and 2,664 weekly attacks per organization, respectively. (Source: Check Point Research)
• 305 U.S. healthcare-related data breaches involving protected health information (PHI) of 500+ individuals were reported in 1H 2025. (Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services).

So, what can organizations do to mitigate these risks and improve critical infrastructure security?

Let’s hash it out.

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