What Is Cyber Infrastructure?

Written by: East Carolina University® • Dec 17, 2025

A cybersecurity professional with a tablet in a control room.

What Is Cyber Infrastructure?

Cyber infrastructure is a term describing the information systems that organizations use to acquire, manage, integrate, store, and visualize data. In the modern world, an organization’s cyber infrastructure helps it facilitate numerous complex processes that connect individuals to data and the processing power required to make use of that data. It also plays a vital role in efforts to prevent cyberattacks.

Those who wish to pursue a career working with cyber infrastructure or in cybersecurity can consider earning a degree in information and cybersecurity technology . The program for this degree is designed to equip aspiring professionals with the knowledge, tools, and skills necessary to start a career in information and cybersecurity technology roles.

Understanding Cyber Infrastructure

An organization’s cyber infrastructure comprises high-level, holistic systems that enable users to access the data and resources they need to perform a wide range of tasks. Whereas the term “infrastructure” generally refers to the hardware and software required to build a network, cyber infrastructure also encompasses the people, policies, and organizations behind its use.

When companies and government agencies in industries such as energy, finance, and even national defense need to leverage high-performance computing to process or analyze vast amounts of data, their cyber infrastructure ultimately determines the extent of their capabilities.

To put it simply, an organization’s cyber infrastructure enables its access to information and allows it to defend against cyberattacks and other threats at the highest levels.

A Holistic Approach

The cyber infrastructure of an organization combines multiple components to ensure the best possible protection, system functionality, and organizational continuity. This holistic approach focuses on both the technological and the human elements of information technology (IT) and cybersecurity.

An organization’s hardware, software, networks, and data storage facilities are all part of its cyber infrastructure. Many organizations employ tools and technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to help secure their cyber infrastructure by providing threat intelligence analytics and recommending appropriate responses. Humans are involved in ongoing employee training as well as the establishment of clear procedures to maintain the security of the organization’s networks and data.

Cyber Infrastructure and National Security

The digital systems Americans rely on for managing their money, receiving electricity, ensuring they receive the appropriate healthcare, and even preventing potential disasters all rely on complex, interconnected information systems. Because of this, the federal government is involved in helping to protect many of them.

Per information provided by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the government focuses on helping to protect 16 different “critical sectors.” The work of the organizations in these sectors is so vital to modern society that its interruption or destruction would have a significant, long-lasting, and potentially disabling impact on national security, the economy, or public health.

Because many of these sectors rely on complex digital networks and data systems, they face cyber threats, such as ransomware, data breaches, espionage, supply chain attacks, and insider threats. Therefore, they also require robust cyber infrastructure to ensure they remain secure and operational.

Some of the critical sectors that depend on cyber infrastructure are:

Communications: Cyber infrastructure enables and protects virtually all of the digital communication systems in both the government and private sector, including wireless networks, broadband, and cloud services.
Energy: The energy sector is responsible for ensuring American homes, businesses, and government agencies have access to steady energy in the form of electricity, oil, and natural gas. Cyber infrastructure protects functions such as smart grids, renewable energy, and power distribution systems.
Financial Services: Financial services, including banks and credit unions, face numerous risks. Cyber infrastructure helps protect transactions, blockchain technologies, and fraud detection systems, keeping financial data and systems secure.
Government Services and Facilities: Government data systems, such as national security, often comprise complex and highly classified information. Cyber infrastructure helps protect these data systems from cyber espionage and other related threats.
Healthcare and Public Health: This sector faces numerous hazards, from outbreaks of infectious diseases to terrorism and national disasters. Healthcare and public health systems require effective cyberinfrastructure to protect electronic health providers and platforms, electronic health records (EHRs), and large-scale data for disease surveillance.
Information Technology: The entirety of the developed world relies on information technology in virtually every aspect of life. This makes robust cyber infrastructure essential to upkeeping almost all aspects of information technology, from ordering food delivery to protecting classified information.

The Seven Key Components of Securing Cyber Infrastructure

To protect their cyber infrastructure, organizations rely on all-encompassing, holistic systems that include multiple components, or pillars.

1. Risk Assessment

Risk assessment is a process in which organizations use techniques such as penetration testing to identify and manage potential vulnerabilities within their networks from multiple perspectives. For example, a plan would include not only assessing the risk of a cyberattack but also the risk of a multiple server failure. Understanding these risks—and the likelihood of their occurrence—is crucial to designing and maintaining a secure cyber infrastructure.

2. Authentication

An organization’s cyber infrastructure is only as strong as its authentication protocols. The most secure infrastructures always employ multifactor authentication policies, requiring all users to verify their identity with two or more pieces of information, such as a strong password and a code texted to a phone number.

3. Network Security

Protecting networks from unauthorized access is a crucial component of a robust cybersecurity plan. The ability to prevent and detect intrusions via the use of firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNS), and regularly updated security measures makes a network and the cyber infrastructure as a whole much easier to protect.

4. Data Encryption

Data encryption keeps proprietary, sensitive, or otherwise private information safe from prying eyes. Though preventing interception of the data is the primary goal, encryption ensures that, even if it is obtained by an unauthorized party, the data cannot be deciphered without a specific decryption key. Many organizations rely on transport layer security (TLS) and secure sockets layer (SSL) technologies to keep their data safe.

5. Training

Even with all these safeguards and protocols in place, human error is an important consideration when building a secure cyber infrastructure. According to a 2025 Mimecast report on the state of human risk, human error is an even bigger risk than technology gaps. Educating and training employees, then, is a critical part of building an effective cybersecurity plan.

6. Incident Response

Security risks will continue to exist, regardless of the cybersecurity measures put into place to protect a network. As such, developing an exceptional response plan that covers as many possibilities as possible allows an organization to be prepared to implement an immediate, effective response to an incident. In the process of planning such a response, organizations need to consider how they will contain the threat, measure the damage, notify the authorities, and minimize downtime by restoring operations.

7. Updates and Maintenance

Last, but most certainly not least, cybersecurity is not a one-time consideration. Cybercriminals are always working on new techniques that will allow them to bypass even the very best cybersecurity protections. As a result, updating and maintaining all cybersecurity strategies, processes, measures, and software is a must.

Careers in Cyber Infrastructure and Cybersecurity

Professionals working in cybersecurity and in information technology need highly specialized knowledge and skills. Some of the top roles in these areas include network engineer, systems administrator, and cybersecurity analyst.

Network Engineer or Architect

Computer network engineers and architects are responsible for creating plans for data communications networks, deploying those networks, and upgrading hardware and software as needed to support the networks in the long term. In some roles, they may be called upon for their extensive knowledge of new technology that can improve network performance and security.

Per data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), computer network architects have a median annual salary of $130,390 as of May 2024, with the top 10% of earners making upward of $198,030 each year. The BLS projects employment of computer network architects will grow 12% between 2024 and 2034 due to the progressive advances in information technology and cybersecurity measures.

Systems Administrator

Systems administrators carry out tasks that include analyzing an organization’s needs as they relate to their information technology and cybersecurity systems, then installing the hardware and software required to meet those needs. They manage the upgrades and repairs of networks and systems, maintain the security of those networks and systems, and resolve issues as they arise.

Systems administrators have a median annual salary of $96,800 as of May 2024, with the top 10% of earners making upward of $150,320, according to the BLS. The BLS projects that about 14,300 network and computer systems administrator roles will be open each year between 2024 and 2034.

Cybersecurity Analyst

Cybersecurity analysts, or information security analysts, are responsible for protecting their organizations against, responding to, and investigating cybersecurity breaches. They may perform penetration testing, develop the company’s security standards, and make recommendations for improving the organization’s cyber infrastructure to management and senior staff.

The BLS reports that the median annual salary for information security analysts is $124,910 as of May 2024, with the top 10% of earners making more than $186,420 a year. The employment of cybersecurity or information security analysts is projected to grow an astounding 29% between 2024 and 2034 as the demand for professionals who can protect systems from increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks increases.

Protect an Organization or the Nation From Cyberthreats

Nearly 80% of world leaders fear being targeted by a nation-state cyberattack as of 2025, according to VikingCloud’s cyber threat landscape report. As new technology such as AI continues to grow more sophisticated, and as tensions between nations mount, the cyberthreat landscape is transforming at breakneck speed.

Helping to keep an organization or the entire nation safe with a career in cybersecurity starts with getting the right education. The online Bachelor of Science in Information and Cybersecurity Technology (BS in ICT) with a concentration in Cybersecurity program from East Carolina University® teaches advanced cybersecurity principles, digital forensics, and secure software development, empowering aspiring professionals to take the lead in providing a safer tomorrow.

Learn more about how you can get started in the BS in Information and Cybersecurity Technology program at ECU.

Recommended Readings

AI Cyber Attacks: What They Are and How to Safeguard Against Them

Digital Forensics Investigator Career Overview

What’s a Computer Support Specialist?

Sources:

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Critical Infrastructure Sectors

HumanCare, 54 Emergency Room Visit Statistics, Facts and Trends

International Journal of Critical Infrastructure Protection, “Cybersecurity and Cyber-Terrorism Challenges to Energy-Related Infrastructures—Cybersecurity Frameworks and Economics—Comprehensive Review”

IEEE Public Safety Technology, Cybersecurity of Critical Infrastructure with ICS/SCADA Systems

Mimecast, “The State of Human Risk”

RAND, “Threats to America’s Critical Infrastructure Are Now a Terrifying Reality”