50,000 members nationwide represent the 16 critical infrastructure sectors outlined by the Department of Homeland Security, in approximately the percentages listed below.
History of InfraGard
InfraGard began as a collaborative effort in 1996 between the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Cleveland Field Office and subject matter experts (SMEs) from local industry and academia. This effort was designed to harness private sector expertise for investigative efforts in the cyber and physical security arenas. Due to its immediate success, the program quickly expanded to other FBI Field Offices – leading the FBI to assign national program responsibility of InfraGard to FBI Headquarters in Washington DC and local program responsibility to each of the FBI’s 56 field offices. In 2003, the private sector members of InfraGard formed the “InfraGard National Members Alliance” (INMA).
The formalization of InfraGard’s private sector corporate structure allows InfraGard National and its member IMAs to engage federal, state and local stakeholders in new and productive programs that are outside the purview of the FBI. This makes the program flexible and agile enough to meet the needs of a wide range of stakeholders in the public and private arena.