What is CISA CI Fortify?

CI Fortify is a CISA guidance initiative focused on helping critical infrastructure operators sustain essential operations during crisis or conflict through isolation and recovery planning.

What does CI Fortify ask critical infrastructure operators to plan for?

CI Fortify asks operators to plan for degraded communications, unreliable third-party connections, possible OT access by threat actors, isolation of vital systems, and recovery if isolation fails.

Does CI Fortify create a new compliance mandate?

The article treats CI Fortify as guidance and emergency planning direction, not as rulemaking or a new compliance mandate. The page does not identify a regulatory docket, effective date, or new reporting obligation.

Why does CI Fortify matter for OT security?

CI Fortify matters for OT security because CISA says operators should determine which vital OT and supporting infrastructure are needed to meet essential service targets while isolated.

What is continuity under compromise?

Continuity under compromise is the article’s analytical framing for CI Fortify: the ability to keep essential services running when communications, vendors, business networks, or OT trust assumptions may fail.

What should operators do first under CI Fortify?

Operators should first identify critical customers, set service delivery targets, and determine the vital OT and supporting infrastructure needed to meet those targets in isolation.

Why are vendors and MSPs important to CI Fortify planning?

Vendors, managed service providers, and system integrators are important because CISA points operators toward discussions about communications dependencies and potential workarounds.

Cybersecurity Risk

CISA CI Fortify: Continuity Under Compromise for Critical Infrastructure

CISA’s CI Fortify guidance urges critical infrastructure operators to plan for isolation, recovery, vendor dependencies, and essential service continuity during cyber disruption.

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TL;DR:
CISA’s CI Fortify guidance makes isolation and recovery explicit emergency planning objectives for critical infrastructure operators. The core issue is continuity under compromise: can essential services continue when communications, vendors, and OT trust assumptions fail? CISA frames this as guidance, not rulemaking.

Subhead: CISA is urging critical infrastructure operators to plan for essential service delivery when communications, vendors, and OT trust assumptions may fail.

Direct answer: CISA’s CI Fortify guidance urges critical infrastructure operators to defend against disruptive cyberattacks through proactive isolation and recovery planning. The guidance tells operators to assume that, in a conflict scenario, third-party connections may be unreliable and threat actors may have some access to the OT network.

Why this matters now: CISA frames the guidance around crisis or conflict conditions, degraded telecommunications and internet access, and the need to sustain essential operations even when systems are under attack.

What you need to know

The new signal: CISA is packaging isolation and recovery as explicit emergency capabilities for critical infrastructure operators to plan and exercise before a disruptive cyberattack.
Who is affected: Critical infrastructure operators, especially teams responsible for OT, service continuity, vendor dependencies, and recovery planning.
Why it matters: CISA says operators should assume third-party connections may be unreliable and threat actors may have some access to the OT network in a conflict scenario.
What to do first: Identify critical customers, set service delivery targets, and determine the vital OT and supporting infrastructure needed to meet those targets in isolation.
Key date or trigger: CISA says operators should track CISA and Sector Risk Management Agency communications to know when to isolate.

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