Page 150 - Cyber Defense eMagazine Special RSA Conference Annual Edition for 2022

Cyber is not the only large challenge to the transportation industry either. It is well-documented that the
physical standing of America’s infrastructure is not the most secured or well-developed, with the
American Society of Civil Engineers estimating that, "the US needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025
to improve the state of the country's roads, bridges, dams, airports, schools, and more," while
emphasizing that congestion at airports and sea ports is a serious problem and results in delays and
transportation problems, that roughly 32.6 percent of bridges being over fifty years old and in need of
repair, that many of the railway projects in the U.S. are, "backlogged [by] 111 years", that 46 percent of
both urban and rural roads, "are in poor condition", that public transit is severely underfunded and in need
of billions of dollars, and finally that many ships navigating the inland waterways have trouble doing so
due to dams and locks becoming old and rusted.

Clearly, there was a need for a massive funding of public works and infrastructure projects which would
absolutely help the land, sea, and air transportation systems grow and become larger than they once
were. This was answered in the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election in which Biden worked
to get passed in Congress a bipartisan infrastructure bill which has the overall goal of “[rebuilding]
America’s roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, ensure every American has
access to high-speed internet, tackle the climate crisis, advance environmental justice, and invest in
communities that have too often been left behind…[in addition to easing] inflationary pressures and
strengthen supply chains by making long overdue improvements for our nation’s ports, airports, rail, and
roads”. According to CNBC News, once the $1 trillion bill was passed in November of 2021, the law
provides “$110 billion into roads, bridges and other major projects. It will invest $66 billion in freight and
passenger rail, including potential upgrades to Amtrak [and directs] $39 billion into public transit systems”.

However, there are still many issues with this bipartisan bill. One is that a great majority of Americans
still live in rural, more country areas which makes gaining necessary supplies difficult and burdensome
in addition to gaining access to strong broadband capabilities. A complete overhaul of the transportation
sector, ensuring it is protected physically and cyberspatially, is highly important to ensuring Americans
have access to essential supplies as well as ensuring that all Americans will be able to have access to
their goods and transport their goods abroad in a timely fashion, all should be challenges the next
presidential administration (and the one after) should seriously focus on.

In regards to the national highway system, I would disagree that it is the most resilient and robust CIKR.
A 2017 article from Forbes details how places like Chicago and San Francisco, locations with high urban
density and traffic, are at a higher risk and are more susceptible to poor and crumbling infrastructure. It
is very apparent that the national highway system of the U.S. is in dire need of additional assistance
(going beyond the bipartisan bill, a variety of other solutions that would benefit the environment and the
economy overall) and I would hesitate to call the roads and highways of the United States a robust or
resilient system. While this may have been true throughout the mid to late 20th century, in the past twenty
years, upkeep of America's roadways has severely declined.

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