The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and the Defense Department have entered into a joint venture to perform a comprehensive vulnerability assessment of critical infrastructures in the Rocky Mountain Corridor, comprising facilities located in Colorado and Wyoming. Under the joint venture, NTIA's role is to coordinate the vulnerability assessments with companies that have critical communications and information nodes in the region. Industry's participation will facilitate the vulnerability assessments as they progress from the perimeter of the military installations and connect with private sector infrastructures in the Rocky Mountain Corridor. NTIA's Institute for Telecommunication Sciences (ITS) in Boulder, Colo., will participate in these vulnerability studies.

Under the Presidential Decision Directive (PDD)-63 outlining the Administration's policy on Critical Infrastructure Protection, the Commerce Department has been identified as the lead agency for the protection of the I&C sector. NTIA, the principal advisor to the President on telecommunications and information issues, has been designated to head this effort.

The Department of Defense, building on its already robust vulnerability assessment capability and in support of PDD-63, has been maturing its integrated vulnerability assessments on installations in different regions of the United States. These assessments are comprehensive, integrated, critical-asset and infrastructure vulnerability studies that look across several sectors that include I&C. The Rocky Mountain Corridor is the next region to test this model, with the intent for it to provide lessons learned for vulnerability assessments of other regions.