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The Department of Homeland Security breaks down these Critical Infrastructure sectors as follows:

1. Agriculture and Food
2. Commercial Facilities
3. Defense Industrial Base
4. Government Facilities
5. Nuclear Reactors, Materials, and Waste
6. Transportation Systems
7. Banking and Finance
8. Communications
9. Emergency Services
10. Information Technology
11. Postal and Shipping
12. Water
13. Chemical
14. Dams
15. Energy
16. National Monuments and Icons
17. Public Health and Healthcare
18. Critical Manufacturing.

All of these Critical Infrastructure sectors’ facilities and equipment can be seriously affected, to varying degrees, by IEMI. The impact can include electrical and electronics system disruption and/or damage, and data corruption or loss. Modern electronic equipment in these sectors, with its decreasing circuit sizes and lower operating voltages, is increasingly vulnerable to the IEMI threat. Key threatened industries/facilities include: Data centers, banking, Federal Reserve, banking, telecom/communications, power generation/transmission grids/distribution, hospitals and healthcare, chemical plants, 911 and emergency response, defense contractors, food processing, retail, transportation, water supply and wastewater treatment plants, financial exchanges, refineries and pipeline operations, etc.

These threatened industries/facilities have, to varying degrees, certain common systems and electronics components which are affected by IEMI, such as:

• Computers, servers, data storage, telecom, and other integrated circuit based electronics
• Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA)
• Electrical power and distribution
• Uninterruptible power supplies
• Backup generator sets
• HVAC
• Lighting
• Fire detection and suppression
• Security
• Control electronics
• Transportation and delivery vehicles

The IEMI weapon threats radiate onto the electronics in these systems directly, and also create damaging conducted voltages and currents that can penetrate a facility and equipment via any conducting wiring (power, communications, and data), as well as metal plumbing, building materials, etc. Immediate areas that need attention that are within the above DHS definition of 18 areas of Critical Infrastructure: (As presented by Emprimus to Congress, May and June 2009)

U.S. Power Grid
Water (both Waste Water Treatment & Purification)
Fuel Delivery (Pipelines)
Civil Government Communications (911 Centers)
Data Centers, Government, e.g. Federal Reserve and Treasury facilities
Private Enterprise Data Centers (loss or impairment of which could severely damage the economy)
In short, the reliance of critical infrastructure on electronic control and data systems can be considered an Achilles’ heel of our nation, seriously in need of protection from IEMI and other electromagnetic threats.

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