The Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P) is a consortium of leading national cyber security institutions, including academic research centers, government laboratories and non-profit organizations. It was founded in September 2001 to help meet a well-documented need for improved research and development (R&D) to protect the Nation's information infrastructure against catastrophic failures. The institute's main role is to coordinate a national cyber security R&D program and help build bridges between academia, industry and government. The I3P continues to work toward identifying and addressing critical research problems in information infrastructure protection and opening information channels among researchers, policymakers and infrastructure operators.
While historical, legal and cultural problems prevent some research organizations from working together, the I3P has overcome many of those obstacles to reach new levels of cooperation. The I3P Consortium has assumed a major role in helping to untangle such cyber security issues as infrastructure interdependencies, or systems of systems, and it is beginning an investigation of cyber security related policy, risk and economic issues
