The National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets

National goals that are fundamental to United States security policy. Includes public and private sector responses to improving homeland security. Local and state governments, private sector and individual citizens can help improve security of infrastructure and assets in a cooperative environment. Terrorists long-term objectives are (1) attacks on critical infrastructures or key assets through direct attacks on a critical system, which leads to immediate disruption of critical facilities; (2) indirect results from attacks, including financial consequences, on government, society, and economy, such as affecting human behavior that can lead to economic tension; (3) exploitation of a particular infrastructure to damage another one, as in using infrastructure systems like the aviation infrastructure to inflict damage on other systems. Terrorist strategies include a mixture of economic, political, and psychological objectives.