(TLP:CLEAR) CISA Announces New ANCHOR-CI System for Public-Private Infrastructure Security Collaboration

Summary: On Tuesday, CISA unveiled “the Alliance of National Councils for Homeland Operational Resilience – Critical Infrastructure,” or ANCHOR-CI, as a system for sharing information related to critical infrastructure security between government and the private sector. ANCHOR-CI replaces the functions of the previous Critical Infrastructure Partnership Advisory Council (CIPAC), which DHS disbanded in early 2025.

Under ANCHOR-CI, critical infrastructure operators and their government partners can establish four types of councils. Two of them, sector-specific councils – including sector coordinating councils (SCCs) composed of leading infrastructure operators and trade associations and government coordinating councils (GCCs) composed of the federal, state and local agencies responsible for overseeing and assisting those infrastructure providers – formed the basis of the joint government-industry efforts to anticipate, plan for, and defend against emerging security risks during the CIPAC era. ANCHOR-CI also allows cross-sector councils designed to address interdependencies between categories of infrastructure, industry councils for industries that span multiple sectors, and regional councils for geographically focused resilience partnerships. Observers note that one of these options – for regional councils – reflects the Trump administration’s desire to push more security responsibilities to the state and local levels.

Analyst Note: While critical infrastructure representatives have called for a CIPAC replacement since it was eliminated, ANCHOR-CI does not contain one of its most important aspects: liability protections that give industry organizations the confidence to share information without regulatory concerns. WaterISAC Director of Infrastructure Cyber Defense Jennifer Lyn Walker weighed in on this potential challenge, while expressing hope for improved future collaboration. She observed, “I hope ANCHOR-CI results in the renewed level of collaboration that CIPAC once engendered among [Sector Risk Management Agencies] and private industry, but at first blush it seems concerning without the liability protections and the limited terms. Only time will tell.”

Additional Reading:

• CISA: ANCHOR-CI
• Cybersecurity Dive: DHS proposes new system for public-private infrastructure security collaboration
• CyberScoop: DHS to unveil replacement council for critical infrastructure cybersecurity

Related WaterISAC PIRs: 1-18